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Member Survey Report -
Insight Into Decisions Regarding the
Annual Meeting
By
Maricel M. Herrera, CMP, CEM
Director of Meetings and
Membership Services
e-mail: mherrera@amp.org
Location:
It is AMP’s intent to provide members the best educational
value it can for their dollar while at the same time making
the site as logistically friendly as it can be. The annual
meeting has grown to over 1,000 attendees (not including
exhibitors) and there are very few stand alone facilities
which have an abundant amount of meeting space to meet our
needs. Our size limits us to very large hotel/convention
properties such as the Gaylord properties and convention
centers.
Hotel
Property vs Convention Center
A large hotel is both logistically and financially more
desirable for several reasons:
| 1) |
it allows everyone to be where the sessions are,
which saves busing costs and time to/ from the session
location |
| 2) |
contingent on AMP selling out a required number of
sleeping rooms, AMP receives complimentary meeting space |
| 3) |
AMP has the ability to better negotiate other costs
based on our size for one-stop shopping for food & beverage,
including daily meals as part of the meeting registration
fee |
Convention center use is logistically and financially less
desirable for the opposite reasons:
| 1) |
attendees are staying offsite and additional
time/expense are likely to be necessary to get attendees to
and from sessions |
| 2) |
rental fees for the meeting space we require are over
$100,000 |
| 3) |
little or no ability to negotiate other affiliated
costs such as audiovisual fees and food and beverage as the
convention center runs all its own services (and does not
allow outside contractors) and does not benefit from the
guest room revenue as does a hotel |
Occasionally, AMP can negotiate a favorable contract for a
Convention Center venue. Indeed, we will meet in San Jose,
California in 2010.
Dates
the meeting is held:
AMP has
held its annual meeting in our traditional November pattern
since its inception. The November date pattern comes from
back in the days before AMP was established when the first
Molecular Diagnostics workshops were held locally in the
Bethesda, Maryland area. It was the attendees who were loyal
followers of these fall workshops who became the first
members of AMP. When in 1994 a decision was made to form
AMP, it was written into our Bylaws that the annual meeting
would take place each November.
While
the Administrative Office discusses with AMP Council the
possibility of changing the timing of the meeting every few
years, we have yet to come up with a viable alternative. AMP
strives to hold the meeting at a time of the year when it
does not overlap with similar meetings; however, due to the
large number of other meetings our members are likely to
attend, it is difficult to find a time better suited than
our traditional November pattern. Please note that in 2008,
we were “squeezed” into meeting over Halloween because ASHG
met in November (when we would otherwise have met).
Some of
the meetings our members (and exhibitors) attend are:
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ALA -
Association for Lab Automation – Lab Automation Conference -
January |
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USCAP - USCAP Annual Meeting – February/March |
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AACR - AACR Annual Meeting - April |
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Experimental Biology - Joint Annual Meeting for ASIP with
APS, ASBMB, ASPET, ASN, AAA) – April |
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Pan American Society for Virology – Clinical Virology
Symposium – April |
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ASM - American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting – May |
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AMA - American Medical Association Annual Meeting - June |
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AACC – American Association of Clinical Chemistry – July
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ECP or IAP - European Congress of Pathology or International
Academy of Pathology – September/October |
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CAP - College of American Pathologists Annual Meeting –
September/October |
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ASCP - American Society for Clinical Pathology Annual
Meeting – September/October |
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ASHG - American Society for Human Genetics – October most
years, November every 4th/5th year |
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ASH – American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting -
December |
Go to:
Main Article
Demographics
The AMP Organization
The Annual Meeting
Overview of Survey Responses
Insight into CME – A Report from Mark Sobel
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