At medical conferences all around the world, the new sound of "applause" has become the rapid tapping on mobile devices and the snapping of digital photographs. Instantaneously, images of speakers and their slides appear on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Attendees become reporters and editorialists, and in 280 characters or less, they document events from their perspectives.
Because larger medical conferences frequently hold multiple lecture sessions at the same time which make it impossible for any one individual to be present at all lectures, attendees frequently follow the social media feeds of colleagues to catch up. Conference hashtags link communications together, creating rich threads of information that become permanent testimonials of the medical conference. These communications can be searched and referenced.
Virtual Attendees
Review of recent trends demonstrates a massive growth in medical conference engagement by wider audiences through social media. Between 2014 and 2016, utilization of Twitter in major cardiology conferences has increased dramatically. A combined of hashtags from the American College of Cardiology, Heart Rhythm Society, and Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics Scientific Sessions over these years showed growth in number of tweets from 12,102 to 39,141 (80% year-over-year [YOY] growth), number of Twitter users from 3,212 to 10,362 (80% YOY growth), and number of impressions -- defined as number of tweets multiplied by number of users -- from about 104 million to over 244 million (53% YOY growth).
At the same time, the combined attendance at these conferences has dropped from 42,764 to 40,954 (-2% YOY growth), suggesting overall engagement of a wider audience beyond just conference attendees. As such, a complete change in mindset is required for presenters at today's medical conferences: lectures must be redesigned to effectively engage communities of virtual attendees in addition to the physical attendees in the room.
Recommendations
The following recommendations will help a presenter prepare to deliver a talk at a medical conference in the age of social media:
1. Embrace it. Speakers must embrace the likelihood that their words and images will be captured and shared on social media. This should be exciting rather than intimidating, and be recognized as an opportunity to more widely educate and inform colleagues, patients, and the public.
2. Market your talk. Speakers should promote their talks in advance by posting details about their topics, as well as lecture date and time on SoMe. This will prepare one's virtual audience to tune in. Speakers who are newcomers to social media will benefit from reviewing previously published primers on the use of social media in and .
3. Design slides with social media in mind. Speakers slides should be designed so they can easily be photographed from a distance and readable on various social media platforms. Elements of this include use of high-contrast colors for the background and font, utilization of larger san-serif fonts, and elimination of overly complex images that may not come across clearly in low-light photographs.
4. Brand yourself. Speakers should brand themselves by including their social media @username, as well as the conference hashtag (#conference), on every slide. Traditional references and bibliographies are less relevant in the digital age -- one may only get their due credit by appropriately tagging their slides.
5. Slow down. Presenters should deliver their lectures slowly with ample pauses to allow the audience time to photograph key slides, document key ideas, and upload them to social media.
6. Engage. Speakers should engage with their virtual audience by starting a conversation on social media before their lecture, and continue it after they are done.
Closing Thoughts
The paradigm of knowledge transfer and sharing at medical conferences has completely changed in the current era of social media. Presenters at medical conferences would be astute to harness the potential for broader dissemination by embracing the role that social media can have.
, is a cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic, and an associate professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Follow on Twitter.