What ARE Conferences like?

Medsin holds a number of conferences each year at national and regional levels, and as a way of meeting like-minded people, hearing internationally renowned speakers and getting involved in a number of global health improvement, we'd like to think of them quite highly!

Below Anand Bhopal, Medsin member and St Andrew's student gives his account of how he felt attending his first Medsin conference. If you have any more views on conferences, or any other event, get in touch! E-mail committee@medsin.org with your stories, views or other experiences.

First time Outlook on a Medsin conference

Anand Bhopal

Having just attended my first Medsin conference in Manchester, I’ve been asked, and decided to share, in my positive reflections on the first timers’ experience of a Global Health Conference.

Let me begin by saying wow, that really was a weekend I’ll never forget! The activities and surrounding discussions really got my mind thinking and heart racing in a way that the lectures on the neuromuscular junction generally struggle to... The doctors and others professors speaking were really inspiring and the work they were all doing was incredibly interesting.

The vast array of workshops meant I could find topics at the conference that particularly interested me – it was overwhelming how much brilliant stuff was going on! The only sad part being you can’t attend two things at once....

Anyway, to briefly summarise, the structure of the weekend was as follows: 4 plenaries – panelled debates attended by all - and 3 workshops – hour long, attended by up to 30 people, run by mostly by students. The conference was a global health conference, however, workshops spanned a wide range of socio-political and health issues on both national and international problems.

The whole weekend was just an incredible experience; brilliantly organised, great venue, stimulating workshops and thought provoking, interesting discussions.

I think what really made this so special though were the people.

Sitting in the theatre at the first plenary “Ethics of Intervention”, I was overwhelmed by the thought that here in this room were 400 students, all of which had an opinion, all of wanted to make a difference, and all of which cared. This in itself was an inspiring thought. Everyone likes finding likeminded people, but a likeminded organisation doing such amazing things - now that is quite a catch.

By Anand Bhopal

Last updated on Monday 31 August 2009 at 16:28.