An Elevated Member Experience, More Education, and Martha Stewart at the AAD 2025 Annual Meeting

Seemal R Desai, MD, FAAD, president of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD).

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Seemal R. Desai, MD, FAAD, president of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), stated he is most looking forward to enhancing the member experience at the 2025 annual meeting. He aims to revamp the meeting's flow and introduce new events. Desai emphasized his excitement for the faculty speaker reception at Discovery Cove, the dedicated member reception at Universal Studios City Walk, and the introduction of over 50 new educational sessions featuring numerous new speakers.

This transcript was lightly edited for clarity.

Transcript

AJMC: What are you looking forward to most at AAD this year as the operating president?

Desai: My goal as the president of the American Academy of Dermatology has always been to make sure that our 21,000-plus members of the AAD know that this organization is there to support them in any way the organization can in their careers taking care of patients.

Our AAD annual meeting is our flagship annual meeting. We are expecting incredible attendance in Orlando, and as president this year, it was my goal to really revamp the flow of our annual meeting so that those who are attending really have an enhanced meeting experience from any of the meetings they've been at with the academy before.

A couple of things that I'm really excited about is our first ever inaugural opening ceremony, which will be happening on Friday, March 7, from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm, where I will be giving a large opening welcome for everyone who's attending, specifically a presidential opening to set the stage for the next several exciting days of the academy.

We will then have our keynote speaker that day, who I am so happy to announce that I've been able to secure Martha Stewart, the amazing icon. Martha Stewart and I will be doing a fireside chat at the AAD meeting, where we will be talking about her journey in business, in her personal life, in her career, and really talking about the incredible work that Martha has done in terms of health care and some of her connections to dermatology. I'm so excited about that.

The other thing that I'm super excited about is that on Thursday night [March 6], we are hosting our first ever faculty speaker reception at the annual meeting, which will be at Discovery Cove at Sea World, where we will be honoring and appreciating all of our speakers who really make up the core of our meeting. Our attendees come to hear these amazing speakers from all over the world presenting the most amazing topics in all of dermatology. I'm thrilled that we will have the opportunity to share all of that with our speakers on Thursday night.

Immediately after the opening ceremony, we go to the next, newest feature of our annual meeting, which is a dedicated member reception, where we will be honoring and recognizing every AAD member. Every AAD member is invited to come to the member reception, which will be at Universal Studios City Walk. That is again an opportunity for us to thank and honor our members for everything they do for the academy. Thursday night, we have a faculty appreciation event. Friday, we have a member appreciation event, followed by the first ever opening ceremony. This meeting is just starting off with a bang. I'm incredibly excited about my President's Gala, which is an invitation-only event.

Most importantly, also, the amount of new educational content that we have at this meeting is going to be really, really exciting. We have over 50 brand new session titles that have never before been on the AAD meeting agenda that are actually going to be part of our meeting agenda, which I'm very excited about. We have dozens and dozens of new speakers who are going to be at our meeting, who've never before spoken at the annual meeting, which I'm also super excited about.

Then finally, we have our plenary session on Sunday, which will be from 9:00 am to noon, where we have our named lectureships that are going to be speaking, as well as our annual business meeting. This year's named lectureships are phenomenal, and I'm so excited that we're going to have the opportunity to have those individuals speak to us at the annual meeting. There is a lot going on at the AAD, and it's going to be a really, really new experience for everybody involved.