THE BENCH
BIOMED 101 Conferences Benefit Biomeds BY DAVE SCOTT
E
arlier this year, I traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, for the MD Expo. It was the 20th anniversary of the Expo. It was also one of the first expos in quite a while without COVID-19 restrictions. This was my first time in Atlanta, other than passing through the airport. I liked Atlanta. I always thought, since it is in the South and known to some as “Hotlanta”, it would be hot and sticky there. Being from Denver, Colorado, I’m not used to hot and humid weather. It was perfect the entire time I was there. It was a nice break to get away for a couple of days and attend an outstanding conference.
The venue was incredible. It was within walking distance of Truist Park the home of the Atlanta Braves. I know the Braves had a home game while we were there, and some MD Expo attendees went to it after the conference schedule was done for the day. MD Expo had the end of show party at a dueling piano bar located in the ballpark area. The hotel had a big open area in the middle. The MD Expo conference rooms went along one side of the hotel. The entrance to the trade show area had several vendor booths set up before entering the main trade show. One thing I found especially interesting in that area was the MD Expo timeline display. It was a series of posterboards with pictures from all the previous MD Expos. It was intriguing to see all the pictures. I’ve been to quite a few over the years, but several of these were before my time of attendance. It was also cool to see how much it has changed over the years and grown to what it is today. People could write on the boards with markers and say whatever they wanted. Several different posters had “This was my first MD Expo” written on them along with other comments. The MD Expo seemed very well attended. Everyone I talked with was happy to be there and happy to be “out” again. I even saw a few friends from Colorado there. It was nice to see other techs and vendors that I have grown to know over the years and new ones that had
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plenty to offer. I attended several excellent presentations. I, unfortunately, didn’t get to attend everything I wanted to attend, and it was over way too soon. I teamed up with another tech from Colorado, Brian Wilson, to do two presentations. We presented “10 Things I Wish I Knew About HTM” and “Career Path Guide.” The “10 Things” presentation talked about what Brian and I have learned in our 65-plus combined years of working in healthcare technology management (HTM). We each did a top 10 of things we wish we would have known or known earlier in our careers. This might be my favorite presentation that I have ever done at any MD Expo. You can find the PowerPoint at tinyurl. com/4hr5abdb. We also teamed up with the HTM Jobs team of Sydney Krieg and Kristen Register to present on “Career Path Guide.” You can listen to the presentation at youtu.be/ nx5uV4Aoq-g. In my opinion, there were two highlights of this presentation. One was our ideal career path examples, and the other was the HTM Jobs team’s work getting actual job postings that went along with the career qualifications, certifications and experience. We gave examples of in our part of the presentation. The PowerPoint is available at tinyurl.com/5n84w7s8. With the 20th anniversary of MD Expo over it’s time to look to the future. The next MD Expo will take place on the West Coast this fall. It will be in Temecula, California at the Pechanga Casino and Resort. This MD Expo sounds like it will be another fun one. As usual, there will be industry experts presenting and the trade show will feature the latest services, test equipment, innovations and products from vendors. Start planning to attend now. Hopefully, I’ll see you there! Find out more at MDExpoShow.com. – David Scott, CBET, is a senior biomedical technician at UCHealth.
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