Evaluation of scientific programs at a large-scale academic congress: lessons from the 22nd World Congress of Dermatology.

Background: The organization of a scientific program and the arrangement of the speakers require a considerable amount of time and effort. However, little is known about how to reinforce the participants' satisfaction with scientific programs at a large-scale academic congress with multiple parallel sessions.

Objectives: This study had three main purposes: (1) to create a reference for future congresses, (2) to determine session popularity and participation rate, and (3) to identify which characteristics of sessions can affect the perception of the audience.

Methods: A total of 216 scientific sessions during the 22nd World Congress of Dermatology were evaluated using printed evaluation surveys.

Results: The average scores for all sessions and speakers were relatively high. There were significant differences in the numbers of total session scores, collected surveys and speakers for each session category. The number of speakers at each session was not related to the session results. It was found that among the three different session grades (excellent, fair and poor), the proportion of speakers of each grade especially contributed to the perceived quality of the poor-grade sessions.

Conclusions: This survey will help to organize scientific sessions and improve the quality of academic congresses.