You Can’t Do It All at the ASH Annual Meeting — and You Shouldn’t Try 

I first attended ASH’s annual meeting as a resident physician, and I remember arriving and being almost paralyzed by indecision. There were simply too many things going on, people I wanted to meet, and sessions happening simultaneously. Surely, I thought, there was an ideal method to plan for the event. There is not. So whether this is your first ASH annual meeting or your seventh, I give you permission to stop optimizing every minute of it.

Before attending — or perhaps on the plane to New Orleans — spend a little time reflecting on three questions:

• What do you want to learn?
• Who do you want to connect with?
• What would be wonderful if it happened, even though you can’t plan it?

Then, start with ASH-a-Palooza.

Held on Friday and designed specifically for trainees, ASH-a-Palooza combines the energy of a main stage with smaller opportunities to connect through Blood Drop career development presentations and one-on-one Blood Buddy mentoring sessions. These more intimate settings make it easier to approach faculty for advice, mentorship, or simply a conversation. And if it all feels a little overwhelming, find someone from the ASH Trainee Council, Committee on Training, or ASH staff in a green shirt. We are there to help — and we don’t bite.

Other structured events can create opportunities that extend well beyond the event itself. In 2022, when I attended the 64th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition in New Orleans as a resident, I was doing research on thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) and chose a Career Development Lunch table with Dr. Shruti Chaturvedi, whose work in TTP I had followed from afar (professionally!) We talked over lunch and then walked together to the TTP oral abstract session, where she was presenting her work. What began as a scheduled lunch became one of my most memorable experiences as a trainee.

That is how I would approach the rest of the ASH annual meeting: choose one scientific topic you want to understand better, one career question you want to explore, and one relationship you want to develop or strengthen. Named lectures and the Presidential Symposium can expose you to leaders and big ideas in hematology. The Plenary Session and Late-Breaking Abstracts showcase some of the meeting’s most exciting science. And oral and poster sessions let you dive into your own interests — with posters especially providing you the chance to actually talk with the people doing the work.

Soon enough, you will have enough bookmarked sessions to require a Time-Turner. Resist the temptation. Leave empty space on your calendar for the opportunities you cannot anticipate — and for the things that simply make you happy. For me, that has often meant catching up over coffee or a beer with friends from residency, medical school, or other earlier chapters of life. Networking is not only about meeting new people; it is also about nourishing the relationships that you already have. ASH’s annual meeting brings together people from so many different points in our lives, and those reunions are wonderful in their own distinct way.

At the end of the annual meeting, you probably will not have attended every session you bookmarked. I think that means you did it right. Learn something that changes how you think. Make a new connection. Strengthen an old one. Leave room for the unexpected.

You can’t experience everything at ASH’s annual meeting — but you can do the parts that matter most to you, both as a hematologist and as a person.

Disclosure Statement: Dr. Lee indicated no relevant conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgment: This article was edited by Carolina Velez-Mejia, MD, and Hetty Carraway, MD.