The event:

The Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) Annual Scholarship Meeting took place at P&J Live from 6th-8th July 2022.

About:

ASME is an international membership organisation that holds a mission to advance scholarship in medical education. The association promotes high-quality research into medical education and provides opportunities for developing medical educators. ASME meets the changing needs of the healthcare workforce by working together with researchers and policymakers, and making an effort to host yearly meetings. 2022 saw the association mark its 65th anniversary year, with the Annual Scholarship Meeting discussing the methodology of how to teach medicine, future-proofing education through practical wisdom and adapting to change.

Scotland’s large healthcare sector has faced a number of issues and challenges in recent times, with recruitment and a shortage of workers, particularly prevalent. This Aberdeen-based event was an important opportunity for Scotland’s large healthcare sector to promote the goal of the country’s medical education strategy.

Number of days/delegates:

Delegates travelled from all over the world to attend the three-day conference in Aberdeen including locations such as Canada, Pakistan, USA, Australia, Sudan, South Africa, Ireland, and Germany. Over the course of three days there were 1,000 delegates in attendance, with the largest falling on the Thursday, with 440 delegates. The event encompassed workshops, keynote presentations, oral presentations, e-poster display areas and poster presentations, video presentations, group sessions, an exhibition area and drinks reception all held within the Baker Hughes Conference & Exhibition Hub.

Venue Set Up:

The association for the Study of Medical Educations Annual Scholarship Meeting had exclusive use of the first floor of the venue in the Baker Hughes Conference & Exhibition Hub utilising the venue’s world-class conference suites and meeting rooms. Our team at P&J Live integrated seamlessly with the ASME and Vision Events team to put this three-day conference together.

Delegates were welcomed into The View, located on the first floor, where registration desks were located for quick and easy check-in. Various digital screens were set up around The View for delegates to interact and engage with e-posters. P&J Live is a paperless venue, committed to creating sustainable solutions and minimising the carbon footprint of events. These digital poster display areas are just some of the delivered innovations that help deliver a sustainable event.

ASME utilised all of the venue’s conference suites and meeting rooms throughout the three-day conference. Conference Suite 1 hosted the main plenary session where delegates took a seat to listen to keynote speakers’ presentations. All the conference suites and meeting rooms are spread conveniently along a central corridor, meaning delegates had a seamless experience walking the short distance from each room, with digital signage outside every door providing clear wayfinding and branding opportunities for the client. ASME utilised the digital signage to show detailed agendas for each space, each day.

Conference Suite 2 hosted the exhibition and catering area – a relaxed and welcoming area for delegates to engage with each other. Shell scheme booths were erected by our in-house team ready for exhibitors to make their own and dress the space to specifically showcase their product or service. The catering was provided by our in-house team of chefs who have honed their skills over years, creating menu choices that wow delegates over the three days. The North East of Scotland is home to some of the best ingredients in the world and we are proud to serve our delegates and customers’ local produce. Products from the local area also helps with the lowering of food miles in line with P&J Live’s sustainability initiatives.

Situated through the doors from The View, are Conference Suite 3 and 4. ASME utilised these as their workshops for the conference, as well as the 11 meeting rooms that sit opposite both conference suites. These additional spaces were ideal and provided ample space for their multiple workshops taking place during the event.

At P&J Live, the venue produces its own energy from food and garden waste around Aberdeen which, in turn, helps us to provide heating, air conditioning and power for each event. This unique feature is one of the reasons P&J Live is the most sustainable event venue in the UK.

ASME worked to make the Annual Scholarship Meeting sustainable through different elements of the event. Delegates could leave their lanyard behind for recycling by returning them on departure, delegate badges were printed on recycled paper instead of plastic, and delegates could return paper items that were not used. The conference also decided not to offer any printed abstract books and conference booklets. ASME had branded reusable water bottles for delegates to take in return for a donation to Trees for Life.

Audio Visual helps all clients to bring their event to life. Our technical team are in house and know the venue like the back of their hand. On this occasion, the venue’s in-house team of AV technicians worked in collaboration with Vision Events, who provided an upscaled AV service to the conference. The venue team recognise that our knowledge of the rooms and building, coupled with Vision Events experience of delivering ASME’s ASM previously was the perfect combination in delivering an impactful, slick meeting for all.

Iain Pugh, Projects Director at Vision Events:

“Vision Events recently produced the ASME Annual Meeting at P&J Live. Our team attended an initial site visit with the client and P&J Live team to outline who was responsible for each aspect and to avoid any overlap. The team at P&J Live were very supportive and open to working in collaboration with Vision Events to ensure the client's needs were met throughout.

As P&J Live has fantastic in-house provision available, Vision Events utilised as much of their equipment as possible. We used the in-house sound, lighting, projectors and staging. This was supported by Vision Events graphics control equipment; speaker preview room equipment and cameras which linked into the in-house system.

In the breakout spaces, we utilised all the in-house AV equipment and simply provided a laptop for each room to allow presenter control.

The event was crewed by a combination of the Vision Events team and the in-house P&J Live technicians. They worked well in conjunction with our team and were very accommodating when any requests came from the client or Vision Events.

Having worked with ASME for a long time and travelled to various venues across the UK to deliver this event, one of the great aspects of P&J Live was having all the event spaces on one level (plenary room, breakouts, speaker preview, registration and poster boards). This is not something we have had previously and made the logistics of the day very smooth.

Overall, we had an excellent experience working with P&J Live and look forward to hopefully working together on another project in the not-too-distant future.”

Combining the skills of our team at P&J Live with third parties is an efficient way to successfully deliver a conference, with our team perfecting their skills over many years, they are highly qualified to deliver high-scale conferences as well as benefitting from the experience of external parties.

Steve Morrison, Deputy Operations Technical Manager at P&J Live:

“It was brilliant working together with Iain and the Vision Events team. We have worked together with them for many years now, combining our expertise to deliver conferences, meetings, exhibitions and banquets. At P&J Live, we have the facilities and equipment to deliver large-scale events, however, it is great to have the assistance of working together and benefiting from an external company through sharing ideas and equipment. For ASME, Vision Events utilised our in-house equipment alongside their kit, integrating faultlessly to our systems. With the conference taking place across one level, it made working together with the Vision Events team efficient and easy, and we hope to use their expertise again soon.”

Monica Martins, Events and Conferences Coordinator, ASME

“Working with the team at P&J Live was a breeze. The team was very organised and helped with every aspect of our event including planning and delivery. In particular, our event manager Julia was fantastic (nothing was too much trouble) and the way the in-house AV team interfaced with Vision Events who we use regularly worked really, really well.“