Speaker Preparation

Are you presenting at the 2021 Multidisciplinary Thoracic Cancers Symposium in Scottsdale, Arizona? Below you can find useful information to help you prepare your presentation and for travel. 
Abstracts

The full text of the abstracts selected for presentation is available on the meeting website and all abstracts are published in  the February 1, 2022 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology · Biology · Physics (www.redjournal.org). To view the abstracts online, visit www.thoracicsymposium.org.

All abstracts are embargoed and remain confidential until Thursday, December 2 at 8:00 a.m. Mountain time. If you have any questions about the embargo policy, please contact ASTRO’s Media Relations Manager, Liz Gardner, by email or at 703-286-1600.

Age Requirement for Attendees

Due to the detailed nature of the program, no one under the age of 18 will be admitted to any official symposium function. This includes, but is not limited to, all symposium sessions and the exhibits/food room.

Dress

Business Casual.

Exhibit Hall Location and Hours

The Exhibit Hall is located in the Princess Ballroom Salons F-I and will be open during the following hours:

Date Time
Thursday, December 2 7:00 a.m. – 5:15 p.m
Friday, December 3 7:00 a.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Faculty Expectations
  • You should arrive at the front of your session room at least ten minutes in advance of your session (or the session that precedes yours if there isn’t a break in between). ASTRO Education staff and an AV tech will be there to give instructions and acquaint you with the AV set up on the stage.
  • Please stay within your presentation time limits. You will be able to view a timer that will be operated by the AV Tech.
  • You are required to disclose before your talk (more information is below).
  • Presentations must be objective and free of commercial bias for or against any product or device. Slides and/or reference materials shall not, by their content or format, advance the specific proprietary interests of a commercial entity.
  • All clinical recommendations must be based on evidence that is accepted within the profession as adequate justification for their indications and contraindications in the care of patients. All scientific research referred to, reported or used to support or justify a patient care recommendation must conform to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection and analysis.
  • Presentations must give a balanced view of therapeutic options. Faculty use of generic names will contribute to this impartiality. If trade names are used, those of several companies should be used rather than only that of a single supporting company. 
  • Presentations must offer a balanced view of current medical practice that includes discussion of all available therapeutic products, including benefits and risks associated with each. 
  • Presentation materials must not include any commercial logos.
  • Presentations must be HIPAA compliant (e.g., will only use de-identified patient information and/or will obtain written consent from the patient).
Health and Safety Measures

ASTRO is facilitating measures that seek to ensure optimal health and sanitary conditions in all environments where in-person interactions take place during the 2021 Multidisciplinary Thoracic Cancers Symposium. ASTRO is working with the city of Scottsdale and will follow all recommended Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) safety protocols and will comply with all federal, state and city regulations. We will continue to closely monitor all guidelines and regulations and will update these safety protocols as appropriate.

Please view the Health and Safety Measures page for more information.

Hotel Information

Fairmont Scottsdale Princess
7575 E. Princess Dr.
Scottsdale, AZ 85255
Phone: 480-585-4848
Website

Meals

Breakfast
Breakfast will be provided on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the Exhibit Hall (Princess Ballroom Salons F-I).

Coffee Breaks
Morning breaks will be provided on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the Exhibit Hall (Princess Ballroom Salons F-I).
Afternoon breaks will be provided on Thursday and Friday in the Exhibit Hall (Princess Ballroom Salons F-I).

Lunch
Lunch will be provided on Thursday and Friday in the Exhibit Hall.

Meeting Evaluation and Certificate of Credits

To be eligible to receive continuing education credit, attendees must complete the online evaluation by Tuesday, January 4, 2022. To access your evaluation, log into ASTRO Academy with your ASTRO credentials. Please only evaluate the sessions you attended.

  • Log into the ASTRO Academy using your ASTRO credentials.
    • Your email is the one you used to register for the meeting.
    • If you don't remember your password, click "Forgot My Password."
  • Stay on the home page page and scroll down to "Pending Activities" (it's under the sliding banner and on the right side of the page).
  • Click "2021 Multidisciplinary Thoracic Cancers Symposium" to take the evaluation and to receive continuing education credits.
Meeting Materials

You will receive a printed Pocket Program when you check in on-site. While there are some blank notes pages in the Pocket Program, please remember to bring a notebook or laptop for your own personal use if you plan to take extensive notes.

Disclosure information will be available online for committee members and faculty. In addition to being available online, disclosure slides will be shown at the beginning of each session. Disclosure information will not be printed in the Pocket Program.

All abstracts will be published in an issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology•Biology•Physics (Red Journal). Full text of the abstracts is embargoed until the opening ceremony of the symposium, but will be available online for attendees to download during the symposium.

Presentations

Effective Educational Practices

  • Talk titles should inspire curiosity. If you update your talk title, please send it to ASTRO staff so they can update the program.
  • Consider making your talk case-based with decision points throughout. Use decision points as opportunities for attendees to take one minute and speak to one another about what they would do. People learn more when they collaborate.
  • Spend less time on slides and more time on discussion, questions and answers, and attendee engagement. Be sure you know when your session will be addressing Q&A.
  • Show how this education can help attendees make a meaningful, positive change in their day-to-day practice.

Uploading Slides

  • Speakers may upload their slides prior to the meeting through the Speaker Center under the "My Presentations" tab. 
  • All speakers, regardless of whether your presentation has been uploaded or not, must check in at the Speaker Ready Room and review their presentation. 
  • If you do not upload your file AT LEAST two hours prior to the start of your session, the risk for AV problems is significant; we recommend uploading the day before your session takes place.
  • Please see the "Building Your Presentation" section below for file formats that are allowed. If your presentation contains any video or audio, please submit your files to the Speaker Ready Room as early as possible due to additional processing time that may be required.

Disclosures

Speakers and moderators are required to disclose the following, if applicable, to the audience at the beginning of their presentations and in accordance with ACCME standards and Food and Drug Administration requirements:
  • The existence of any financial or other relationship you have with the manufacturer(s) or any commercial product(s) or provider(s) of any commercial services discussed in an educational presentation.
  • Any vested interest or their intention to discuss off-label and/or investigational use of pharmaceuticals or devices.

Building Your Presentation

  • Remember to remove any banners/templates from other meetings/symposia. We recommend you use the meeting's PowerPoint template for your slides - template option 1 or template option 2. Remember to conclude your presentation with a summary slide that outlines the key points and take-home messages from your talk.
  • All the screens will be a 16:9 widescreen ratio. If your presentation is in the older 4:3 ratio rather than 16:9, your presentation will be “pillar boxed” on the wider screens.
  • All electronic files must be submitted using one of the formats listed below:
    • PowerPoint 2016 or earlier version
    • Drive should be FAT32, NTFS or ExFAT formatted
    • Video playback: MP4, WMV (other formats may require conversion)
      • Even though most video files are embedded in the .pptx file, you should have copies of all files available in case conversion is required.
      • YouTube and other online videos will need to be downloaded and inserted (instead of linking to the online video).
    • PDF Reader: Adobe Acrobat
  • It is important that your movies do not completely fill the screen. In the meeting room you will only have a mouse to advance your slides. You can only advance your PowerPoint by clicking on the slide, not the movie itself.

Arriving in the Session Room

You should arrive at the front of your session room at least ten minutes in advance of your session (or the session that precedes yours if there isn’t a break in between). ASTRO Education staff and the AV tech will be there to give instructions and acquaint you with the AV set up on the stage. It is essential that each presenter stay within the time limits. A timer will be operated by the AV tech to ensure this.
Questions

For questions related to housing, registration and travel, contact the Meetings team.

For all other questions or concerns, contact the Education team.

Recording

Any photography, filming, taping, recording or reproduction in any medium, including via the use of tripod-based equipment and mobile devices of any of the programs and/or posters presented at the 2021 Multidisciplinary Thoracic Cancers Symposium, without the express written consent of the American Society for Radiation Oncology, is strictly forbidden.

Social Q&A

In every session, in addition to floor microphones in the room, attendees can use their own electronic devices (phone, tablet, laptop) to submit questions to the speakers and moderators. Attendees will be able to see the questions that others have asked, and can up-vote questions that they want answered.

Some speakers may also utilize the technology to poll the audience with interactive, audience response questions. To access the Social Q&A platform, as well as any speaker polls, go to www.astro.org/ThoracicSocialQA using your browser. Navigate to the current session and, if necessary, select the appropriate speaker from the given list when asking a question.

If you are interested in using polls for your session, please contact the Education team.

Speaker Ready Room

The Speaker Ready Room is located in Castille 4. All presenters are required to go to the Speaker Ready Room the day before their session takes place to upload their presentation (computers are available to preview your slides). This room will be open during the following hours:

Date Time
Wednesday, December 1 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, December 2 6:45 a.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Friday, December 3 6:45 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 4 6:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Co-Sponsors

American Society for Radiation Oncology
251 18th Street South, 8th Floor
Arlington, VA 22202
Telephone: 703-502-1550
www.astro.org

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