Another Fall Wound Care Conference?
So the word is out; there is going to be a fall SAWC in addition to the traditional spring SAWC held last week. But why? Aren’t there too many wound care conferences already?
The second half of the year includes the annual WOCN conference held in June, the New Cardiovascular Horizons and Management of the Diabetic Foot & Wound Healing held in July, the Wild On Wounds Conference held in September, the Clinical Symposium on Advances in Skin & Wound Care held in October, and now the new Fall SAWC.
In fact, the 13th Wound Care Congress to be held in November was canceled do to lack of funding and support.
Clinicians at the SAWC last week expressed reservations about the new conference given their already-full fall schedule. Exhibitors claimed that the justification for the new conference was to offer clinicians more convenience because not everyone can travel, thus having two symposiums on opposite coasts. There are already eight annual wound care shows not including the new SAWC or the canceled Wound Care Congress.
So what gives? For a relatively small field like wound care to have more annual conferences in the second half of the year than the Diabetes field seems bizarre. Has wound care really gotten that big that we need a second SAWC or are our corporate partners getting ahead of themselves?
We welcome your thoughts.
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I was happy to see the SAWC in the fall too. Sometimes I can't go every year and sometimes the spring is not good. I like having the choices.
When is the fall conference? I went last year to Washington (2009)and would like to go there again. Fred
Fred - the 2010 SAWC Fall Conference is September 22-24th in Anaheim, CA. Hope to see you there.
It is correct that we have too many conferences; what is needed is not necessarily a "new" wound care conference, but a BETTER one.
SAWC continues to be the premier wound care conference in the United States. There is SAWC, WOCN, and then every other show. If they can bring that same quality SAWC show to the fall, it is good for all of us. And if it causes some other shows sub-par shows in the fall to shut down, that that is even better.
tHIS WILL BE MY FIRST ATTENDANCE. I HEARD SO MANY GOOD THINGS ABOUT IT THAT IM LOOKING FORWARD TO IT. AFTER THIS YEAR DISSAPOINTING EXPERIENCE WITH THE WOCN CONFERENCE IN ST LOUIS IM HOPING THIS ONE WILL BE AN IMPROVEMENT.
This is wonderful news. I could not attend the meeting in Dallas because my partner attended. This will allow me to attend this conference as I think SAWC is the PREMIER wound care conference in the world.
East coast is heavily populated. Makes sense to put the bait near the fish that don't (or can't this year) travel far.
I love the SAWC conference and say go for it!
I prefer the WOCN Conference to SAWC's.
I also am sorry to hear about the Wound Care Congress. Smaller meetings that are affordable should be considered. Another meeting of this caliber (SAWC) is definitely NOT what is needed.
It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that many of these organizations will falter during the current state of the economy. Realistically, in my opinion of course, it would be wise if all of these organizations would hire a coordinator and decided where different meetings would be on an annual basis, have the majority of the presenters’ paid with an economy flight and free registration for speaking. Have smaller meetings with registration fees that are affordable. Speaking from a nurse’s point of view, when you have to take vacation time, pay all of the registration, airfare and hotel costs to attend a conference, it is not going to be as high on the priority list. Many RN’s are losing their jobs; their hours are being drastically cut, or have to use vacation/PTO time when they are mandated to take days off, however the interest in learning updated and new information will always be there… More now than ever, the decisions to attend conferences will be on a cost/benefit scale. Maybe the current state of the economy will cause rethinking of this whole process!