I'm looking forward to being in San Diego. Nice weather, nice venue. Oh, I love it. I love San Diego. There's no place like it in the world, honestly. AAOS, It's The Experience! Welcome to AAOS 2025 in San Diego! Just here to learn more about orthopaedics. Most looking forward to interfacing with colleagues from across the country. I'm really here just to learn as much as I can and to meet people. I'm most excited about meeting other students who are interested in orthopaedics. I'm looking forward to presenting my research, getting to come to the meeting and learn. About things that, you know, maybe I didn't hear so much during my residency. It's cool to see some of the people that, you know, write the journal articles and stuff for me that I don't necessarily get to meet on a daily basis. The best part of my day so far has been seeing all the exhibits. I'm so excited to visit all the exhibits, and I saw there was like, a free tote bag. It's like you get to play with the toys, you know, like you get to see what's new out there, what people are making, and it's always kind of overwhelming, but in a good way. I've always considered the AAOS meeting like the Disney World of orthopaedics. There's so much to choose from. There's tons of educational opportunities, and of course advocacy is so close to my heart. I like seeing more women presenters. I like seeing women on the podium. The biggest difference between the AAOS and other specialty conferences is really the breadth of people that come here. One of the biggest thing about the Annual Meeting that I appreciate is that it brings everyone together from different subspecialties. So we all have our subspecialty meetings where I meet with just my hip and knee surgery. And and you know the shoulder elbow guys do that too, and the foot and ankle people, and they all get together. But here, we come as a big group and what I really appreciate about is the international presence as well. So you get to bring in people from different countries, different backgrounds, and we all come together on the same roof for orthopaedics. You can't get that other meetings. If you're here for the first time, this is super exciting. Really, the Academy from morning to evening is jam-packed full of activities. Well, I think the education at the Annual Meeting is second to none. This year in particular, got me very excited because when you look at the broad spectrum of topics, not only do you have the clinical stuff, not only do you have the revision stuff, but you have the business side of it. You have the outside of just clinical medicine aspect of it, and there's a ton of those talks. I actually had the opportunity to sit in one of the talks, and they kind of ran through current things going on orthopaedics right now and all the different specialties, which is really neat to see. The opportunity to speak to the experts. They're all open. You can ask some questions after a session, so I find that quite beneficial. Oh, the Exhibit Hall. A ton of exciting new features. We have OrthoDome, which has come back that's been really popular. It's very cool to see people perform the surgery that they constantly talk about. You can only get so much from reading a textbook and reading papers saying this is how I do it. Being able to see it in real time is incredible. If you haven't seen it, it's really unprecedented. I think it matches any meeting in the world, let alone just an orthopaedic meeting. We have Pickleball in the Hall. We have OrthoPitch. We have lunch and learns, a variety of different ways to learn from our industry partners and to hear from experts in the field about innovative new technologies that are coming out, how they deal with problems. And I encourage everybody not just through the Exhibit Hall as a way to interact with industry, but it's a way to amplify the educational experience in the Academy. The AAOS Annual Meeting is the biggest orthopaedic marketplace in the world. We have over 620 vendors of all different types, and no matter what specialty you practice, you can find it here, to help you with your craft. Being part of a community of orthopaedic surgeons is not just being in a communal chat group, it's maintaining those close relationships, and this is an awesome way of staying in touch with people that I went to medical school and residency with. There's a lot of opportunity to network with other people that are doing the specialty that you want to do. When we go to orthopaedic surgery, it's important for us to have mentors in the field, and once we're able to reach that level, give it back and that's kind of the key to success, I think. Having someone who believes in you and believes in your potential, come up with research ideas who can really see your ideas through with you is just so powerful. I think a piece of advice for residents just, you know, reach out to people. Everybody is super friendly in orthopaedics. You're here because you have a common interest. Medicine is always changing. Orthopaedics is always changing. And so if you don't come to the meetings, you're going to be left behind. You're going to be practicing old orthopaedics. It's 5 days. You're never going to regret it. Exciting. Big. And informative. This is the granddaddy of them all. This is a big one. A lot of things happen here and this is where you want to be. AAOS 2025, It's The Experience!
