We are very excited to summarize the feedback we received on the Public Conference on Cancer that was delivered on October 15, 2022.
A total of 52 participants completed the Feedback Survey. In addition, we received email and social media comments.
Overall, the feedback recieved was overwhelmingly positive! Thank you everyone who was involved and participated in this Conference, and made it a success story!
The key points made by Survey respondents can be summarized as follows:
- For all talks combined, around 95% of the respondents agreed that “The sessions were presented in an understandable manner” and “I learnt valuable information” – these indicate the effectiveness of the event and speakers in exchanging knowledge
- The perspectives and experiences delivered by the patient and family members speakers were impactful – this highlights the importance of including patient perspectives when designing and delivering public events focusing on knowledge exchange
- Learning about patient and family perspectives as well as the cancer screening and support services available in the province were the two most valuable parts of the Conference – this indicates that we met our objectives, as exchanging knowledge about these topics were among the main goals of our Conference
- Preventing tech issues, scheduling more time for questions, and making the registration process simpler are among the top priorities to address in the future events – we really appreciate these feedback and are committed to work on them in future events
- A number of great topics were suggested for future events, such as palliative cancer care and specific cancers – these suggestions indicate need and interest for future public events
- Respondents came from a variety of age groups, but mostly from Eastern Health region – this latter point indicates that we need to work harder next time to reach residents in every corner of the province
- A variety of recruitment strategies helped recruit the respondents, but social media and the Memorial University communications were the two most effective ways to do so
- A part of the respondents were outside of NL – this indicated that the Public Conference on Cancer was not geographically restrictive
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Examples to participant comments are as follows:
“So many valuable points. The goals of this conference was very well addressed.”
“Personal stories that reflected the presenters’ journeys provided meaningful takeaway and reflection.”
“Provided a forum for the general population to learn more.”
“This was a fantastic event and extremely well done.“
“Do some sound and tech testing / test runs with pre-recorded presentations ahead of time to limit technical difficulties.”
“It was fantastically organized, the diversity of the voices, the mix of health professionals, management/directors of the health care organizations, people who’ve lived the journey.”
“Possibility to re-watch/listen to the talk/presentation in the future might be useful for other people who could not attend it.”
“Maybe, giving presenters a little more time for their topics.“
“The registration process may be intimidating to members of the public.”
“It was an excellent event, and I don’t think you guys could have done any better.”
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We are humbled by its impact and how well this Conference brought together all stakeholders; prompted us to learn from each other (particularly from the individuals affected by cancer); and motivated us to organize more public events on cancer in the future.
We sincerely thank:
- all who provided feedback and telling us how we have done and how we could do better next time
- all who helped organize the Public Conference on Cancer and contributed to its planning and delivery, including but not limited to the Public Interest Group on Cancer Research, Dr. Teri Stuckless, and Alicia Follett
- all speakers that delivered talk and invited experts that addressed the questions of participants during the Conference
- everyone who helped with recruitment
- all Conference participants for making it such a dynamic, interactive, effective, and memorable public event
- Melissa MacLean, Anuj Charan, and Dan DeLong from OPED for setting up and managing the virtual Conference platform, taking care of the tech issues, and implementing the registration page and feedback survey
- NLSUPPORT for supporting this Conference and Discipline of Oncology at Faculty of Medicine for financially supporting it, and
- Office of Public Engagement at MUN for providing us funds (Accelerator Funds) to organize this Conference – without your commitment and support, we could not achieve this
It was a highly rewarding experience. We hope to see you in our next public outreach and engagement events!
