Making the Most of (Virtual) Conference Season

If there is one constant to rely on, it’s that time never does seem to slow down. While it feels like it couldn’t possibly be April already, we’re staring down the start of a busy conference season, even as the world still makes adjustments to accommodate more virtual experiences.

At innovaTel, we’re ready to connect however we need to. As an industry leader in telepsychiatry partnerships, we appreciate the value that comes with attending conferences across the country throughout the year as it keeps us in touch with leading experts, keeps us in tune with best practices and emerging tactics, and allows us to share our expertise in ways that we hope facilitate improved access to care.

Most importantly, conferences allow us to connect with behavioral health professionals at the community level — because every state and every community faces unique challenges. As we prepare to attend a number of conferences in the coming months where we expect to engage in conversations about our hybrid model of care and the rising demand for treatment, we look forward to discussing how innovaTel’s approach can help clinical leaders help their patients.

We’re excited to have the opportunity to attend all the conferences on our schedule and recognize the benefits a virtual setting brings. It creates increased access to conferences across the country, where important conversations are taking place among experts in the behavioral health field, and it allows attendees to be present for events they ordinarily may have missed due to schedules and travel.

Here are a few upcoming behavioral health and addiction treatment conferences that you may consider attending, especially since they’ll be held virtually.

• ResilienceCon — April
• ASAM Virtual 2021 — April 
• NatCon — May
• American Psychiatric Association Annual meeting — May
• Addictions Continuing Education Online Conference (by McLean) — May
• AMHCA Annual Conference – June
• NAMI National Convention – June
• Mental Health America Annual Conference – June
• 2021 Annual National Rural Institute on Alcohol, Drugs and Addictions Institute — June
• APA convention – August
• Integrative Medicine for Mental Health Conference – August
• National Conference on Addiction Disorders East – August
• National Conference on Addiction Disorders West – August
• Psych Congress Regionals — April through October
• NAADAC Annual Conference — October

We can imagine that clinical leaders are in the same boat as us, preparing for a busy conference season while managing the day-to-day needs of an organization. In preparation for our calendar of conferences, we did a little research on how to get the most out of a virtual conference experience.

The four top tips we found, include:

• Connect through social media with attendees and presenters.
• Utilize the chat feature during presentations to engage with other attendees.
• Prepare. Know who you want to see ahead of time.
• Turn your camera on to show engagement and put a face to your name.

We’re looking forward to making connections over the coming weeks and months, but we’re always open to conversation at any time. Schedule a meeting to learn how innovaTel can help you help your patients.