What’s the most important thing to do before heading to your first national conference?
Caroline Taheri with Abacus Evaluation says it’s all about preparation. From making the poster to rehearsing presentation points, she shares the many ways she used to get ready for a recent conference.
Hear more from Caroline on her recent American Public Health Association (APHA) conference experience.
How were you feeling and preparing before the conference?
I was feeling a bit nervous about the conference since this was my first national conference. However, I was also very excited.
In 2022, I participated in a similar poster session at the North Carolina Public Health Association conference and I enjoyed sharing findings there. So, I was definitely looking forward to getting an opportunity to do something similar!
I prepared for the conference by working with Jade Hollars to create the poster and address feedback from members of the Abacus team.
I also reviewed a guide I had saved on the Most Significant Change (MSC) approach which was the topic of our poster.
What are the top 3 things you recommend to others doing their first poster or presentation?
- Prepare before the presentation. I reviewed the guide to make sure I had a good understanding on aspects of the approach that we were unable to include on the poster.
- Anticipate potential questions. Before the presentation, I tried to think about what questions someone who came to look at our session might ask and how I would answer them.
- Allow adequate time to set up your poster! Arriving early to the room where we set up our posters gave me time to find where we were going to display our poster and made me feel less anxious prior to the session beginning.
Bonus: Rehearse what you might say during the presentation. I got to rehearse what I wanted to say with Jade prior to the poster! While I didn’t repeat what I said word-for-word to anyone interested in the poster, having an idea of what I could say made me feel more comfortable!
Abacus is all about teamwork – who helped you prepare for APHA?
I want to shout out Jade Hollars for her amazing design ideas for our poster and her support of me during and through the presentation!
I also want to shout out Ania Wellere, a graduate student who supported RADx-UP, for identifying quotes we could include on the poster and Airianne Posey for her support in the introduction section of the poster.
I would like to thank Shelly Maras for her support in drafting and conceptualizing the accepted abstract and feedback on the poster.
Finally, I want to thank Tara Carr, Abisola Osinuga, Leah Freirchs and Krista M. Perrira for their helpful feedback on the poster and abstract.
Based on APHA, what will you do differently at your next conference?
If I am able to attend a conference as substantial as APHA, I would love to better review the many, many poster sessions, oral presentations and round tables that are occurring prior to arriving at the conference.
There were so many interesting events and activities occurring at once, I felt like I couldn’t attend everything I wanted.