ASHA Convention Recap From A First-Time Attendee

I really felt renewed: a renewed sense of drive for doing my best to be able to support my residents. I’ve got a long list of projects that I wanted to do now as a result. I really felt recharged my speech batteris. It made me more motivated to practice at the top of my license and really support my residents than as best as possible.

Welcome to FOXcast SLP, a podcast for clinicians made by clinicians. It’s brought to you by FOX Rehabilitation. Find out more at foxrehab.org.

Jimmy McKay, PT, DPT: Welcome to FOXcast SLP. I’m your host Jimmy McKay and joining us again, FOX SLP Laura Conte. Laura, welcome back to the show.

Laura Conte MS, CCC-SLP: Hi, Jimmy. Thanks for having me again.

Jimmy: First question: How was it? You went to your very first ASHA conference in Boston just a little while ago and first major conference for you. Overall how was it?

Laura: Oh my gosh well it was certainly something that took over all the senses. There was so much to see, so much to hear, so many people. It was jam packed but I really feel like I definitely got my money’s worth it was a really awesome time.

Jimmy: OK. How did it compare to what you were kind of picturing in your mind?

Laura: Well you know I knew it was going to be a marathon like I knew there were a lot of courses that we had the opportunity to take. There was a lot to be jam packed in those three days. I just don’t think I really understood quite how exhausted I would be by the end of each day. I mean we were at the convention center by 7:30 each morning and we were there until almost seven every night. And in there was six hours of courses that we could take each day. So by the end I had a conversation with my sister on my way home on Saturday and she was like, Well I talked to you yesterday morning. I was like oh gosh I feel like that was weeks ago. You know just for how much was jammed into such a short amount of time.

Jimmy: Listen it’s like Vegas right? There’s no clocks, no windows they pump oxygen in there to keep you guys awake. And next thing you know you know that three day conference is the longest nine days your life.

Laura: I really felt that way. I totally agree. Definitely.

Jimmy: So some things we talked about in the last episode that you were on. Talked about the very first thing pouring over the course catalog trying to find courses that could really enhance areas either that you wanted to explore more maybe something new you had no experience with or really strengthen areas that you deal with on a day to day basis. How did that turnout in terms of the clinical content at that ASHA conference in Boston?

Laura: So I went to about 13 different courses that yeah there were about 1 to 2 hours each depending on the topic area. I did get a chance to go to some of the poster sessions as well. And then of course there’s the exhibit hall but that’s like a whole other topic. So I was able to find a lot of content that really you know supported the clients that we work with. I took a few courses on palliative care which was so eye opening. It’s something I had some experience with when I worked in the skilled nursing facilities setting. It’s something that the FOL building is kind of dancing around with our role in in that level of care. So I really found that to be so eye opening as to how speech language pathologists can really help with especially the swallowing function at the end of life or when people choose to go to palliative care.

Jimmy: A lot of those those conferences the great thing about it is since they’re all your colleagues in vastly different areas of your profession are coming together you get to peek in on those things that you’d like to know more about.

Laura: Yes definitely. I did find quite a few courses and attended some regarding dementia, cognitive strategies. There were some great ones about how we learn and I can definitely apply that to how my residents with dementia might be able to relearn old skills. I did learn quite a bit about aphasia as well which is for those of us working with people who have had strokes. The most surprising course I think that I went to was about mindfulness and meditation. I think I left that one with my mind being so blown as to all the different ways that that technique can be incorporated with my residents that have cognitive issues. Voice therapy issues even speech. That was really quite a takeaway let me tell you.

Jimmy: That’s one of those that you go into it you know you wouldn’t you probably wouldn’t travel out of your way to go for a one day or two day course on mindfulness but because you’re at a major conference and it’s all right there you can pop into that and leave exactly like you just mentioned with your mind blown on a topic that you might not have touched otherwise.

Laura: Yes. And now I definitely want to go into a full day or two day on that topic. It was fascinating. It’s a really cool topic and it’s something that has so much evidence behind it that it’s crazy to me that we haven’t I haven’t in implementing that into my practice until now.

Jimmy: All right. Need to know if you actually took my advice which was going to a course that was completely out of your comfort zone something that you’ve never even thought about before in your professional career did you do that?

Laura: I did. And truthfully that was my voice class. That was something I spoke about in my first podcast was that that’s an area that I don’t feel as confident. And I went to some courses that had a lot of techniques that to speech therapists should be pretty should be pretty old hat I guess or pretty logical. And I found some great suggestions on how to bring them into my practice with my residence. So I’m very thankful that I at least tried that.

Jimmy: Good for you. That’s definitely five extra points right there if I were grading.

Laura: Great extra credit.

Jimmy: So you mentioned in the first episode that you are definitely a type person and making a spreadsheet writing down preferred courses laying out your full three days. I typically maybe use a printed out version and a highlighter so I’m not so type A. But how did how did preparing for a big course like that with a lot of things going on in three short days. How did it actually make it? Did the spreadsheet work out for you?

Laura: It worked out great. I was so thankful that I had it. I attended the conference with actually one of my other FOX colleagues. And I had sent her my very obsessive compulsive spreadsheet and she wrote down the courses that she wanted to go to then circled the ones that I also had kind of pre selected. And so for that we were able to kind of tag team some of them we attended together and others we went to individually. But now we’re actually creating a meet up later next week to kind of rehash and kind of digest all the information we learned but the spreadsheet came out handy because in-between you have such a short amount of time so you least have sort of things preselected. It did make things go quickly.

Jimmy: Can’t knock the spreadsheet until you try it. And also as we mentioned last time there is an app for that as well ASHA putting out an app to lay out the course content and maps which help out. So there’s an app that you can download for free before you head to a conference like this.

Laura: Yes. And actually I used the app quite a bit. The app was great to look up the course descriptions. I was able to download the handouts from each course and then I emailed them to myself. I actually ended up not bringing my laptop. You had mentioned to me, you kknow. And I have always been a pen and paper note pad person. I’ve never been done or never really taking notes on the computer so I followed your advice and that worked in my favor. But having the access to the information on my phone to either message it to myself or share the course notes with my peers or my friends that I was with and then definitely looking up course numbers looking up the authors they had the maps built in on there too. That was a very helpful feature and I definitely was thankful for ASHA for putting that out.

Jimmy: Yeah knowledge in your pocket can never be downplayed and an extra ten points for listening to me again with going with what got you there making sure you stay true to yourself. Smart.

Laura: Yes I’m definitely trying to get all the extra credit points I can.

Jimmy: So coordinating plans. You know when you come together with colleagues that you know you definitely want to find some time to rub elbows with former colleagues former classmates did you get a chance to do that as well?

Laura: I did. I went and attended with about four of my kind of speech therapists across my career. Including college and grad school so I was able to thankfully. I was kind of the link between all of them so I was able to make a group text message to be like who’s going where next? What’s the next meet up spot? And Many of us do practice in the same general geriatric population. But a few of them do practice with pediatrics. So it was a great way where we could kind of divide and conquer. Hey can you send me those course notes? And then we were also very fortunate to have dinner together and talk about work and not work which was really nice.

Jimmy: All right so people headed to Boston because that’s where this ASHA conference was. Recommendations for dinner drinks what did you find?

Laura: The convention center is in the Seaport District of Boston. I’ve been to Boston many times living in New Hampshire but one of the things I hadn’t done was really go out to dinner in that area. We actually had snow the first night that we were there so everything’s quite picturesque but a little messy. We had a really wonderful dinner. There was a restaurant called Tuscan Kitchen which I guess is in New Hampshire as well. It was fancy but it was a fun treat. Go somewhere different.

Jimmy: While you were spending hours upon hours slaving over knowledge we did talk about what to wear. I mean it’s not a fashion show here we’re all about clinical excellence but you know preparing what to wear in terms of footwear, layers, is too hot or too cold? You want to make sure you look professional because we’re professional private practice so what did you settle on and did it help?

Laura: Well I definitely chose my flats and my boots. I did not choose heels. I did see people who we were walking in heels and more power to them but that was too much for me. The best advice was definitely to bring layers. The rooms did vary greatly in temperature and one of the nice things they did have a coat check. Well most of us were wearing heavier coats and things like that. It’s hard to carry that all around. There’s enough stuff that you acquire when you are walking around a big conference like that. So to be able to check and kind of a place to stash bags was very helpful and make the day more comfortable but still professional.

Jimmy: Got it. Now going further into tech you mentioned that you went for pen and paper because that’s your style. What did you bring with you to carry around that was worth it? That really helped enhance your conference.

Laura: Well, I’ve got to say the external cell phone charger battery saved the day. I happened to treat myself to one that can plug in and charge the phone at the same time. So it’s kind of a dual purpose. We all were sharing it. One of the other clinicians was charging her phone on it. The other was using for her iPad to kind of just power through the end of course. That thing came in so handy. So I would absolutely recommend bringing some sort of external charger with you or external battery. There certainly were places to plug in but not having to do that made things a lot more convenient.

Jimmy: Anything that completely took you by surprise in terms of the expo hall? We talked about that just a little bit in terms of there are a lot of organizations that want to be represented and lets you know what they’re about. But then of course we focus on the big F word which is freebies. They always want to give you stuff. So how would you describe the expo hall?

Laura: Well it was crazy. Very busy. There were so many different exhibitors. I guess it’s a longstanding tradition that the company superduper which is primarily a pediatric therapy resources and materials. They create a tote bag every year. And that apparently is the hot item that everybody needs to have. I can totally understand why, it’s a very large size. So you better believe that if we miss them the first day we waited and got there as quickly as we could on Friday morning to get our bag and we really did end up using it quite often throughout the show because it was big enough to throw everything into. But that’s a kind of a hot ticket item everyone. The Cool kids have the superduper bag.

Jimmy: Piece of advice that you’d give let’s say next year someone’s listening to this in 2019 going to their very first ASHA Conference. Any piece of advice that you’d want to give them that we didn’t talk about yet?

Laura: Well you know I definitely think that looking things over as much as you can ahead of time at least helps you to understand what’s going to be going on. Another piece of advice was skip a session and go through the exhibit hall when there’s a little bit less of a crowd. I found that to be helpful because that is a great networking opportunity. There’s a lot of different technologies and things represented in there. And so it was wonderful to be able to walk through and not be shoulder to shoulder with every single speech pathologist and audiologists that was present. There were over 18000 therapists over the course of the three days from our profession which is crazy. So taking time to kind of sneak out of one maybe stop classes early one day just to give yourself time to really wander through. Get your freebies and learn about some of the new stuff that’s coming out was definitely worth it.

Jimmy: You also get know a couple of points there for skipping a session. I actually said self care. You know making sure they take a little time to kind of slow down and catch your breath so you get an extra five points for that I’ve lost count of how many extra bonus points you’ve got.

Laura: I think we’re at about twenty.

Jimmy: Looking forward to ASHA convention locations this year as you mentioned Boston Massachusetts. Next year going a little bit warmer not sure there’s going to be a coatch check. Orange County Convention Center in Orlando Florida. If the listeners want to check out information about next year’s conference check out Convention.ASHA.ORG. Any parting words of wisdom Laura for conference goers in the future.

Laura: I’ve got to say it was worth that. I had no idea what to expect. I knew it would be a lot. I knew it was going to be overwhelming. I have to say as a speech pathologist we typically work very solo. There’s usually only one in a building or things like that unless you’re a part of a bigger medical setting. And so to be able to be surrounded by all these mostly women but there are some men who do the same sort of job as you. Was really inspiring to see all the different topics that speech therapists are involved in where the research is going was really motivating and inspiring. I really felt renewed. A renewed sense of drive for doing my best to be able to support my residents. I’ve got a long list of projects that I want to do now as a result. I really felt that it kind of recharged my speech battery and made me more motivated to practice at the top of my license and really support my residents as best as possible.

Jimmy: A very giving profession that you’re in. So it is good to recharge those batteries to avoid something like burnout or just getting just getting a little more motivated about the things that you do and of course when you get together with colleagues what do you talk about? Well you talk about the thing that you do and that tends to excite us. So it’s a great piece of piece of insight there.

Laura: Oh thank you so much.

Laura Conte a speech language pathologist here at FOX rehabilitation. I appreciate your time and sharing the insight. No longer a first timer for ASHA conferences Laura congratulations.

Laura: Thank you so much. I can’t Wait. I hope I get put out Florida that would be fun.

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