Development and Evaluation of a Presenter Coaching Program at an Academic Surgical Conference

Presenting at academic conferences is an important means of disseminating research, networking, and building a professional reputation, but the quality of presentations at conferences is often suboptimal. This project describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a presentation coaching program offered by an academic surgical society to presenters at its annual meeting.

Oral presenters were paired with a coach and encouraged to meet independently, yet coaching was unstructured. During the conference, program committee members rated all presentations. Afterwards, an online survey collected perspectives about the program from both participants and nonparticipants. Responses were analyzed with summary statistics and inductive coding. Presentation scores among participants and nonparticipants were compared via t-test.

This project occurred as part of the American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA) 2024 Annual Meeting.

Senior APSA members were recruited to serve as coaches, and all presenters were invited to participate. Of 164 total presenters, 26 (15.9%) participated in the coaching program and were paired with 24 coaches.

Almost all participants (92.3%) were trainees, including students, residents or fellows. The survey had 38 responses (23.2% overall response rate), including 17 participants (65.4%) and 21 non-participants (15.2%). Most participants met with their coach once (58.8%) or twice (29.4%), usually via video call (82.4%). Presenters cited various motivations to participate in the program, and numerous benefits. Nearly all participants (94.1%) were extremely satisfied with their experience in the coaching program. The mean ± standard deviation presentation score among trainees who participated was 3.88 ± 0.45 of 5, compared to 3.79 ± 0.51 among trainees who did not (p = 0.49).

Having senior surgical society members serve as volunteer coaches is a feasible and well-regarded approach to help conference attendees, particularly trainees, prepare for their oral presentations. Participants especially appreciated the opportunity to meet senior society members.