5 Ways to Prep for the CDC Conference

*This post was originally published on the blog of iQ Solutions, a health communications and health IT company. Disclosure, iQ Solutions is also the place of SB’s current employment.

Buzz has been building for a while now as delegates, organizers and presenters make their final preparations for next week’s National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media. Hosted by the CDC’s National Center for Health Marketing and the Office in Enterprise Communications, the conference is packed with discussion about health marketing, health disparities, new frontiers in technology, and collaboration.

iQ Solutions’ own VP of Health Communications, Jennifer Isenberg Blacker, will also be presenting on behalf of the National Institute on Drug Abuse about the use of new technologies to engage youth. Senior VP of Communications and Social Marketing, Kim Callinan, and myself will also be there to cheer her on and gain insights from other presenters, as well as share in community with other health evangelists.

As the iQ team preps for our journey down to Atlanta, I’ve identified five ways to prepare for this year’s CDC Conference:

1. Network. Nedra Weinreich has set up a community on NING, a social network that lets you create your own social community. Already boasting 60+ members, this public platform enables us to network before, during, and after the conference, and is how I learned that the CDC program book was available for download.

2. Follow the conversation. Whether you are signed up for Twitter or not, you can still follow the conversations that are happening there. Using the tool Twitter Search, type in the hashtag “#NCHCMM09” to see what people are saying about the conference. I will also be live-tweeting certain presentations and added insights through IQ Solutions’ new Twitter handle, @iQSolutions.

3. Create your own conference dashboard. If you want to be a real superstar like Chris Brogan or Christopher Penn, you can even create your own conference dashboard using iGoogle, Netvibes, or PageFlakes. The dashboard, Brogan explains, is a one-stop online location “to see the elements you might want to know about at a conference…and you can get a fast scan of a lot of data that might prove useful during the event.” Example information may include adding some Twitter search strings to your dashboard, integrating a local map, local clock, local weather information, and much more. See an example below.

4. Meet-Up and Tweet-Up. They say at conferences that some of the best insights and conversations are those you have with colleagues in the hallways or over a great meal. Don’t miss out on these nuggets of opportunity for sharing. Already, CDC’s Justin Williams has organized a Tweet-up for Wednesday, August 12^th from 7:30-10:30pm at STATS. This is one more opportunity to gather and meet with colleagues. Already attending are Craig Lefebvre, Andre Blackman, Susannah Fox and myself. Join us.

5. Study. It’s always good to know what you’re getting yourself into. Thus, I recommend checking out the conference’s Web site, seeing who’s who, as well as downloading and reading through the program book. Studying may be overkill, but as I mentioned earlier, this conference is packed with powerful presentations-so much so, that if you’re like me, you’re going to have to prioritize what you can attend. It’s not possible to see every single presenter, even though you’ll want to! (This is another good reason Tip #2 and Tip #3 come in handy-you can catch what you may be missing during concurrent presentations.)

Your Turn: What other tips might you offer to prep for this year’s conference?

8 thoughts on “5 Ways to Prep for the CDC Conference”

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Nedra August 7, 2009 at 11:40 am

This is great, Alex! Looking over the program book, the conference is such an embarrassment of riches, there’s not a single panel I would not be interested in attending. But to avoid burning out over the 3 days, give yourself permission to miss a panel or two if your eyes are starting to glaze over. Like you said, it’s the hallway conversations that are often the best part of a conference like this. Can’t wait!

I’d love for you to post this at the Ning site too, if you don’t mind. (I would do it, but don’t want my posts to dominate the site.) Thanks!

Sarah Marchetti August 7, 2009 at 12:01 pm

Hi Alex- Thanks for this post! I especially love the personalized dashboard idea. I’m looking forward to meeting you at the conference.

Alex Post authorAugust 7, 2009 at 2:52 pm

@Nedra Consider it done!

@Sarah Look forward to meeting you too and congrats on getting to present! You have great knowledge and ideas that many will benefit from. Let’s be sure to connect next week.

Ann Aikin August 9, 2009 at 1:18 pm

Thank you for blogging about the conference! We wanted to let you know that the official hashtag for the conference is #NCHCMM09. We are looking forward to seeing you and connecting at the conference. For updates on CDC’s social media activities, you can follow us @CDC_eHealth on Twitter.

Andre Blackman August 9, 2009 at 3:32 pm

All I can say is that I’m PUMPED!! Thanks for this reminder Alex – seeing you is definitely long overdue.

Alex Post authorAugust 9, 2009 at 3:51 pm

@Ann: Thanks for the update! I’ve gone ahead and made those updates on this post, the original and the NING community’s one.

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5 Ways to Prep for the CDC Conference

8 thoughts on “5 Ways to Prep for the CDC Conference”