X

Co-Chair:  Sander Calisal, P.Eng.

Why did you decide to become a conference co-chair?
We all enjoy going to conferences and meeting researchers and learning new knowledge. Usually somebody spends lots of time and energy to make it possible. This time when I was asked to see if I can organize one conference for OMAE, I thought it was time to return the favor to researchers and organizers who did a lot before when I enjoyed the well organized meetings. There was also some flag showing for UBC, Vancouver and Canada.

How did you manage to take on the role of conference co-chair and continue your fulltime job?
You can not do all by yourself, you need to put together a team, and my background in team work and organization helped me a lot. We started as early as possible, identified key players, applied key management rules to be ready. It was not easy, but we were ready and we produced a very successful meeting. Professional help was very effective in addition to the local organizing committee’s extensive effort.

What was the return on investment and was all the effort worthwhile?
This was not a measurable investment, but I am sure UBC, Vancouver and Canada got a lot from the visibility. We kind of put UBC on the ocean mechanics and arctic engineering research map. We received increased graduate student applications and various applications from researchers suggesting joint research. I enjoyed the results a lot especially that it was the best attended OMAE so far in the records.

Would you do it all again?
Yes I would do again with proper preparation and active team work.

Any other words of advice? 
The key thing is to increase the dissemination of new knowledge, cooperation between researchers. This is now more important in the area of oceans, as oceans are in difficulty and it is still the only hope for energy, food, transportation, and recreation. The key question is how such meetings can bring researchers and industry together and look deeply and effectively in the very urgent problems of today and long term questions. Essentially the question is what needs to be done so that the effectiveness of such meetings and the value to the participants and the profession can be increased. In this age of globalization and hi tech we should be able to do more for the participants.

Close

X

Co-Chair: Kim Stefaniuk, BSP, RPEBC

Why did you decide to become a conference co-chair?
Busy health care professionals understand the importance of meeting and staying current with the exponential advances in medicine. Conferences are an excellent format for presentation of a variety of topics; networking permits idea exchange, sharing best practices and contextualization of knowledge. However, there is often so much information presented it can be difficult to assimilate and for experienced practitioners or relative newcomers to the field, it can be challenging to select appropriate sessions or even to identify colleagues in similar practice settings with whom to network.

My decision to co-chair a conference was grounded in dissatisfaction with existing conference structure. Typically, a series of experts, not necessarily in my field, presented rapid-fire slide after slide of facts and figures with no time to reflect or an explanation about what it may mean to my current practice. I left conferences exhausted and overwhelmed, my mind reeling with too much information, most of which was forgotten a month later. I actually stopped attending conferences for these reasons.

"If you don't like something, try to change it" was the philosophy at the heart of my decision to co-chair a meeting. As co-chair, I could shape the symposium to better direct the educational presentations, identify themes and levels of complexity to make it easier to select sessions, facilitate networking, and improve the overall quality of the meeting experience for both participants and sponsors. Getting involved helped me make sure the needs of the learners at all levels were addressed so they could take back tangible and meaningful information they would remember. I wanted to give them the tools to act as change agents to improve their own practices and the health of Canadians. By incorporating principles of adult education, it was my hope to make the symposia more relevant to current practice yet still equip participants to help shape the future of oncology pharmacy practice.

How did you manage to take on the role of conference co-chair and continue your fulltime job?
We had the good sense to hire an exceptionally talented group of people at Sea to Sky Meeting Management to look after the details so we could focus on superb programming and make sure the right people were in place to provide high quality educational sessions and meet our symposium objectives. We couldn't have managed without them!

The key to coping, though, was organization and teamwork. I fortunately had an understanding employer who permitted me some time on work hours to respond to urgent e-mails, for example, but much of the work had to be done during evening and weekend hours. Despite being geographically separated by a 5 hour flight and organizing a meeting in a city in which neither co-chair resided, my excellent “partner in crime” and I divided up the labour based on our strengths, kept in regular contact, and made sure we chose our committee members wisely. Though small, our volunteer core committee accepted delegation of tasks, were accountable, responsible, and could deliver on time. Sea to Sky also gently stepped in when we were getting overwhelmed and helped facilitate communication with the national and international committee as well. It is essential to have vision, good people on the organizing committee, and a solid "command" structure, but by far, the most important element for coping while co-chairing a meeting and working full time is the integration of a skilled meeting management company.

What was the return on investment and was all the effort worthwhile?
Return on investment comes in many forms. Certainly there was a financial impact: the success of the meeting ensured not only a healthy profit for the host international organization, but also for the partner national organization. The international organization also gained a foothold and new members in Canada while the national organization became recognized as one of the "big five" on the international scene with some new international members as well. The money invested in a professional meeting management company was reflected in lowered expenses, for example the knowledge of local suppliers who could deliver quality products when needed for a reasonable price, contributing to the profit margin.

Delegates identified numerous practical and tangible practice changes they could implement as a result of this meeting and commented on how much they actually learned. The social events resulted in global friendships, meeting colleagues where participants could exchange information, and gave us the opportunity to showcase the city of Vancouver in all its glory and many facets of life in Canada. A number of delegates stayed either before or after the meeting for a holiday, exploring the city or the surrounding area, bringing in tourism dollars and an appreciation of the city and country as a meeting destination that "has it all."

On a personal/professional level, there is the quiet satisfaction of a highly successful meeting, knowing you have set a benchmark or standard by which future meetings will be judged, and also of knowing that you have changed for the better, either subtly or overtly, the way educational symposia will be delivered. Two years later, I overheard several comments about how the meeting we organized was superior and how we set the standard; four years later, the symposium organizers were still talking about the "Vancouver model" as a way of organizing a meeting.

There are also intangible personal benefits too perhaps not immediately apparent: broadened perspectives, recognition among international community, new business opportunities, career advancement, networking, new skills, better quality of practice, personal fulfillment, and heightened respect among colleagues. As Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked, "man's mind, once expanded by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." Nowhere is this truer than having co-chaired a major international symposium; despite the stress and hours or work involved, yes, in the end, it was worthwhile on both professional and personal levels.

Would you do it all again?
Yes.

Close

X

Co-Chair: Jeff Barnett

Why did you decide to become a conference co-chair?
I was drinking a beer on a boat in Sydney harbour at another ISOPP conference and thought - hey Vancouver has a better harbour, better bridge and the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre is nicer than the Sydney opera house - I can do this......

Seriously I had had some previous experience chairing conferences on a smaller scale with NOPS (CAPhO’s annual conference), and locally here and thought that it would be great to bring ISOPP to Canada but we needed a good team to do it. My co-chair, Kim, and I were friends going back several years and I thought the two of us could pull it off and it would be a good thing to have on our resumes. Plus I felt that this would be a good challenge and the type of challenge that I would like to succeed at professionally.

How did you manage to take on the role of conference co-chair and continue your fulltime job?
If we did not hire a certain company called Sea to Sky Meeting Management, I could not have managed. However that being said my employer recognized the importance of this conference and gave me some flexibility in terms of work time to get it accomplished - plus it helped bribing some of the bosses to be speakers.

What was the return on investment and was all the effort worthwhile?
I think Kim, my co-chair, answered this for me (see above), but I would add that there was the personal satisfaction knowing that we pulled it off, and also the fact that whenever there is a meeting the only organizer we would turn to is Sea to Sky, I think monetarily we made CAPhO some financial investment that it would not have gotten had we not done this.

Would you do it all again?
I would have give you a qualified yes in that I would have to have the ability to "field the same team" including Sea to Sky. If I did not have the ability to do this I would say no way.

Any other words of advice?
Get your meeting management company on board at the beginning and have a website that is managed by them.

Close

X

Chair: John Nightingale, Ph.D.

Why did you decide to become a conference chair?
Hosting national and international meetings is good for the Vancouver Aquarium, and good for Vancouver. As a leader in our field, one way to communicate how good we are is to host our colleagues by hosting a conference and/or meeting.

How did you manage to take on the role of conference co-chair and continue your fulltime job?
The key to managing workload is using a good conference planning firm, starting early, setting up a good internal project team with clear goals and schedules, and then planning, planning, planning. One can manage the workload to some degree, but one must also carve out the time necessary to play the appropriate role.

What was the return on investment and was all the effort worthwhile?
The Aquarium directly benefits in several ways. First, while organizing a conference is a lot of work, it is wonderful to have a deadline for all of the organizing, clean-up and other aspects that put us "on display". Second, our staff and volunteers ALWAYS shine – it helps our reputation. Our visibility, standing and reputation all benefit from being a host. Then there is the organizational "cultural" benefit resulting from a group of people working closely together on a focused task such as getting ready to host a conference. All in all, it's well worth the work - providing you use a good conference organization and management firm.

Personally - if it's good for the Aquarium, and good for the City - it's good for me.

Would you do it all again?
The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre hosts at least one meeting or conference of one size or another each year. We will continue to do so because of the benefits.

Close