Conference FOAM

A wide lecture hall with tiered seating and a presentation screen at the front, bathed in warm amber and soft gray tones

Free Open Access Medical education conferences bring together clinicians, educators, and learners in a collaborative, non-commercial setting. This section highlights FOAM-based gatherings — events where the emphasis is on openly shared knowledge, practical bedside teaching, and community-driven learning.

What makes a conference "FOAM"? FOAM conferences prioritize freely accessible content, social-media engagement, and an ethos of sharing. Talks are often recorded and distributed, and the conversation continues online long after the meeting ends.

Featured FOAM Events

FOAM conferences span the globe and cover the breadth of emergency medicine, critical care, and internal medicine. Past gatherings referenced on this site include SMACC (Social Media and Critical Care) and other community-organized meetings that blend high-yield clinical education with an informal, participatory style.

For a broader listing of medical meetings — including traditional academic conferences — visit the main Conferences page. Archived materials from past EMConf sessions are available in the EMConf Archive.

Stay Connected

FOAM conference schedules, speaker announcements, and open-access slide decks are often shared through social media and curated feeds. Follow The Feed for aggregated updates, or explore the FOAM Resources page for links to community hubs like LITFL and FOAM Feeds.

Beyond the formal talks and scheduled sessions, the true value of a FOAM conference often unfolds in the hallways and breakout areas, where clinicians trade real-world stories about difficult cases, procedural mishaps, and the lessons that only emerge in practice. Attendees frequently describe these gatherings as a reset for their own teaching habits, returning home with fresh ideas for their blogs, slide sets, and bedside approaches. The community that forms around these events tends to persist well beyond the meeting dates, sustaining conversations through shared feeds, social media timelines, and collaborative projects that continue to shape emergency and internal medicine education throughout the year.

For those who have drifted away from regular writing or content creation, a FOAM conference can serve as a gentle re-entry point into the habit of sharing what they have learned. Many practitioners find that hearing colleagues discuss their own struggles with maintaining a consistent output — the drafts left unfinished, the intentions that stagnated — makes the process feel more approachable. The emphasis on openly accessible knowledge means that even those who cannot attend in person can follow along remotely, engaging with recorded presentations and joining the online discussion from anywhere, which extends the reach of these events far beyond the walls of the conference venue.