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Timeline and Checklist of Action Items
- Immediately: Send the Financial Disclosure Form to all participants in your symposium (Symposium Organizer, Co-Chair and speakers). Click here to download the Financial Disclosure Form.
- Wednesday, June 24: Speakers should return disclosure forms to the Symposium Organizer for entry into the submission portal.
- Wednesday, July 1: Enter your final session information and financial disclosure information for all symposium participants in the submission portal.
- Wednesday, October 14 : Speakers who are unable to attend in person will submit a pre-recorded presentation by October 14. Instructions for pre-recording presentations will be sent to you in mid-September so you can distribute to your Co-Chair and speakers.
Tips and Best Practices
Click here to watch a video offering tips and helpful practices on how to successfully organize and manage a symposium for the Annual Meeting.
The video is also available here in Spanish.
Update Your Symposium in the Submission Portal
In addition to content, your symposium acceptance was based on the following, as indicated in your proposal:
- Gender representation (at least one male speaker and one female speaker)
- Consideration of speakers from low- and middle-income countries
- Consideration of speakers from diverse institutions and viewpoints
Any deviations from the representation presented in your proposal could impact the status of your final acceptance and symposium presentation at the Annual Meeting.
While we recognize that minor editing may be required for purposes of clarification or to correct errors, there should be NO substantial changes from the content and format (including the number of speakers and individual speaker content) provided in original proposals unless changes have been specifically requested by the Program Chairs.
If you feel that more substantive changes are needed, please contact the Program Chairs for authorization through Judy DeAcetis, Administrative Manager-Scientific Program, at j.deacetis@astmh.org no later than June 18. Your final submission will be reviewed and compared with the original proposal.
Follow these instructions to update and finalize your symposium:
- Click here to access the symposium submission portal in order to update the session information.
- Enter your ASTMH username and password to access the portal. Click here for login instructions if you need assistance.
- After you log into the portal, click the title of your existing symposium proposal.
- Use the menu on the left side of the screen to access the information entered for the Symposium Organizer, Co-Chair and speakers.
- Use the “Delete” and “Edit” links to the left of the Sort Order box to update the information for symposium participants.
- Content Tags for Your Session Description – Choose up to Five Tags
In order to facilitate our attendees in the search for specific content, we ask you to include content tags in your session description. Click here to view the list of Session Content Tags and include 3-5 content tags at the end of your session description. You can simply copy and paste 3-5 content tags from this list and paste them at the end of your session description. Be sure to include the hashtag (#)!
Finalize the Symposium Information Using the Summary Page
After you update the symposium information, click Summary in the menu on the left side of the screen. Review and update the information entered for your session to ensure that all information is accurate. Edits may be made as often as needed until the deadline, but DO NOT click Finalize until all information is complete.
Once you click Finalize, you cannot access your information for editing.
IMPORTANT: Even if you do not need to edit your symposium information, you must access the symposium submission portal, enter financial disclosure information for all symposium participants, respond to some additional questions and click Finalize to complete your submission by the July 1 deadline.
Financial Disclosure Information
Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit guidelines require ASTMH to collect a Financial Disclosure Form from every symposium participant. Click here to download the Financial Disclosure Form, which will be used to collect the necessary information for each of your symposium participants (Symposium Organizer, Co-Chair and speakers). We suggest that you send this disclosure form to your speakers immediately and instruct them to return the completed form to you by Wednesday, June 24.
Enter the information from the completed disclosure forms into the appropriate fields on the disclosure sections on the symposium submission portal. Note that this information is mandatory. You will NOT be able to finalize your symposium without the financial disclosure information, which must be entered into the symposium submission site by Wednesday, July 1.
After you finalize your symposium submission, you will receive a notification by email that gives you the option to upload the original Financial Disclosure Forms completed by your symposium participants. This upload is not required but is given as an option for storing the original disclosure forms in the symposium submission portal.
As required by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), ASTMH staff will follow up with speakers indicating a conflict of interest such that the conflict can be mitigated prior to the symposium presentation in accordance with ACCME procedures.
Financial disclosure information for accepted symposia will be published and distributed to Annual Meeting attendees.
Final Acceptance of Your Symposium
Final acceptance will be issued once the final symposium content and financial disclosure information are entered into the symposium submission portal. All information regarding your symposium submission must be entered in the submission portal by Wednesday, July 1.
After July 1, sessions that are not marked FINALIZE in the symposium submission portal will be declined and not scheduled for presentation.
Session Format
All sessions will take place in person at the Gaylord National in National Harbor, Maryland, USA (adjacent to Washington, DC). A select number of sessions will be livestreamed to a remote audience.
Pre-recorded presentations will be the only option for speakers who are unable to attend in person.
IMPORTANT: If a speaker in your session is unable to attend in person, advise the speaker to begin preparing a pre-recorded presentation as soon as possible to meet the October 14 submission deadline.
IMPORTANT: Please note that speakers who submit a pre-recorded presentation must pay a registration fee. Please share this information immediately with any speakers who plan to submit a pre-recorded presentation.
Presentation Schedule
Due to the complexity and competing demands of our meeting schedule, ASTMH cannot honor requests for symposia to be held on specific dates or times during the meeting. Final schedule assignments with presentation date and time will be distributed in mid-September.
Your session will be assigned to a 105-minute session on one of the dates listed below. Please ensure that your speakers are available to present anytime during this timeframe.
- Thursday, November 19
- Friday, November 20
- Saturday, November 21
- Sunday, November 22
Session Publication in Program Materials
The symposium information entered into the submission portal as of Wednesday, July 1 is the information that will be published for your session in the program materials.
Please make every effort to ensure that speakers present the newest and unpublished data relevant to the topic. Note that presentation of data at the ASTMH Annual Meeting generally does NOT preclude publication in scientific journals.
When updating the symposium description, follow these guidelines:
- Ensure that your session summary is clear and concise since this description will likely impact attendance for your symposium.
- Do not include speaker names in the session description.
- When you enter the presentation length for each talk, enter the presentation length as a multiple of 5, i.e. 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, etc.
Registration
ALL symposium participants must be registered for the Annual Meeting. Registration will open in July.
Please note the registration policy:
- Symposium Organizers, Co-Chairs and speakers who are ASTMH members can take advantage of a special discounted rate (25% off posted member rates).
- In order to take advantage of the 25% discount, member participants will need to use a coupon code at the time of registration. This code will be distributed to Symposium Organizers in late July after symposium information is finalized.
- Each symposium will receive one complimentary Annual Meeting registration to be used by a symposium participant designated for the role of Speaker.
- The Symposium Organizer will designate this speaker in the symposium submission portal.
- This code will be distributed to the designated speaker in late July after symposium information is finalized.
- All other speakers will pay the full registration fee.
- IMPORTANT: Speakers who submit a pre-recorded presentation must pay a registration fee. Please share this information immediately with any speakers who plan to submit a pre-recorded presentation.
Question and Answer Period
You and the Co-Chair (if applicable) will moderate the session and facilitate questions from the audience.
Symposium Roles and Responsibilities
Click here for more information on Symposium Organizer roles and responsibilities.
Social Media Toolkit
To help inform your friends and colleagues, as well as raise awareness for the Annual Meeting, we encourage you to use our Social Media Toolkit, which includes ready-made posts, graphics and hashtags.
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