You can tell I was hardly concentrating. I can assure you that the Windows computer was not mine. God forbid!Full day yesterday, but not as full as my colleagues from USM, Kubang Kerian, Abu Dzarr and Azlan. We had a round table discussion followed by a lecture and dinner by Prof Antonio Palumbo, a prominent Haematologist from Turin, Italy. He talked about multiple myeloma, and it was excellent. I summerised his lecture on my hematologiPPUM.com site. It was certainly great to be able to hear doyen speaking about their work, and Prof Palumbo was certainly up there. Azlan and Abu Dzarr actually took a 4pm flight from Kota Baharu, listened to the talk and had dinner, before flying home at 10.30 pm! Now, that was hectic!
Dato' Chang chairing the round table discussionFor the round table discussion, I was asked to prepare and discuss a case, which I duly obliged. I must say that I could have put more effort, but since the offer was at the last minute, I concentrated on getting the message right, without even using a powerpoint slide. Now that was bold, but it through OK. Stirred up some discussion. After about half an hour break, we proceeded on with the main lecture. The talk was held at the new level 7 convention floor at KL Hilton. I was more used to the level 6 facilities, and it looked like the suite there were just refurnished, with plush seatings and state of the art equipment. Well, close. It can’t be state of the art if they were still using Vista! The room used for the lecture was rather small though, too small for the crowd, which was bigger than expected. Even the venue for the dinner was too small. Luckily it was buffet. The majority of the crowd actually lingered in the foyer.
The actually dinner was an eclectic mix of Japanese and Western. The dish was nicer than the previous buffet I experience at the hotel. I still prefer the buffet at the main eatery there, which I think was on the fifth floor, New Recipe. The buffet there I would readily recommend. A bit dear, but you get what you paid for.
Another surprise on the night was the fact that it did not cost me a thing on exiting the car park. Usually at KL Sentral, the parking for conventions and meetings will set me back RM8, despite endorsement. Well done Mr Sponsor!
A Talk with a Difference
I was invited to attend a lecture last Friday evening. it was organised by one of the Pharmaceutical company and it was a talk with a difference. The speaker was from France. And he was speaking from France. It was the first time which I attended a talk via Skype and it worked a treat. Not only that money was saved from having to fly the speaker over, it would also save everybody time.
The talk was held at KL Hilton and luckily, the hotel broadband system worked well. There were no delay, despite the audio and video of the speaker was transmitted in real time. Even more impressive, the slides were also controlled by the speaker, and it was also down the pipeline from there.
At the end, we also had the chance to ask him question, although due to a lack of a webcam - the organiser should have really used a Mac, the speaker was not able to see us. He heard us alright however.
The evening started with case presentations from three Senior Haematologists. Great cases, although it lacked balance since all three were from the private sector. In terms of geography, it was spot on however. The speakers were from Penang, Kuching and Kuala Lumpur. The French speaker were not hooked up to listen to those presentations however, as it would have interesting to hear his take on things.
So, who finished the snack?The talk came with a dinner. It was a Western affair. A three course meal, served on the table. As I arrived late, I was not able to enjoy much of the food. The talks got my attention however, and by the time I reached home, I was starving.
Kudos to the organiser for coming up with such arrangement. Personally, this was more economical in terms of time and money. Maybe they should try "Go To Meeting" next time around.