A blog post written by Kara Mathewson, 2018-2020 Fellow
One of the many great aspects of the Fellowship is the focus on professional development. Conferences are one common opportunity for fellows to expand skills, knowledge, and networks. For me, 2019 was a year full of conferences. For this post, I’ve decided to do a ‘Google-style’ review for a few popular conferences that I attended – including CityMatCH, APHA, and AEA’s Annual Evaluation conferences.
Why these conferences? It can be hard to choose what conferences to go to because there are so many good ones. One of the reasons I chose to go to CityMatCH was because I work in the Maternal and Child Health Unit at DHS, and this conference brings together folks working in this area specifically. This meant that I had a few coworkers attending and several who could speak to their previous experiences attending as well. Additionally, my preceptor (shout out Fiona) had an abstract accepted for presentation, but since she was not able to attend, she asked if I could present in her place. For APHA, I decided to attend because it’s the ultimate public health gathering. It’s good for exploring and learning about a wide range of public health topics, especially things you’re interested in but don’t get to work on day to day. And lastly, I chose to go to the Evaluation Conference because I have a lot of interest in evaluation, and as a fellow, I’m engaged in evaluation planning and implementation for several programs at my placement site. I was looking to gain more general tools for my toolbox and get some specific insights related to the evaluations I’m working on.
So before I dive into the review, I want to share a few tips:
I recommend downloading the conference app (if there is one) ahead of time. This gives you an opportunity to figure out where you need to go and browse the sessions ahead of time to make it easier to decide which sessions to attend once you’re there.
I personally prefer to go to skill-builder type sessions over sessions that solely align with topics of interest. I always seem to get more out of these, but I will usually go to a few sessions that align with the topics I’m currently working on as well.
It’s okay to take some breaks! Something that took me several conferences to learn is that it’s okay to skip a session here and there to take care of your needs. Conference days are really long and don’t always offer breaks longer than 15 minutes between sessions. I’ve found that skipping a session every once in a while to grab lunch or exercise helps me get more out of the sessions I do attend.
Space out your conferences out a bit. Conferences can be a little exhausting, especially if they involve traveling a ways and I’ve found it can be a lot to do two in one month. It can also be stressful to be out of the office that much because it’s really hard to get any other work done when you’re there. So plan ahead and set that out of office reply!
CityMatCH 2019
Cost: $$$$
My presentation at CityMatCH.
Summary: In terms of overall content, I would give this conference three stars, but having several co-workers there and having time to debrief and talk about sessions with them brought it to four stars. The plenary/keynote presentations were phenomenal and for me, were the highlight of the conference. The breakout sessions were just okay, but I was really excited to see so many sessions on adolescent health and youth voice. For anyone who works in Maternal and Child Health, these are your people! It felt very at home to be with other MCH colleagues who are working on similar objectives. Also, as a total side note, the food provided at the conference was fantastic and the registration fee covered breakfasts and lunches during the conference.
Favorite keynote presentation was from Kitcki Caroll, titled “America’s Original Sin: The Untold Truth of Tribal Nation-United States Relations and its Relevance to Today’s American Division”.
APHA 2019
Cost $$$$$
Summary: Despite the high cost (registration is pricey and meals are not provided), APHA was a fun conference. This year, APHA was held in Philadelphia and I’m glad I got to spend much of the first day exploring Philly with a coworker. The rest of the conference was filled with very busy days that included breakout sessions, exhibitors, posters, and networking. The style of this conference is more academic than others I’ve been to, so some things weren’t as applicable to public health practice. Nonetheless, I learned some new things and had an opportunity to connect with public health professionals from all over the world. I did think the closing panel, Health and Justice Denied, was incredible.
My favorite sessions were a presentation about improving a Domestic Violence Protective Order process, a presentation that shared validated measures for shared risk and protective factors, and a panel about vaccine information, misinformation, and disinformation.
AEA 2019
Cost: $$
Summary The Annual Evaluation Conference is a great gathering of evaluators from many fields and sectors. I’ve attended three AEA conferences in the past three years – the Summer Institute and two Annual Evaluation Conferences. Both have a lot to offer for professional development in evaluation. For more skill building, I highly recommend the Summer Institute because it is a workshop heavy conference. The annual conference offers a wide variety of sessions that include roundtable discussion, skill-builders, panels, expert lectures, multi-paper sessions, and more. This varies quite a bit from other conferences that I have attended and it really helps to switch things up during long conference days. If you’re looking to attend this conference to build skills, I recommend focusing on choosing sessions based on the type of session and not based on the topic area alone.
Additionally, there is an added bonus that the conference registration is relatively low cost compared to other multi-day conferences, especially for AEA members. And with this year’s conference being in Minneapolis, it really helped lower the cost as well, since I was able to drive.
My favorite sessions were Evaluating Advocacy and Policy Change in Local and Community-Based Settings and a session that included a discussion around ethics in evaluation, following a case study.
I want to give a huge thanks to my placement site, the Division of Public Health – Family Health Section, and the Fellowship for providing me with these development opportunities.
Thanks for reading!
–Kara