A blue pen, a red bag, a gold momento.. all would hint toward my dad's return from another one of those 'conferences' .. Never really got what the fuss about all these meetings was.. So a bunch of docs come together, talk a lot, eat, everyone gets a token to remember the meeting and you come back home?
That's what I figured what conferences were till 24th of last month.
20th June 2009.. a group of twelve MB BS students from our college left for Mangalore. So finally I was going to get to see what a conference actually was. The organisers picked us up, accommodated us in their great hostels, and after a day of pre-conference workshops (which sucked by the way), the main event began.
I was there for an oral presentation on a research project that I was doing this year. The rest of my team also had such presentations. Students from many countries were here. India, China, Russia, Romania, Iran(!).. It was exciting to see so many students were into research, whatever the reason may be. There were about 650 delegates! 480 of them were active presenters.
Vinay Kumar, a giant in pathology- coauthor of Robbins! Remember Kumar, Contran n co?Ya, he's the 'Kumar'. I met him! Got an autograph too! I attended one of his sessions. During which I learnt two important lessons:
1) Stay focused. Work hard. Being sincere is not a crime
2) I can sleep no matter who's teaching
I had my presentation the following day. I wasn't as nervous as I used to be before. And I won the session. Felt awesome! I was a hero that day.
After all the presentations were over the next day, they ended the conference that evening with another little function. As it turned out, I had stood 1st among all oral presenters too! Boy did it feel nice. I was ruling the show!
What more could I want from my first ever conference? An awesome beach time, a trip to the one of the most fascinating colleges in India, eleven unbelievably cool companions.
It couldn't have been better! Looking at what people are up to, getting to know how much in medicine is known, how much isn't, conferences are a way of letting your mind out of the comforting confines of your own college and going out there to see where you actually stand!
By the way, I got my own blue pen and red bag from Medicon. only this time, they meant more!
Greetings from Turkey.Have a nice day.
ReplyDeleteJust stumbled upon your blog. Nice to have a real feedback about the workshops :) Didnt want them to such that much.. lol
ReplyDeleteAnd hope you liked the red bag and the pen.. :P