Sunday

On the second day of the conference, start your productive day with a lecture on productivity—Christian Rose, MD, shows you that you don’t have to be a TikTok star to leverage mobile devices—learn which phone applications are must-have items. In the same spirit, make time for the James D. Mills Jr. Memorial Lecture by one of my first mentors (and ACEP Now Associate Editor), Catherine Marco, MD, FACEP. She was (and is) an inspirational model of personal productivity—being both a present spouse and parent, successful and satisfied professional, and triathlon beast.

In the spirit of self-improvement, visit the newest San Francisco neighborhood of Mission Bay, built on reclaimed industrial and dock lands. There are plenty to see here, beginning at the South Beach Marina with Oracle Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants who will be in town playing series against foes from Colorado and Arizona. At the adjacent Mission Creek, you can book leisure time in the water at City Kayak. As you walk through the new residence towers, for morbidly fun detective work, you can identify the longest standing structures by the degree of landfill sinkage on their adjacent sidewalks. Enjoy the scattered art pieces, including my favorite, the dual monoliths Ballast. Take advantage of the Mission Bay sunshine by eating lunch at the SPARK Social SF food truck park, and playing a round of mini-golf at Stagecoach Greens.

If you really need to put your body to work, pack your climbing shoes, and head into the traditionally blue-collar Dogpatch neighborhood for rock climbing at Dogpatch Boulders. Immediately replace those hard-lost calories by gorging on a take on chicken and waffles across the street at the Hard Knox Café, started by a former Vietnamese-Houstonian family.

If you feel the need to exercise your soul, head further south into the heart of the Bayview neighborhood to eat dinner at one of our beloved charity organizations, Old Skool Café. This jazz themed supper club is run by at-risk, formerly incarcerated and foster care youth. Some of our first friends in the city helped start this program that provides loving mentorship and job training for these wonderful kids.

Monday

Conference day three can push us to orient our perspective outside of ourselves. Nancy J. Auer lecture, Climate Fever, presented by Renee Salas, MD, addresses how climate change touches our daily work. Nanveet Cheema, MD, (one half of the fabulous Cheema doctor sisters) gives afternoon lecture on electrical injuries discussing what happens when climate (yes, I know, it’s technically “weather”) literally touches you.