October 21, 2019, by Postgraduate Placements Nottingham
Far more talent than we counted on
This week Postgraduate Placements Nottingham hears from Charlotte Weston of the British Nuclear Medicine Society about her experience of hosting University of Nottingham postgraduate student Le.
The British Nuclear Medicine Society is the only national society exclusively supporting the specialty of nuclear medicine in the UK. We have approximately 500 members, produce a medical journal and biannual international educational conferences. Our head office is based on the University of Nottingham Innovation Park, so when a temporary position arose for support of our annual conference it seemed obvious to access the pool of postgraduates within the University of Nottingham. As a small organisation we were looking for someone who was flexible and curious about our specialty and everything that goes into producing an outstanding educational event for medical professionals. Le fit the bill perfectly and offered far more talent than we counted on.
The placement project involved providing support for the preparation and organisation of the BNMS Annual Scientific Meeting and the marketing of the event through our networks and online channels. The placement student was also required to monitor the online registration system (ensuring that the system was up to date and working correctly at all times), to arrange travel arrangements and accommodation of invited speakers as necessary, prepare conference slides, and coordinate student volunteers.
“We hadn’t counted on just how extensive [the student’s] IT skills would be… it was a real bonus”
Le engaged with and rose to these challenges immediately; suggesting and implementing various improvements to our event processes. He also set up and managed a successful delegate barcode scanning system. We certainly hadn’t counted on just how extensive Le’s IT skills would be and it was a real bonus that he was able to contribute to the development of our new website and registration and abstract submission platforms. He also took on the social media aspect of the meeting which, for a small organisation like ours was invaluable as it has always been a daunting task to maintain twitter whilst running the conference.
If you are thinking of offering a placement to a University of Nottingham PhD student, I would say just do it. The fresh pair of eyes and enthusiasm they will bring to any project is invaluable. Moreover, I think it’s fair to say that Le really enjoyed his time with us and gained a lot of experience in a forward facing role which will serve him well in his career.
We are still in touch with Le. He has gone back to Vietnam but contacted us this month to wish us well with our big event this year. We hope that he will consider working with us again in future.
If you are a company interested in hosting a postgraduate placement student please visit our webpage for more information.
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