Looking Ahead to Montréal: Meeting Format and Presenter Requirements

Beth Slater, with support from the OHBM Executive Office

Happy New Year and welcome to 2023, the year that OHBM will travel to Montréal for the 29th Annual Meeting. This meeting will be primarily held in person—but in a change from previous years, all members of OHBM can upload approved content and automatically have access to Annual Meeting content in a virtual space, regardless of registration status. 

In previous years, presenters were required to register for the Annual Meeting prior to uploading their content. New this year, presenters who are unable to participate in person may upload content simply by being a member of OHBM. This shift will reduce the financial burden for individuals who cannot travel to Montréal. Membership can be renewed here at any time. 

We have renewed our partnership with Fourwaves to host the virtual portion of the cutting-edge scientific programming for which OHBM is known. On our event page, members will be able to view abstract summaries and posters, communicate with authors and other participants asynchronously, and review the schedule of events. Other programming, such as pre-recorded videos of the 2023 Talairach Lecture, Keynotes, Symposia, and Oral Session presentations will be released on the day it is presented in Montréal. 

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR POSTER PRESENTERS:
Abstracts accepted for poster presentations will be presented in-person this year. Fourwaves will allow your work to be previewed and celebrated, but there will be no mandatory virtual presentation times. After the abstracts have been pre-loaded onto Fourwaves, authors will be invited to upload their poster PDFs to the platform. Optional poster highlights videos will be encouraged as well. Members will be able to review abstracts before, during, and after the Annual Meeting. 

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR ALL OTHER PRESENTERS: 
Authors with accepted Oral Sessions, Symposia and Educational Courses will be notified via email in March of 2023. As with the accepted abstracts, summaries of all presentations will be pre-loaded onto Fourwaves and authors will be asked to upload a pre-recorded video of their presentation. Unlike the poster PDFs, this pre-recorded video will be REQUIRED and the deadline to place it on Fourwaves is June 30, 2023. 

Registration will open in March, after acceptance notices have been distributed. Presenters are strongly encouraged to participate in the meeting in person if able, and registration is still required for all in-person presenters. Members do receive a discounted rate! 

I CANNOT ATTEND THE MEETING, BUT I STILL WANT TO VIEW THE PRESENTATIONS:
Last year, if you wanted  to view presentations, you were required to register for the virtual meeting. This year, all OHBM members can access meeting content on Fourwaves—no meeting registration necessary! Not only is this more economical, but you will also receive all the associated member benefits such as access to the Career Center and educational resources on OnDemand. Click here to learn more about the benefits of OHBM membership.

I WANT TO ATTEND THE MEETING IN PERSON:
We would love to see you in Montréal! The meeting will be held at the Palais des congrès de Montréal from July 22–26, 2023. Please note that this is a Saturday–Wednesday meeting pattern and is held later in the summer than previous meetings. (This blog post discusses the reason for the shift to a July meeting.) The Educational Courses, Opening Ceremonies, and Welcome Reception will take place on July 22 with the Annual Meeting sessions kicking off on July 23.