Events
Upcoming Events
Dual Botanical Garden Visits
Dates: August 22, 2026
Time: 10:00 a.
Locations: UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley, CA, or the Leach Botanical Garden in Portland, OR
AMWA NorCal members live all over the West Coast, so we invite you to join us at either the UC Botanical Garden Leach Botanical Garden. At each garden, one lucky attendee will win a botanical-themed prize. Open to AMWA members only.
AMWA Medical Writing & Communication Conference
Dates: November 4-7, 2026
Location: Washington, DC
We look forward to seeing you in Washington, DC!
Note: This event is open to AMWA members and non-members.
AMWA Medical Writing & Communication Conference Chapter Dinner
Dates: November 5, 2026
Location: Washington, DC
We will host a chapter dinner at the national conference in Washington, DC. Stay tuned for details!
Previous Events
2026
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Date: May 15–16, 2026
Location: Delta Hotels Santa Clara Silicon Valley
We held our signature Pacific Coast Conference, which included 2 days of in-person learning, networking, and building new skills in the heart of Silicon Valley. With a focus on navigating a changing landscape in medical communications, the programming offered insight, resources, and connections to enhance and advance the careers of medical communicators.
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Date: May 14, 2026
Location: Delta Hotels Santa Clara Silicon Valley
Our members gathered for a Thursday happy hour at the PCC venue. Our chapter leaders, speakers, attendees, and even members who could not attend the conference got to know each other on the evening before the conference.
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Date: March 11, 2026
Location: Virtual
Take a mid-week breather with your fellow chapter members! Grab whatever project you’re currently working on—knitting, sketching, scrapbooking, or even just your favorite beverage—and join us for a relaxed night of crafting and conversation.
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Date: March 7, 2026
Location: Bay Model Museum
Come see the incredible working hydraulic scale model of the Bay Area. It’s a fascinating look at our local geography and engineering. Afterward, we’ll keep things sweet with a group trip to Lappert’s for some of the best ice cream in town.
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Date: June 23, 2026
Location: Virtual
Description: The meeting started with introductions of the 2026 chapter board and a recap of the past year's accomplishments and activities. Then we enjoyed a talk by Beth DuPriest, PhD, entitled “Women in Clinical Trials: Participation, Protection, and Progress.” She covered the past, present, and future of including women as participants in clinical research, and provided practical tips for writers describing phases of life and methods for protecting pregnancies and infants.
2025
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Date: December 18, 2025
Location: Virtual
At this fun-filled event, we played Two Truths and One Lie. We also had Pet Show & Tell to meet everyone’s furry (or feathered or scaly) office mates!
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Date: November 6, 2025
Location: San Mateo, CA
Members who did not attend the national conference gathered for dinner to enjoy Japanese cuisine.
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Date: November 6, 2025
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Our members gather for dinner at the 2025 AMWA Conference. We enjoyed delightful conversation over delicious Southwestern cuisine.
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Date: Saturday, June 21, 2025
Time: 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm PT
The summer solstice is a great excuse to go outside and enjoy the longest stretch of daylight we'll get all year. So, how about a hike?
AMWA NorCal members are spread out across the West Coast and beyond. Our territory extends far from the San Francisco Bay Area and even (unofficially) includes the Pacific Northwest.
To account for that, we had several hike options. We hosted two hikes: one in Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park in the hills of Oakland, CA, and the other in Guy W. Talbot State Park just east of Portland, OR.
We also offered a third option for members who are not near Oakland or Portland. We invited members to go on their own summer solstice hike and send us photos. -
Date: June 3, 2025
Location: Virtual
Title: Embracing the Business Owner Mindset: Habits, Scripts, and Strategies to Grow Your Business and Your Confidence
Facilitator: Robin Walker
Description: Many of us did not start out as business owners. Sometimes we figure things out, but other times we find ourselves wondering, "How am I supposed to know what to do about _________?"
In this workshop, we will start with a fun quiz to see where you may be holding back in your business. We will explore what it means to have a business owner mindset, how this influences your business decisions (or overthinking these decisions). Then we will move into how to overcome these limitations through habit changes, scripts to use, and strategies you can adapt to your personal business roadblocks. -
Date: May 10, 2025
Time: 11:30 am–1:45 pm PT (museum tour), 2:00–3:00 pm (late lunch and/or snacks)
Location: Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
Members explored fascinating exhibits on the technology that continues to evolve and shape our lives. The museum's featured exhibits were Chatbots Decoded and Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. There were also vintage computing machines, a history of emojis, and a TV show written by a computer in 1960! After the museum tour, members went for a late lunch (or snacks) at Roger Bar and Restaurant.
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Date: April 29, 2025
Location: Virtual
Description: Members met the 2025 chapter board, recapped the past year's accomplishments and activities, and learned about upcoming opportunities to sharpen their skills and meet new people in our chapter. Members heard a talk by our keynote speaker, Núria Negrão, PhD, who presented a talk titled “Writing in the Age of AI: Insights for Freelance and In-House Medical Communicators.”
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Date: March 13, 2025
Time: 4:30–6 pm PT
Location: UCSFWe had a special opportunity to visit "Graphic Medicine Ill-Conceived and Well-Drawn!" This exhibit was conceived by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and was on display at Kalmanovitz Library on the UCSF campus. NLM's website describes the exhibit as “Graphic medicine is the use of comics to tell personal stories of illness and health. The combined language of words and pictures that is the comic medium gives approachability and emotional impact to these personal stories, and even to the clinical data they sometimes include.”
2024
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Date: December 17, 2024
Location: Virtual
Description: Members gathered for a fun holiday aperitif and trivia.
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Date: October 24, 2024
Location: New Orleans, LA
Description: AMWA NorCal members who attended the AMWA Conference gathered for dinner and networking.
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Date: June 8, 2024
Location: Delta Hotels, Santa Clara, CA
Description: Our Annual Membership Meeting was held during the opening session on the second day of the Pacific Coast Conference. Attendees were introduced to the 2024 Board of Directors and Chapter Leaders, and they learned updates on chapter activities.
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Date: June 8, 2024
Location: Pacific Catch, Santa Clara, CA
Description: AMWA NorCal hosted a happy hour during which members gathered to network and connect.
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Date: June 7, 2024
Location: Delta Hotels, Santa Clara, CA
Description: AMWA NorCal hosted an aperitif at which members gathered to network and connect.
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Date: June 7-8, 2024
Location: Santa Clara, CA
Description: This signature event included 2 days of in-person learning, networking, and building new skills in the heart of Silicon Valley. With a focus on the future of medical communications, the programming gave insight, resources, and connections to enhance and advance the careers of medical communicators.
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Date: May 16, 2024
Location: Virtual
Speaker: Brionna Ned
Description: This forum is an opportunity to ask a lawyer questions about the best ways to protect yourself as a business owner, whether you should get insurance, how to make sure you're complying with privacy laws if you have an online presence, whether you need a template contract for your business, how to go about getting one, and more.
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Date: February 29, 2024
Location: Virtual
Speaker: Brian Bass, MWC
Description: You’ve been freelancing for years. You charge as much as you can, you work as hard as you want to, and you earn more than you ever thought possible. Is that all there is? If retirement isn’t on your horizon, perhaps it’s time for you to consider subcontracting. In this webinar, a freelancer for more than 30 years who has been subcontracting for more than 20 years reprises his educational session presented at the AMWA 2023 Medical Writing & Communication Conference. He will explain why you should (and shouldn’t) subcontract, how to incorporate subcontracting into your business model, and how to make subcontracting work for you.
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Date: January 14, 2024
Location: Virtual
Title: Creating a Strategic Customer Journey: How to Attract, Convert, and Deliver a Better Customer Experience
Facilitator: Robin Walker
Description: The new year is a great time to refresh your freelance business. Get started on the right foot with a look at your customer experience in this 90-minute, online, interactive workshop.
Your customer journey is the path of interactions that your customer takes—from the time they first hear about you, through the sales process, while you deliver service, and, ultimately, to them being a raving fan referring you to their circles.
Many freelancers stitch these pieces together as they grow in business, without strategy or in isolation from the other pieces. This path can be intentionally realigned to make it easier to attract the right clients and deliver a smooth, stand-out experience.
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Date: September 12, 2024
Location: Virtual (Zoom)
Facilitator: Taylor Krohn, MA
ReallyWrite.com is a free automatic editor that helps you write more clearly. Learn how ReallyWrite can help you improve your writing efficiency as well as the quality and clarity of your medical documents. This is a great opportunity to discover a new tool that could benefit your writing practice.
2023
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Date: December 14, 2023
Location: Virtual
Description: AMWA NorCal hosted a social event at which members and non-members gathered to share their favorite holiday traditions and fond memories.
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Date: October 26, 2023
Location: Baltimore, MD
Description: AMWA NorCal members who attended the AMWA Conference gathered for dinner and networking.
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Date: June 30, 2023
Location: Livermore, CA
Description: AMWA NorCal hosted members for a live tour of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. The tour was followed by a networking dinner.
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Date: June 15, 2023
Location: Virtual
Description: AMWA NorCal hosted a virtual Freelance Forum. Attendees gathered to learn how to optimize their LinkedIn and AMWA profiles.
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Date: April 26, 2023
Location: Virtual
Description: AMWA NorCal hosted a virtual Freelance Forum to network and plan topics to discuss in the upcoming freelance forum series. goes here
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Date: March 29, 2023
Location: Virtual
Description: AMWA NorCal held their Annual Membership Meeting virtually. Members of the Board of Directors were introduced and attendees learned about Zotero.
2022
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Date: November 3, 2022
Location: Denver, CO
Description: AMWA NorCal members who attended the AMWA Conference gathered for dinner and networking.
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Date: July 28, 2022
Location: Virtual
Description: AMWA NorCal hosted a virtual Aperitif Hour that included a virtual scavenger hunt. Attendees shared their scavenged treasures with other attendees and got to know each other a little more.
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Date: May 6-7, 2022
Location: Virtual
Description: The AMWA Pacific Coast Conference took place virtually. Members and non-members gathered for webinars and a special “leadershop.”
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Date: March 19, 2023
Location: Virtual
Description: The AMWA NorCal Annual Membership Meeting took place virtually. Members of the Board of Directors were introduced.
2021
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Date: August 14, 2021
Location: Virtual
Description: AMWA NorCal hosted a presentation by member Snehal Mohile on the role of pharmacology in patient care and clinical research.
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Date: June 17, 2021
Location: Virtual
Description: AMWA NorCal hosted an Aperitif Hour at which attendees enjoyed a poetry reading by Chapter member and accomplished Poet, Randall Mann.
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Date: May 15, 2021
Location: Virtual
Description: AMWA NorCal member Doris Davis, RN, BSN, presented a webinar on Document Quality Control.
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Date: April 15, 2021
Location: Virtual
Description: AMWA NorCal hosted a virtual Aperitif Hour at which attendees shared one little known fact about themselves, and two lies. We got to know each other a little better through these tall tales and truths.
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Date: February 18, 2021
Location: Virtual
Description: AMWA NorCal hosted a virtual Aperitif Hour at which attendees shared their travel fantasies through stories and photos of dream destinations.
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Date: February 27, 2021
Location: Virtual
Description: AMWA NorCal Annual Membership Meeting took place virtually. Members of the Board of Directors were introduced. AMWA NorCal member Crystal Herron, PhD, presented an education session entitled Rethink Readability: Why Plain Language Benefits All Readers.
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Date: January 23, 2021
Location: Virtual
Description: AMWA NorCal presented the webinar “Cybersecurity Essentials for Medical Writers” by Carola F. Berger, PhD.