ASM Events 17+

I really enjoyed this app for attending ASM Microbe. It was surprisingly very efficient and intuitive, and had a lot of features that were beneficial and useful. My conference experience would not have been the same without this app- the “my schedule” feature was amazing and helpful and very easy to navigate for adding sessions of interest. I also especially liked the feature of seeing what other sessions are happening soon. One thing I didn’t use much of was the messaging feature between attendees, but not sure if others did use that. I think that for improvement, it could be cool to be able to share sessions with people or to request to add things to other people’s schedules, to help when advertising one’s own session or to coordinate which sessions people want to attend together. Overall, delightful app! This is the first time I’m reviewing an app, and this ASM app really added to my experience at the conference!

Paper programs are an unnecessary waste and heavy to lug around. This app took a bit of time to understand (e.g. nesting of posters and presentations under main heading) but once I got it and could build my daily plan then it was great! Much better than printing the daily schedule then circling the session to see as I used to do. Thanks!

I’m sorry to report that the workshop I attended on Wednesday was disappointing.

1. There was no paper or pens provided. I understand viewing the slides online only, paper and pens would have been helpful.
2. There was absolutely no food provided. We are all rushing to get here on time and there were very few vendors with long lines of people. Some fruit, coffee and bagels should have been provided for the 50 people in our workshop.
3. The 2 vendors available for lunch were over run with all of us. With little to no breakfast provided we were starving and forced to pay for lunch outside the building. The free lunch voucher of $20 could not be used or we would have missed part two of workshop. There should be at least 5 or 6 stations set up to accommodate us all since there were many workshops that day.
4. For the money we paid the amenities were poor.
Sincerely
Christine Wagner