
The food, in general, was one of the weakest parts of the meeting (inadequate drinks at breaks, and the vendors in the exhibit hall seemed to know nothing about handing out coupons to buy lunch)I spoke with the staff member and the chair of the membership committee about that. Apparently, the Academy staff who prepared the brochure meant "breakfast time" or "breakfast on your own" when she wrote breakfast in that time slot. I pointed out to them that usually, when it says "breakfast", that means breakfast is provided. I told them that there was breakfast in Philly. They are both new to this and didn't know - I'm going to make sure that there is food at future events. Food is KEY in recruiting hungry broke students.😀
Thew point was raised at the business meeting that the AAPM&R meeting HAS to be at a more handicapped-friendly facilities in future. For those staying at teh MArriott, the distances to travel were unacceptable. Dr. Strax, one of the featured speakers and chairman at UMDNJ-JFK, was quite vocal about his unhappiness.
Ours is an organization that advocates for the disabled all year long in our individual practices - the least we can do is practice what we preach when it comes to accessability at our Annual Assembly
Then perhaps Boston ought not to be a future venue for the Annual Assembly until the facilities are updated.Agreed - and that issue was brought to the attention of those who needed to know. The problem is that the new academy staff members are dealing with arrangements made years ago - and the size of the Academy conference has grown over the years. It is no longer feasible to hold annual assemblies at hotel facilities so now they need to look for convention centers attached to or very close to hotel facilities. There was also an issue with the vendor supplying rental wheel chairs - and that has been addressed as well.
There have been several proposed solutions to the issue - so hopefully future conferences will be even more accessible. Boston in general is an older city and they do not necessarily have the most up-to-date facilities which was also part of the problem.