Mile High at #ACSM17

Speakers at the ACSM Social Media Session (L to R): Angela Smith, Pamela Peeke, Gretchen Reynolds, Felica Stoler, yours truly

I’m curious about how others perceive the cycle of the sports medicine year.  I have my own peculiar calendar, dictated by contingencies such as geography (American) and specialty (academic medicine, pediatric sports medicine specialist).

Summer, soon to be upon us, is the time to enjoy not only a bit of vacation but also ‘catch up’ on research projects and writing assignments that have piled up on my desk.  Fall?  That’s the tsunami season: sports such as football and soccer keep me very busy from August 1 through Thanksgiving.  After a holiday breather, I seem to roll into conference season and various speaking engagements extending through the late spring– PRISM (Dallas) to Rugby Medicine (Las Vegas) to IOC Prevention (Monaco) to AMSSM (San Diego) to, now, ACSM.

To be sure, I’m certainly in the place where I could conduct a survey getting the ‘seasonal perspective’ of hundreds of people from around the globe and of various specialties: the 64th ACSM Annual Meeting (and 8th World Congress on Exercise is Medicine) is a huge affair, renowned for its depth and breadth.  This is the place where I can connect with folks from South Africa to Down Under, and posit collaborative ideas to professionals from athletic trainers to exercise physiologists. I am always blown away by the size of the affair.

These conferences are the places to make new friends, re-connect with established colleagues; they are the places to share a handshake or a hug, share a meal — make the physical connections upon which all true relationships are based.  I celebrate the power of social media, as many of you know, but I see it primarily as the way to facilitate deeper connections–not in the virtual world, but in real life.

And so I felt privileged to kick off #ACSM17 with a session on social media, one shared with both established and new friends: Pamela Peeke, Angela Smith, Felicia Stoler, Gretchen Reynolds.  If you don’t know them, follow them on Twitter, and then introduce yourself if you see them on the ground here in Denver. I felt privileged, as well, to interact with so many in the audience, who asked probing questions and ‘hung around’ for an hour or so after the session.

I landed 24 hours ago. I haven’t hiked the Rockies (yet) and I haven’t indulged in Colorado-legal herbal gummies (yet?), but I’m already feeling a mile high.

I hope you are, likewise, feeling the positive vibe here in Denver.  Share your stories on social media with the hashtag #ACSM17 and promote that vibe.  Then go say hi to an ACSM member you only know on social media. If you see me lurking in some symposium or colloquium, come say hi!  We can always do a selfie!

Enjoy the conference.