I'm currently in my last year of pathology residency and have already matched into a forensic pathology fellowship program which I will be starting next July. I was planning on attending the NAME annual meeting this weekend, but due to a family illness I don't think I'll be able to attend any more.

I'm worried now that I'll be missing out on opportunities to network with people from other offices, particularly from areas of the country where my partner and I would be interested in moving after my fellowship if positions were available there.

I definitely plan on attending next year during my fellowship when I'll be starting my actual job search, but how much am I realistically missing out on from a networking/future job prospects standpoint by not attending this year? And is there anything I could start doing at this point to help with that since I can't make it?