Call for FMC courses, forums and workshops — JDP 2017
The JDP programme is built with you: submit your proposal before 5 February 2017 and take part in the 2017 edition.
Every year the call for proposals is the moment the congress starts to be written. The FMC courses, forums and workshops of JDP 2017 will, to a large extent, grow out of proposals sent in by the dermatology community. Do you know a topic that deserves a session, or a way of approaching it that would change practice? Now is the time to say so: submissions close on 5 February 2017.
The essentials in four points
- What: propose an FMC course, a forum or a workshop for JDP 2017
- Deadline: 5 February 2017
- Who may apply: any dermatologist, hospital-based or in private practice, as well as teams and supervised residents
- Where: to the congress secretariat, which centralises submissions
Three formats open to proposals
Proposals may take three forms, matching the formats that give the congress its variety:
- The FMC course — a continuing medical education session centred on management strategies, clinical situations and therapeutic updates. It is the most common format: the 2016 programme included 89 FMC courses;
- the forum — a space for open exchange with the audience, suited to topics that gain from debate: organisation of care, complex cases, collective projects. There were 26 of them at JDP 2016;
- the workshop — a hands-on, participatory format, such as the surgery or photodermatology workshops, which require close supervision and suitable equipment.
Building a strong proposal
The scientific committee reads every proposal carefully, and a few simple principles make the difference:
- A precise title beats a generic heading: saying exactly what the session will cover attracts the right participants;
- explicit learning objectives: by the end of the session, participants will be able to do this, or know that;
- a structured programme, with named speakers and coherent durations — three well-filled blocks are better than a catalogue of speakers;
- a practical dimension: the question “and in practice?” must find its answer inside the session;
- a duplication check: browse the 2016 programme and the recorded sessions to make sure the subject has not been covered recently — or propose a genuinely new angle.
Assessment criteria
Proposals are assessed on several criteria: the clinical relevance of the topic, how current the data are, the balance between the congress’s fields — so that some disciplines do not crowd out others — the educational quality of the format and the standing of the intended speakers. One tip from experience: the sessions audiences respond to best are those with a clearly stated point of view, rather than those that try to cover too much ground.
The 2017 timeline
Once the deadline has passed, the scientific committee meets to review the proposals, request additional information where needed and settle the framework of the programme. Authors receive an answer, positive or not, and the selected sessions enter the interactive programme. The process is deliberately short: that is what keeps the programme current and anchored in the year’s concerns. Coordinators of accepted sessions then receive the logistical information — rooms, slots, equipment — so they can prepare their session in the best conditions.
A question about the call, the expected format or the submission process? Contact the secretariat through the Contacts page; the team will route your enquiry to the scientific committee if needed. And to see how proposals become sessions, the Committees and organisation page sets out each body’s role.