My favorite part about this meeting is seeing all of our friends. One of my favorite moments is connecting with people in the hallways. It's really nice to run into former residents, former fellows. The AAOS Annual Meeting is just an awesome opportunity to meet people from different institutions and also international experts and really get a sense of what other people are doing in the community, and also have those connections available to you for the rest of your career. There's so many ways the field is changing right now and as a student, it can be a little intimidating to network, and I feel like coming here is such a great opportunity not only to meet other people, but to learn about the ways the field is changing. The Academy has so many resources but it's like in a huge sea, and this is really a mechanism to help residents get to the next step, to give them what they need - mentorship that is specific to their career by people who work very closely went through the same program. When I met our mentor, she really showed me how I could be part of the community. Having someone who believes in you is just so powerful. The Academy gives you unprecedented access to connections and integration in networking. It's the only place in the world where you can interact with other specialties, with industries from a variety of different avenues. You can interact with specialists in spine, and hand, and foot and ankle, and sports all in one place, leverage their ideas to benefit your field. We are the thought leaders in what our patients need. We are the connection from industry to our patients. We're the ones that can operationalize the things that we envision for our patients. So the ability of surgeons and industry to interact is really unprecedented. 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. Interaction at the Annual Meeting is one of the most exciting things and keeps me coming back every year.
