I attended the AAPM annual meeting for the first time in July 2024. It was a mix of totally awesome and totally overwhelming.

Abstract Submission

When I first started residency, getting more involved in AAPM and attending at least one meeting was one of my major goals. I was very motivated to attend the annual meeting this year because I wanted to get experience presenting my work. I feel like presentation skills are very useful in general and it’s something I want to continue to work on since I have pretty severe public speaking anxiety.

I submitted my abstract in February then got news that it was accepted for a 10 minute oral presentation in May. This was my first time submitting an abstract for a conference, so I was overjoyed that it was accepted. I wasn’t super familiar with the abstract submission process, so it was a little bit daunting to figure out how to word everything and which figures to include. Regardless of the outcome, the process of submitting an abstract for review was a great experience and I’m glad that I have it in my toolbelt now.

The Conference

The conference ran from a Sunday to a Thursday. “Wow that’s a really long conference,” said every non-medical physicist I talked to about this conference. Yeah it was really long. This was compounded by the fact that my presentation was on the last day, providing me with a lengthy buildup of anticipation, as well as fatigue from general conference activities.

Despite the looming presentation anxiety, I wanted to be fully immersed in the conference experience. Perhaps too fully. I quickly discovered my tendency to attend an ambitious number of sessions, starting with 7:30 AM talks and continuing until the final presentations ended at 6:30 PM. Exhaustion set in rapidly, yet the talks and the exhibit hall kept me engaged. Although I didn’t explore much of Los Angeles, having grown up in the area meant I could focus entirely on the conference without feeling like I was missing out on tourist opportunities.

I thought it was great that there were new attendee orientations where first time attendees could talk to more senior members of AAPM. A piece of advice they gave us was to not spend too much time at the sessions (oops), and instead leave yourself time for networking in between sessions. They also suggested talking to the vendors and asking them a lot of questions, which felt intimidating at first, but all of the vendors I spoke to were really friendly. (I didn’t even feel like anyone was trying to sell me anything. Maybe they could sense my lack of purchasing power.) Overall, it was really fun listening to cool talks, connecting with new people, and reuniting with friends from grad school.

The hours leading up to my presentation were challenging – anxiety had destroyed my appetite and ability to focus. During a talk on QC for SPECT-CT systems, I found my mind wandering despite the speaker’s excellent delivery. For those who struggle with public speaking anxiety, you’ll understand when I say I was physically present but mentally elsewhere.

My history with public speaking anxiety runs deep. Even as a TA, my legs would visibly shake during the first few lab sessions of each semester. By sharing these details, I hope to normalize these very real physical and emotional responses that anxious speakers experience. The anticipation can be overwhelming – I spent the entire session before my presentation convinced I might faint at any moment.

Yet here’s the surprising part: the moment the session organizer called my name, a sense of calm washed over me. All that preparation paid off, and I delivered my talk exactly as practiced. While the lead-up wasn’t ideal, I proved to myself that I could push through the anxiety and succeed.

Am I looking forward to my next public speaking experience? Absolutely not. However I am grateful for my AAPM experience and because it provided concrete evidence that I can be successful at something if I put in the effort.