Imagine going to a CME event where you ventured into an unground series of tunnels to see Tiffany stained glass or marveled at architectural art deco wonders scattered around downtown or sampled local food and beverages in an intimate setting filled with history, rather than sitting for long hours in uncomfortable chairs in a windowless lecture hall. Imagine attending an educational conference where you tour the local architectural sites or see beautiful works of art displayed in local galleries or stroll through manicured parks and gardens, instead of leaving the meeting disappointed you never had a chance to get out and see the surrounding city where the meeting was being held. Now imagine that while you’re doing these engaging activities, you’re learning expert tips about how to select different allergens to test for and treat, or debating evidence– based recommendations on sublingual immunotherapy dosing, or discussing how to treat venomous stinging insect hypersensitivity [while the culprit insects buzz around your head], as opposed to being frustrated that you’ve heard several excellent talks by renowned experts but can’t remember the details because you’ve spent several solid hours in lectures, and it’s all kind of fuzzy now.

Stop imagining.

If you were fortunate enough to attend the 2017 AAOA Annual Meeting in Chicago, you didn’t need to imagine any of this—you lived these experiences and learned educational concepts in a whole new way.

This past year, the AAOA underwent a strategic planning initiative to reevaluate and redesign a number of aspects of the organization, including its educational programming. It was a chance to celebrate and sunset successfully completed projects, discard or set-aside others, and most importantly, explore new possibilities in membership benefits and educational content, format, and delivery. The new, redesigned Annual meeting is just one shining example of the fruit of those labors. Audience participation technology has been implemented at our course offerings as well, permitting more meaningful and productive interaction between faculty and attendees and allowing course directors to adjust educational content to suit the needs of attendees in real-time. The new website has been launched and the amount of digital content available for our members continues to expand.

No organization can continue to do what has always been done and expect to succeed in the long-term. What our membership needs to succeed economically continually evolves, what our membership desires to learn continually is updated, and what our membership requires help with socio-politically continually changes—so our organization too must change to continue to serve the needs of its membership. This year will be a year that we continue to drive our organization forward into the future. This year will be a year that we continue to increase transparency within our organization, learning from our past experiences. This year will be a year that we continue to implement new and engaging educational forums and membership benefits. This year will be quite a year, indeed—culminating in an independent AAOA Annual Meeting in 2018 in what better place than the birthplace of independence—Philadelphia! If you didn’t have the pleasure to join us in Chicago, I encourage you to think forward and plan on celebrating with us in Philadelphia. I promise you an Annual Meeting unlike any you’ve experienced before!

Christine Franzese, MD
AAOA President

Learn More about the 2018 AAOA Annual Meeting