2024 Secret Sessions: Call for Proposals

It’s not a secret anymore: ISMRM 2024 will be accompanied again by Secret Sessions.

We encourage you to propose session topics of relevance to the community. Take action and organize a secret session on a topic you want in this engaging format!

Organizing a Secret Session is a great opportunity to get involved with your society and to shape the annual meeting. We’re looking for motivated members and trainee members to plan content, lead a session or work in the background to make them happen. Secret Sessions often have 2+ organizers per session, but if you have a good idea and no one to work with, propose it anyway! We are happy to work with you to make your vision come to life and connect you with others who have similar ideas!

Interactive formats are highly encouraged! Each session will last approximately one hour.

As a source of inspiration, the programs from 2023 are available online here: https://www.ismrm.org/23m/secret/

We are always looking for new and fresh topics and formats, but also highly relevant “classics” are welcome, especially if they are given some novelty in some way. Secret sessions topics may include but are not limited to the following examples:

• Networking and CVs (e.g. BYO CV and get feedback)
• Balancing clinical and academic careers
• Work / life balance
• How to get involved with ISMRM (e.g. with ISMRM leadership panel)
• Inclusion and diversity
• Environmentally sustainable science (e.g. conference organization and travel)
• Gaining independence in academic careers
• Reproducible and open science
• How the ISMRM meeting functions: Abstracts, Program Assembly, Schedule

NOTE: Secret Sessions covering topics of diversity and inclusion are highly encouraged.

The call for proposals is NOW OPEN!

We invite you to submit a proposal by completing this google form, which will ask you for the the following details:

• Title for the proposed session
• Short bio of each organizer
• Session type (e.g. panel discussion, Q&A, talk)
• Session format: on-site or virtual session
• Target audience
• Main objective or goals
• Proposed schedule
• Diversity statement
• If applicable: speakers and/or panel members (please note that, generally, the invited speakers or panel members for a session shouldn’t be organizers).

Please indicate in the proposal if the planned session has any requirements regarding the infrastructure beyond what is usually available at a conference site.

Please also feel free to contact us if you have any questions – we look forward to hearing from you.

Jessica, Marco and Mingming

Organizers of the 2024 Secret Sessions:

Jessica Martinez, martj18@mskcc.org (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, United States)

Marco Barbieri, mb7@stanford.edu (Stanford University, United States)

Mingming Wu, mingming.wu@tum.de (Technical University of Munich, Germany)

A bit of history…

The Secret Sessions initiative started at ISMRM 2017 in Honolulu (Hawaii). These sessions are run in a dedicated space at the annual meeting: the “Resonarium,” a comfortable and less formal meeting space in the exhibition hall. Due to the great success, the Secret Sessions also accompanied the annual ISMRM meetings of the following years. And yes… the Secret Sessions will be back at ISMRM 2024!

The real secret is that… these sessions are not secret at all! They’re separate from the main scientific program, and much more informal, explorative and frequently tailored (but not limited) to early-career researchers.

The idea of the Secret Sessions is to create an appropriate framework to host an original session for everyone with an idea. For early-career researchers, this is a unique opportunity to not only gain experience in organizing a session, but also to meet new people and increase exposure in the ISMRM community.

You can reach us at secret@ismrm.org for all relevant questions and feedback.