Inviting Physician-Scientists for School Keynote Talks

[SynBio]

I was wondering if anyone had suggestions or tips on inviting speakers for school-associated MD-PhD days?

I've been emailing (trying to keep it brief, but descriptive) several physician-scientist for keynote talks, but I've had few responses. Even when I call an admin assistant, not much help either despite stating they will email me back.

I imagine this is pretty variable, but do people normally expect a low response (like 5-10%) and just prep emails for a lot of people?

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[vaticrunner]

I remember hearing from one of the PD's at a program where I interviewed that the getting responses from high profile speakers is very difficult. He told us that as the PD he normally contacts the nobel laureates at his school who then attempt to contact keynote speakers on the PD's behalf. My assumption would be that if established faculty struggle then it is most likely expected to get a low response rate as a student.

 

[dl2dp2]

It's easier if you pay. I would start there and ask the organizer of the MD/PhD day for a travel and honorarium budget.

Generally you'll realize more and more in real life that when people 1) don't respond 2) say they'll e-mail and then don't, it means that they are not interested. You can either pay for interest, or you can try to market in some specific way to make the experience more attractive, or perhaps it's a favor to someone else, if you want to volunteer time.

If senior management doesn't want to commit money for an effort, and at the same time demand results, it becomes an impossible job. There's no sense in trying things that don't work and THEN feel badly about your lack of success. I wouldn't work that hard. Just tell whoever the organizer that you E-mailed 50 people and nobody responded. They'll cut the lecture and let it go. Nobody cares.

 

[nonamesleft]

For some high profile speakers, a good draw is telling them that students nominated them, and that it is the students' invite. They may not make time for run-of-the-mill speaking event, but they will travel for student-driven initiatives. We've had several such speakers in the last few years.