Hello and welcome to AAOE's speaker training for the annual conference. Congratulations on being selected as a presenter for AAOE's annual conference. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise with attendees to help make this our best conference yet. We are so appreciative of your time and effort in providing top-notch education for our attendees. AAOE staff are here to help you plan and deliver a successful presentation. As we go through this presentation, we will share some helpful information and tips to keep in mind as you get started. The majority of the AAOE conference is made up of standard sessions. These sessions discuss a variety of topics related to practice management, including leadership, compliance, culture, finance, and more. In addition to these sessions, we offer two additional types of sessions for conference attendees. Ignite sessions are fun, fast-paced edutainment sessions. These sessions are always a great hit, and we're excited to bring them back again this year. These will be held as a general session, and speakers will have five minutes to give a presentation using 20 out-of-time slides, which amounts to just 15 seconds per slide. Ignite speakers have a few pre-conference meetings, a planning call to meet with other speakers, briefly explain their topics and plan the flow of the session, a virtual dry run where they will each practice their session using the out-of-time slides, and lastly, an on-site run-through for them to practice on-site with the out-of-time slides and run-through cues. Game-changer sessions really add spice and flavor to the conference by shaking things up and letting attendees take a break from industry content sessions. They help them walk away with actionable ideas and strategies for improving themselves, both personally and professionally. These sessions help attendees take a step back to focus on their needs and development as the leader of their practice, which is important for growth of their career and their practice. While these sessions are intended to be fun and entertaining, it's important that they also provide actionable strategies and ideas for them to implement. Most attendees report back to their positions when they return to the office, and there's significant pressure for them to return with specific strategies and ideas from each session they attend. No matter your session type, you can help them see the ROI of attending your session by providing a clear description, learning objectives, and providing session materials. Now that we've discussed session types, let's move on to some tips and tricks that will help you design your session. As you prepare your session for the annual conference, we hope these tips can help you along the way. First, keep your audience front of mind. The AAOE Annual Conference is designed specifically for orthopedic practice executives, their staff, and their physicians. Our committee reviewers have identified which audience they'd recommend to attend your session, C-level executives, emerging professionals, and or physicians. Keep this group in mind when you're planning your session and target your content accordingly. If you're concerned that the identified audience isn't a good fit for your session, let us know and we can adjust if needed. Next, plan content that fits your track. When you submitted your presentation proposal, you indicated which track was best suited for your session, nuts and bolts, strategic, or on the horizon. However, our committee might have recommended a different track for your session. Check and make sure you know which track was selected for your session and design your session accordingly. Descriptions of each track are, for nuts and bolts, these sessions provide tools and resources to perform the day-to-day operations, the nuts and bolts needed to succeed. Attendees should be able to apply the information they learn immediately. For strategic sessions, these sessions are for practice executives planning growth and positioning or who are looking to address an issue within their practice. They focus on what's needed to create a strategic plan to move a practice forward in the coming year and provide knowledge and tools needed to develop strategies specific to a practice's needs and on the horizon. These sessions focus on new initiatives and emerging trends and how to prepare for the change. These hot topic trends may be frequently talked about, but only a few practices have begun to implement them. If you're concerned that your identified track isn't a good fit for your session, let us know immediately and we can adjust if needed. Next, make your learning objective stick. A successful session will provide clear takeaways that attendees remember and know how to implement when they return to the office. Adult learning is most impactful when attendees are required to participate and engage with the content. Help them see how they can apply these lessons to their own situation. This can include structured time for reflection where the attendee writes down their own ideas or shares them with a small group. You can provide a worksheet or handout for attendees to complete during the session or guide or handout for how to implement takeaways back at the office. Help them complete this critical planning during the session itself when they actually have time to focus on it, rather than asking them to do this when they return to the chaos of the office or work has been piling up in their absence. Take intentional breaks. Be sure you're aware of your session length and plan accordingly. Attendees will be going to back-to-back sessions, so it's important to keep it engaging. No matter how strong of a presenter you are, 45 minutes of straight lecture may cause attendees' minds to drift away from your presentation. Every five or ten minutes, pause to break up the presentation in some way. This could be a short video, audience poll, time for reflection, or even a small group discussion. It could even be Q&A. This will help you keep attendees engaged and refocus them before you continue on to the next session. And finally, use AAOE resources and meet your deadlines. AAOE has prepared resources and templates to help you design an effective presentation, but they won't work unless you use them. Visit the Speaker Service Center, click on your session format, and view the resources and deadlines for your session type. It's important that you meet your given deadlines to keep your session on track. The more preparation you do ahead of time, the better experience it will be for you and the attendees. We highly recommend bookmarking the Speaker Service Center so that it's easy to utilize and reference as you prepare for your session. Now that you know how to plan for and create your session materials, it's time to get attendees to your session. Depending on your personality, you might find this part fun. Or you could be watching this and thinking, does AAOE really expect me to talk about my own session? Yes, we do, and here's why. AAOE will, of course, be promoting all the sessions at the conference and highlighting different ones throughout the entire lead-up to the conference. But nothing compares to you speaking directly to attendees about your topic. And that makes sense, because it's essentially providing a preview of what they'll experience at the conference. It helps them understand your speaking style and hear you teach their content in your own words. It lets them hear the excitement and passion in your voice when you discuss the topics that are so important to you. It lets them see your smile when you talk about the successful endeavor that's the basis of your case study. It gives them a glimpse into the experience of your session, which can't be replicated in the description or learning objectives. It's that next step to get attendees hooked. All right, so you're probably wondering, OK, so how do I do that? We ask that you provide us with a brief one to three minute video. This is your pitch for your session. Who should attend? Why should they attend and what can they expect? As mentioned before, show your personality and speaking style. If you have a co-presenter or panel, we recommend filming this together so they can see your dynamic. And don't be worried if you're new to speaking. Let them know your name and your member and you'll be sharing your experience. Peer learning is highly rated at the conference, so this is a strong selling point. You can film the video on your own if you're comfortable and there's no professional equipment necessary. A cell phone, tablet or laptop camera is going to work just fine. If you prefer to schedule a video call for AOE to help coordinate and record, go ahead and let us know and reach out. As always, if you have questions, don't hesitate to schedule a quick call with AOE staff to discuss. Now that you've watched this whole presentation, it's time to get started. Do you have any questions? We're here to help you have the best session possible. Contact AOE at any time at infoAOE.net or give us a call at 800-247-9699. We can schedule a call and help you prepare for your session. Reach out anytime and we're happy to support in any way that we can.

AAOE annual conference

speaker training

session types

designing successful session

engaging attendees