From the 2013 AMWA Annual Conference

Greetings again. I just returned from Columbus, Ohio, where I attended the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) annual conference. It was a good conference and a good chance to network about AuthorAID.

About 750 people attended the conference. There were many attendees from the United States and Canada and several from Japan. The registration list also included attendees from Australia, Brazil, Germany, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.

At the conference, I attended several sessions and gave some sessions myself. Two interesting sessions that I attended were about writing in ways that are easy to understand. Two others were on giving presentations.

At one of the sessions on presentations, the speaker gave tips on designing and using PowerPoint slides. At the other session on presentations, the speaker said to avoid or minimize use of slides, because trying to read and listen at the same time decreases understanding.

The conference included an awards dinner. At the dinner, I happened to sit next to someone who has been an AuthorAID mentor. She told me about helping a mentee with some writing and a presentation. She said she hopes to be a mentor again.

Also during the conference, members of the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS) met for a breakfast. A new brochure about BELS was distributed there.

On opening the brochure, I saw a photo of Ravi Murugesan, whom many of us know from AuthorAID. In the photo, Ravi is proctoring an examination for certifying editors. Small world!

Until the next post—

Barbara