Sleep Tech Tip of the Week

By Michael Miller, RPSGT

The largest sleep conference of the year, APSS Sleep 2010, was held last week in San Antonio, TX. As it was a huge success and attended by 5000+ sleep professionals from all over the world, I felt that this topic was relevant to write about this week.

As a sleep technologist, deciding which sleep conferences to attend can be challenging. Our decisions on what meetings to attend are most often dictated by our financial situation. With registration fees, the cost of travel, and the added expense of meals and lodging it is easy to dismiss some of the larger national shows from our selection. Smaller state and local sleep society meetings offer a less expensive alternative with reduced registration fees and by eliminating the cost of travel and lodging expenses. I personally recommend attending at least one large national show as well as attending your nearest state or local sleep society meeting each year. The cost of attending meetings can often be offset by some financial assistance from your employer though allocated educational funds. Reducing cost can also be accomplished by sharing lodging expenses with coworkers and using discount travel websites when booking flights and hotels.

The benefits to attending sleep conferences include, but are not limited to acquiring much needed CEU’s, listening to speeches from the experts in our industry, professional networking, social networking, collecting pens from vendors, and well as registering for much sought after door prizes such as IPods, IPads, and Free Sleep Systems. If that is not enough, there are always after parties to attend and plenty of downtime to relax and sightsee. Below I have included a comprehensive list of this year’s sleep meetings that I borrowed from Randy Townsend, a well know author and sleep blogger.

Sleep Society meetings for 2010. For more information on a listed event near you, just click on the link and go to their web page.

March: California Sleep Society. Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, http://www.californiasleepsociety.org/Education.aspx

March: Colorado Sleep Society is having a meeting in Englewood. http://sites.google.com/site/coloradosleepsociety/colorado-sleep-society–main

March: Georgia Association of Sleep Professionals will have their annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. http://gasleep.org/

March: The North East Sleep Society will have their annual meeting in Newton, Massachusetts. http://www.northeastsleep.org/

March: The Washington DC Sleep Society is offering an educational course. http://dcsleepsociety.org/default.aspx

March: The National Sleep Foundation will be having a meeting in Washington, DC. http://www.sleepfoundation.org/

April: The Kentucky Sleep Society website has a posting for a meeting. http://www.kyss.org/gen.asp?nc=1423&id=1

April: The New Jersey Association of Sleep Technologist will have a meeting in New Brunswick, New Jersey. http://www.njast.com/

April: Southeast/Southwest Regional Association of Polysomonographic Technologists is having a meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. http://www.sesw.org/

April: The Southern Sleep Society is having a meeting in Austin, Texas. http://www.southernsleepsociety.org/index2.asp

May: The Carolina Sleep Society is having a meeting in Litchfield Beach, South Carolina. http://www.carolinasleepsociety.org/

May: Northwest Ohio / Southeast Michigan Sleep Society will have a meeting in Perrysburg, Ohio. http://www.nwosemsleep.org/

May: The Pennsylvania Sleep Society will have a meeting in Hershey, Pennsylvania. http://www.pasleep.org/pages/

June: The Associated Professional Sleep Societies will have their annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas. http://www.apss.org/

June: The American Association of Sleep Technologist will have their annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas. http://www.aastweb.org/AnnualMeeting/

June: The Wisconsin Sleep Society web page list 2 meetings / conferences in their area. One is in June and another is in November. http://www.wisleep.org/News_and_Events.html

August: Iowa Sleep Society is having a meeting in Pella. http://iasleepsociety.org/

August: Indiana Society of Sleep Professionals will hold a meeting in Indianapolis, IN. http://www.indianasleep.com/CONFERENCE_2010.html

August: Alabama Association of Sleep Professionals is having a meeting in Pensacola Beach, Fl. http://www.aasp.us/annualmeeting.html

September: The Minnesota Sleep Society will have their inaugural meeting. http://mnsleep.org/

September: The Montana Sleep Society (Montana Regional Sleep Seminar) will have a meeting in Billings, MT. http://montanasleepsociety.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

September: The BRPT will have their annual symposium in Denver, CO. http://www.brpt.org/

September: The New England Polysomnographic Society will have a meeting in Nashua, NH. http://www.nepolysomnographic.org/

October: Colorado Sleep Society fall meeting. http://sites.google.com/site/coloradosleepsociety/colorado-sleep-society–main

October: The New York State Society of Sleep Medicine will have a meeting in Albany, New York. http://nysssm.org/

October: California Sleep Society meeting, Crowne Plaza – LAX. http://www.californiasleepsociety.org/Default.aspx

October: Kentucky Sleep Society will be holding a meeting. http://www.kyss.org/

October: Missouri Sleep Society will have a meeting in St. Louis, MO. http://www.mosleep.org/index_files/projects.htm

October: Virginia Academy of Sleep Medicine will have a meeting in Richmond, VA. http://www.vasleepmedicine.com/default.htm

November: The Wisconsin Sleep Society http://www.wisleep.org/News_and_Events.html

November: Idaho Sleep Disorders Association will have a meeting in Boise, ID http://idsleep.com/

November: North Carolina Association of Sleep Technologist will have a meeting in Chapel Hill, NC. http://www.ncastsleep.org/main/

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Tags: APSS Sleep 2010 conference, sleep conference, sleep disorder, sleep medicine, Southern Sleep Society Meeting, tradeshow