“The most unique and fulfilling part of the workshop from my perspective was the abstract discussion groups. These groups provide an opportunity to give an impromptu chalk talk of your abstract to other workshop attendees, facilitated by two senior investigators. My group consisted of members on the entire spectrum of medical training: medical students, residents, fellows and junior faculty. Sheila Angeles-Han, MD, MSc, of Emory University, and William Rigby, MD, of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, moderated my session. While I had previously given poster and oral abstract presentations, I had never before presented an abstract with only a marker and a blank whiteboard behind me. I had always relied on having meticulously prepared tables, figures and slides to hide behind. But that was exactly the point—to concisely communicate the big picture of the background, methods, results and implications of a project so that it is understandable and interesting to a wide audience without relying on these crutches. I was impressed at the proficiency and innovation of all the projects in my group and learned details of abstracts that I never would have noticed from a poster. The abstract group was extremely helpful in improving skills to communicate scientific findings to a wide audience and will certainly change the way I approach talks in the future.
