Now, don't take this the wrong way. This is in no way means I will make a weekly commentary on this subject. It was just a catchy type of title - Hehe. Anyway, the last two weekends say a lot of action in the social media space of Family Medicine meetings. Two weekends ago, I was at the Indiana chapter speaking about social media and there was also a talk at the Virginia chapter meeting.
This past weekend was the 2nd largest American Academy of Family Physicians meeting of the year - namely the National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students. This took place in scorching hot Kansas City. During the 2010 meeting, there was very little action on twitter. But, the meeting's facebook page was pretty good, especially when it came to posting pictures from the huge social events of the meeting.
The 2011 meeting was very impressive to keep track of on twitter. I encourage you to check out the hashtag #aafpnc to review some key event of the meeting - including the election results of the resident and student elections. I wasn't able to attend the meeting, but I felt like I was there with the frequent twitter postings. The meeting's facebook page remained strong in posting pictures from the major social events.
And, according to this tweet, there was a proposal for a social media contest in that residents and students would produce social media project (like youtube video, or blog post, or podcast) for a prize. Personally, I really see that as far as scholarships to meetings, rather than write essays, I see residents and students doing things like producing videos to demonstrate a necessary skill of social media process - in the future.
The other major Family Medicine meeting took place in the scorching location of Dallas, Texas at the Texas Academy of Family Physicians meeting. This organization is definitely an early adopter when it comes to social media at the organizational level. Their website had great coverage of the meeting. But, perhaps the best item of social media was a live video stream of one of their sessions. I was at the New Jersey Chapter meeting when they did this as well.
I have said this before, and I'll say it again - 2011 is THE year when it comes to social media in the Family Medicine Establishment. The largest AAFP meeting of the year, the Congress of Delegates and Scientific Assembly - this will be in September. And, I predict that the social media coverage there will be very good.
The next big event on my calendar will be my own state meeting - The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians All Member Assembly coming up this coming weekend. If you haven't guessed yet, I'm kind of the point man for social media at the meeting. And, my goal will be to continue to convince my Family Medicine colleagues that social media has value and we should learn how to use this powerful tool of communication and advocacy.