Delayed feedback on a controversial talk--and some positive signals of potential for change

 One feature of giving talks to unfamiliar audiences is that you only get noisy feedback on how your talk was received.  This past June, I gave the Starzl Lecture at the American Transplant Congress in Boston. (The ATC is jointly organized by the two big American transplant societies, the AST and the ASTS,*)  I spoke to an audience of about 1500 people (just a guess, but I could see some empty seats in an auditorium set up for 2,000).  My talk included topics, including global kidney exchange, that have raised controversies.  

Afterwards, what seemed like a lot of people came to speak to me, and were enthusiastic about my talk.  But "a lot of people" was fewer than 100. So what about everyone else? (It probably wouldn't be statistically kosher to assume that those who came to congratulate me were a representative sample:)   

Since global kidney exchange has led to some people calling me an organ trafficker, I didn't have any measure of the general sentiment of the meeting.

I got some reassuring news recently when the ATC sent out an email soliciting ideas for talks for next year's meeting, in Seattle.  The email came with a picture from this oat meeting:

 

 So I'm guessing this means that my talk was well received by people responsible for organizing the next meeting.

And, indeed, I'm getting multiple signals that there's an appetite for productive change in the transplant community.  I hope to have more to say about that in the coming year.

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*Acronyms:

ATC American Transplant Congress 

 AST American Society of Transplantation

ASTS American Society of Transplant Surgeons