Reasons to Attend a Medical Conference in Person vs. Online
Medical conferences are often offered in person and online. There are pros and cons to both options, but there are several good reasons to attend a medical conference in person. Here’s a look at both types of conferences and why one way may be better for you than the other.
Benefits of Attending in Person
When you choose to attend a medical conference in person, you gain access to some significant benefits. One of the main reasons in-person is so beneficial, is because of the amazing location you get to visit and make a trip out of it! For example, we have conferences in amazing venues, such as: tropical Hawaii, the Las Vegas Strip, welcoming Canada, vast and beautiful Australia, exciting Disneyland, charming London, and more. Networking is much easier to do in person than online and there’s far more fun to be had at an actual medical conference compared to trying to attend online.
Along with the networking benefits, you may have the option to attend more of the conference sessions and speakers in person compared to online. Sometimes, conferences only offer certain portions online and you miss out on quite a bit.
One of the biggest benefits of attending a medical conference in person is the social opportunities. Conferences are huge for networking and not being able to attend the social events means you may miss out on most of the networking options. Plus, face-to-face networking is much better than online networking for medical conferences.
Most conferences include social events at the end of each day, during the beginning of the day and even during the middle of the day. You could meet new friends or business contacts by attending in person. Many attendees leave with life-long contacts or the right contact to help them reach their goal.
The experts at the conferences will often have Q&A sessions or Meet & Greet sessions, which you will likely miss out on if you attend online. IN person, you get the chance to meet the speakers and the panelist, along with anybody at the conference with new products or services that may benefit you.
Along with all of these benefits, when you attend in person, you’re there for what the conference offers. Often, you have extra motivation to get the most out of the conference when you attend in person compared to online.
Why Attend a Medical Conference Online?
While it may be better to attend medical conferences in person, there are some benefits to attending online. In addition, there may be situations where you cannot attend in person and an online conference is better than not attending at all.
Online medical conferences may be free or at least more cost-effective. The expense is often one of the biggest reasons why you may attend online instead of in-person. You won’t have to pay for travel expenses, food or anything else when you attend online. Instead, you just pay the conference fee and attend the sessions you want online.
An online conference is also far more convenient. You can attend from home, from the office or from anywhere. Even if you’re on vacation and you want to attend, you can, as long as you have a good internet connection.
You may gain a big benefit when you attend online of being able to replay the sessions and attend all sessions instead of just one per time slot. Not all conferences offer this, but many will give you full access to the sessions once they have happened. This may also be available for those attending the conference in-person.
Attending online also means you don’t have to worry about your wardrobe. Nobody will see you, so you don’t have to dress a certain way. In fact, you can attend in your scrubs, if you please.
Both online and in-person attendance at medical conferences has benefits. Attending in person gives you the opportunity to network with others in your professional while attending online is far more convenient and cost-effective.
Neither way is wrong, but if you have the opportunity to attend a medical conference in person, you should. The networking opportunities and social events will make it well worth the trip. However, if you cannot attend in person, attending online gives you the ability to gain knowledge from those speaking and teaching at the conference without having to travel.
CME Science offers both in person radiology conferences and online radiology CME courses. Each have benefits depending on what you are looking for. If you’re a radiologist looking to attend one of our conferences then please review our website to learn more. We also have some FAQs listed here.