Deciding whether a conference is worth attending
Conference value combines learning, contact with colleagues and the opportunities an attendee can use afterwards. The attendance decision also depends on the full cost, what registration includes, the programme available and whether an employer, scholarship or training subsidy can help fund it.
Learning, contacts and reported returns
Conferences provide opportunities to meet colleagues face to face, discuss work and obtain training specific to medical writing. Conversations bring newcomers and experienced writers together without a networking charge beyond registration. They can provide industry news, new approaches and perspectives from peers in other countries; someone who has met a writer may later think of them when work arises.
In an August 2019 European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) webinar poll, 75% chose training, networking and meeting friends together as the most useful conference aspects. The webinar audience included 63% who described themselves as new to medical writing, 38 experienced writers and 60 people who had attended fewer than five conferences. One freelance host valued the company of colleagues alongside training because the host usually worked alone. In another webinar, workshops were reported as the most useful aspect among those who had previously attended.
Cost can weigh heavily when the return is uncertain. One first-time EMWA attendee in 2019 decided that meeting writers, investigating demand and taking relevant workshops justified travel, hotel and workshop costs as an investment in entering the profession. Another, returning after a career gap with little money available, took a loan for flights, accommodation and other costs and later reported small, growing contract work that the attendee attributed jointly to the conference, a chance LinkedIn encounter and colleagues' continuing support. A third attended while unemployed after three years raising a child and moving away from bench work, and found the welcome striking.
A new freelancer attending the American Medical Writers Association's (AMWA's) 2006 conference judged workshops relatively inexpensive compared with similar training elsewhere, but worried about airfare and accommodation because earnings were low and the costs were paid personally. The freelance later regarded attendance as the best career investment. Paid workshops on clinical study reports and Investigational New Drug applications met expectations and also introduced opportunities in medical communication. Open sessions and breakfast roundtables were equally valuable to the freelance, teaching what clients wanted from freelance writers, how to find and retain clients and where to obtain further education. The freelance initially left luncheons and the dinner out of the budget, then booked them on the conference coaches’ advice and valued the networking and learning at the tables.
Registration, accommodation and the full budget
Employees should check how much their company will cover, because employers may fund continuing education or reimburse part of the expense. Freelancers can treat attendance as an investment in their practice. Cost can nevertheless prevent attendance: in 2012, AMWA's journal editor reported annual participation of nearly 1,000, about 20% of membership, and identified cost as an obstacle particularly for freelancers. The editor’s case for attending combined education and networking, a registration fee considered lower than many other conferences and the possibility that a new contact might lead to an assignment covering some expense.
Included events can form a substantial part of the return. AMWA's 2012 Sacramento registration included a welcome reception, two networking luncheons, a networking reception and a breakfast with poster presenters and exhibitors.
Membership can affect the price. An earlier EMWA arrangement made registration cheaper for existing members and automatically included membership for non-members registering for the conference. In August 2019, EMWA required membership for conference attendance but allowed the introduction-to-medical-writing session without it, advising attendees to check details because formats could change.
For the Warsaw conference discussed in one webinar, EMWA negotiated a venue-hotel rate and normally offered a couple of other hotels.
A small survey of actual costs
Before the 2015 Dublin EMWA conference, one freelancer estimated the expected attendance cost at about €2,700 and hesitated over the expense. Accommodation was the only potentially reducible cost in the plan, but the freelance chose the expensive conference hotel to avoid time spent commuting to the venue. Ten freelancers, including the evaluator, from eight European countries and with zero to thirteen previous EMWA conferences, reported the following medians and ranges.
| Measure | Median | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Conference days attended | 4 | 1–5 |
| Workshops, seminars and symposium sessions attended | 3.5 | 1–7 |
| Social events attended | 2 | 1–4 |
| Total cost | €2,781 | €970–3,790 |
| Cost per conference day | €734 | €470–2,320 |
| Conference-quality rating | 2 | 1–4 |
Total costs included travel, accommodation, food and beverages, extras and conference, workshop, seminar, symposium and social fees; the daily measure divided each person's total by days attended, and the quality scale ran from 1, excellent, to 6, a waste of money. Some participants included a travel day, explaining attendance beyond the four conference days. Seven attended the full conference, three stayed one or two days and eight paid over €2,300. Seven rated the conference good or excellent; four rated workshops excellent and two thought improvements necessary.
Compared with a 2009 Ljubljana evaluation, the reported median daily cost rose from €580 to €734, about 27%, and the median total from €1,970 to €2,781. Both groups rated workshops, organisation and networking positively and suggested cheaper accessible cities and hotels and sponsorship to reduce fees. Dublin respondents valued networking and current information on regulatory procedures, information sources and writing skills.
The Dublin programme had seven sessions without an extra charge and 57 charged sessions; participants questioned higher advanced-workshop prices and requested more open formats and freedom to tailor expenditure, including alternatives when workshops were full. The evaluator separately questioned what the €580 admission bought beyond workshops costing up to €950, while crediting included lunches and refreshments for their convenience and networking value.
Scholarships and training subsidies
Scholarships can make attendance possible for someone unable to self-fund: EMWA webinar hosts directed prospective attendees to its Geoff Hall scholarship information.
EMWA's Geoff Hall Memorial Scholarships
In 2013, EMWA announced two annual scholarships for writers with less than one year's medical-writing experience, each providing two years' membership, conference registration throughout those years and one foundation-level workshop at the first conference. Applications required a CV and an essay of at most two pages on a changing annual topic, initially “Where does medical writing fit in research?”; association fellows and two other judges assessed inspiration and logical thought rather than a prescribed right answer, and winning essays were to be published. The scheme commemorated a founding member and former president and aimed to encourage new members who might later lead workshops or serve on committees.
AMWA student conference awards
By 2009, AMWA had offered two annual conference scholarships for full-time students each year since 2003, with sponsors including Eli Lilly, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Amgen and Cephalon. Recipients came from scientific and liberal arts programmes, including technical and scientific communication, professional writing, medical writing, molecular biology, pharmacology, artificial organs and public health.
In addition to an application form, the 2009 application required the following material.
- An official transcript.
- A recommendation from an academic adviser or programme professor.
- A short essay of one to three paragraphs explaining the applicant's interest in medical writing and reasons for attending the conference.
- A long essay of one to three pages on one of two topics: use a current biomedical or scientific event to demonstrate clear, concise communication of complex data to a specific audience, or write three versions of such an event for three different audiences.
The 2009 scholarship covered the following expenses.
- Ground or air travel.
- Lodging.
- Conference registration.
- Fees for up to three workshops applicable to an AMWA certificate.
- An awards dinner ticket.
- One year of student membership.
Recipients learned about the award through AMWA's website and journal, members, professors, fellow students, chapter presidents and departmental emails from academic advisers. One recipient found preparing the application worthwhile regardless of the award and subsequently published one of the pieces. Individual recipients credited the conference with helping them move from bench research towards medical writing, obtain a first writing position, understand pharmaceutical writing opportunities or build confidence in writing English as a second language. Other reported benefits included skills for editing scientific publications, writing and designing patient-education materials and presenting research as posters, talks and journal articles. One recipient attributed every client to contacts or referrals made through AMWA chapter meetings and the national conference; another started work at the sponsoring company a few months after attending.
In 2007 and 2008, applicants had to study full-time at an accredited higher-education institution, preferably in medical writing, technical writing or journalism, and submit an official transcript, an academic recommendation, reasons for their interest in medical communication and attendance, and an essay. Selection committees included association and sponsor representatives. The 2008 essay offered two alternatives: explain how writing style communicates a current medical or scientific event's complex data to one audience, or write three versions for three audiences and describe those audiences.
Reported award packages were:
| Award year | Sponsor | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Cephalon | Conference attendance and three workshops each for two students. |
| 2008 | Eli Lilly | Conference attendance and three workshops each for two students, honoured at the awards dinner. |
| 2009 | Eli Lilly | Conference attendance and three workshops each for two students. |
| 2010 | University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, College of Graduate Studies | Conference attendance and three workshops each for two students, honoured at the awards dinner. |
| 2011 | University of the Sciences in Philadelphia | Conference attendance and three workshops each for two doctoral students, honoured at the awards dinner. |
| 2012 | University of the Sciences in Philadelphia | Conference attendance and three workshops for one doctoral student, honoured at the awards dinner. |
| 2013 | University of the Sciences in Philadelphia | Transport, four hotel nights, registration, three workshops, an awards-dinner ticket and one year's student membership. |
The 2013 award was open to full-time students at accredited higher-education institutions and required an essay demonstrating how writing style affects communicating a current medical or scientific event to different audiences.
What recipients used the opportunity for
Recipients described these workshop choices, experiences and expectations:
| Year | Learning and contacts reported |
|---|---|
| 2007 | A pharmacology doctoral candidate chose introduction to clinical-study writing, final clinical-trial reports and launching a freelance career; she learned new business approaches despite already freelancing, attended open sessions and two roundtables and valued an award address. A medicinal-chemistry doctoral candidate chose English usage, abstracts and research design, two roundtables and sessions on developing-country writing and writing science in a second language; local members had helped explain writing careers. |
| 2008 | A pharmacology doctoral candidate chose paragraphing, English usage and punctuation and reported improved awareness of grammar and structure; peer hospitality and advice were her strongest memories. A public-health doctoral student chose patient education, posters and online searching for immediate use in her research work. |
| 2009 | A biomedical-sciences graduate student chose proofreading, copyediting and research design, plus a bench-to-writing roundtable; a technical/scientific-communication master's student chose medical terminology, drug interactions and pharmacokinetics, plus a job-hunting roundtable. Both emphasised networking. |
| 2010 | A biomedical-sciences doctoral candidate chose statistics, medical terminology and grammar, with credits toward an Essential Skills certificate, and valued access to successful writers; financial limitations would otherwise have prevented attendance. A technical-communication undergraduate chose medical devices, organising a paper and pharmaceutical advertising, and used open sessions, networking, posters, exhibits and job boards to explore the field. |
| 2011 | One doctoral student chose statistics, sentence structure and internet searching, reporting immediate value in bench work and a foundation for writing; she was inspired by others' transitions and was still seeking work in publication planning or regulatory affairs. Another chose sentence diagramming, statistics and the transition from bench science or clinical practice; open-session questions and answers helped confirm her wish to enter medical writing and editing. |
| 2012 | A biomedical-sciences doctoral student registered for sentence structure, punctuation and paragraphing toward an Essential Skills certificate, planned to buy the tables-and-graphs self-study module and sought peers and experienced colleagues; she believed attendance would have been unaffordable without the award. |
| 2013 | A bioinformatics/computational-medicine doctoral student expected formal networking, informal coffee conversations and insight into the writing specialism to pursue. |
A separate 2007 Indiana Chapter Scholarship for Biomedical Communications included a $1,000 prize and required a 500-word essay on ethics in medical communications; the winner used it to attend the chapter’s annual conference.
A French training subsidy in 2021
In June 2021, EMWA reported Datadock registration after meeting 21 criteria covering training quality and variety, assessments, teaching, objectives and planning and providing evidence of its educational tools, techniques and management. Members based in France could apply for conference and training subsidies as part of allocated continuing-professional-development costs if registered with an approved vocational-training organisation, an OPCO (Opérateur de Compétence); application information came from their affiliated OPCO.
Finding conferences and funding listings
In 2010, ResearchRaven listed medical conferences, conference and journal calls for papers, with keyword and medical-subject searching, email alerts and RSS feeds. Its sister site ScanGrants listed grants, scholarships, fellowships, meeting travel awards and other prizes, chiefly from private and nonprofit sources rather than government sources readily available elsewhere.