Program Programma

Welcome from the Convention Chairperson
Welcome to the 35 th IAOM convention, in beautiful Florence. Thank you for choosing
to spend the next three days with us. My convention team and I hope to make
this a very worthwhile and enriching, experience for all of you, at three different
levels.
Level One: Direct education through presentations and clinics.
To achieve this, we gathered here some wonderful presenters who will share their
knowledge with you over the next three days. Dr. Garatti and I will introduce them
to you. BUT don’t forget that we are all professionals, so we ALL have something
to learn from one another.
Level Two: Interaction with your colleagues attending and presenting at this conference.
You spent a lot of money to get here today and you want a return on that
investment. Right? So the most effective way to do that is to interact with everyone
here. You might want to start with writing down questions to ask about puzzling
situations you encountered in working with your patient or treatment plans
that don’t seem to progress as fast as hoped. And please don’t be shy about asking
questions, offering solutions, sharing resources and making comments. There
are no stupid questions, nor stupid comments, as long as we all remember to be
respectful. If you strongly disagree with someone, please settle your differences
privately. Fear of being ridiculed and stifling opinions is not good for business and
personal growth.
Level three: Networking with your international associates. In this age of email,
faxes and cell phones there is no reason your connections with new colleagues has
to end in three days. This a tremendous opportunity for you to network with other
professionals, across medical fields as well as across countries. So keep those
business cards ready and exchange emails and please keep in touch after the convention
is over. After all, this IS the INTERNATIONAL Association of Orofacial Myology
so let’s strengthen those ties.
Remember, don’t be shy, learn a lot, make a few new connections each day, find a
mentor, get a question answered, offer a solution, eat a lot of great food and….
Let the convention begin!
Licia Coceani Paskay, MS, CCC-SLP, COM
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