Friends for Life style conference for adults?

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Hi Shiv,
As you have met Laura who organises the FFL here and USA - why dont you just email her and ask her if she can help you with how to organise it and how to get big companies on board - I am sure she will help you and I also think that you would be great at doing a talk for your age group as you have so much experience and your great with people too.🙂Bev
 
Definitely would be up for the conference given the opportunity. It would be interesting to hear first hand on what developments are taking place in the world of diabetes and how funding is distributed. It could also be a opportunity for those that are outside of areas that provide courses such as desmond and dafne to explore and learn new ideas and take this away with them, past experience has taught me that there is much to learn from fellow diabetics and a conference could be a ideal setting for this to take place.
 
Not nearly as intimate as the FFL conference but here they have Salons du diabetes. They're like a sort of of ideal home exhibition for diabetes with stands run by companies but they also have lectures on a whole range of subjects and even exercise sessions.. They have one in Paris yearly, in Toulouse they have a smaller one every 2 years.
They are organised by the AFD which is the equivalent of DUK, but presumably a lot of the costs are borne by the commercial companies.
Obviously something like that wouldn't give the same very valuable experience but neither would it be as expensive(no charge to attend) and might be of use to many more.
A video showing the one in Paris it looks a bit claustrophobic, in my experience the one in Toulouse is calmer and not nearly as crowded!. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2dvwi_salon-du-diabete-2006_tech
 
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Love this idea!

I suspect a conference aimed at 'adults with diabetes treated by insulin' would be of great interest! Could we get speakers for t1 & t2 specific issues?...guess there might be some differences...

I guess the first step is getting official backing from DUK / JDRF for support?
If Shiv can get her contact on board to help that would be fab - I guess we will need some experienced support re issues like funding, structuring the organisation of it formally (ie the accounting side of things would need to be done professionally I guess!), etc etc...

Do we have any events organisers lurking amongst our number?! 🙂

I know a brilliant diabetic consultant obstetrician who is due to retire in the next few years so might be interested in talking?!...

Venue wise, I guess somewhere out of London would be cheaper & more accessible to most - I know I'm biassed cos I live round here, but what about the East Midlands? There's the airport (great security lol!), the rail link & M1, so transport links are good...

Thoughts anyone?...
 
I think that the FFl in windsor cost around 300,000 , now I can't remember if that was ? or $ but whichever it's a lot of money, and the one in the US costs over a million dollars.

I would be really interested in attending a conference for adults though, probably best to get DUK behind it.
 
Where in the US do they usually hold the FFL conference or does it change every year?
 
I would definitely be interested in attending🙂
 
I picture it as an open for all kind of thing, with different talks aimed at different groups of people, as well as talks that would be beneficial to all. It's just the cost that is the big issue.
 
Twitchy said:
Do we have any events organisers lurking amongst our number?! 🙂
Click to expand...

*raises hand cautiously...*

I used to be a conference and event organiser for a division of RBS, planning about 16 events a year minimum.

Off the top of my head, good conference venues I've used:
Leeds - Armouries, Elland Road, the Queens hotel (bad rep but I think it's good)
Birmingham - Villa Park (excellent but no hotel), the Belfry (expensive)
London - Copthorne Effingham Park, nr Gatwick/ Royal Lancaster, Lancaster Gate/ Hilton Hotel Gatwick
Oxford area - Williams Renault conference centre - excellent but I don't know if it's on open release, think we got a corporate deal through RBS sponsoring the F1 team!

They're the most central venues, but I've done events in Glasgow, Brighton, Bristol & Manchester too.

I also have contacts at a couple of companies that I employed to pull events together - they do a lot of the leg work eg finding enough hotel rooms, creating videos and music backgrounds etc, writing presentations using a particular theme so that the event looks polished and like it's all part of one thing rather than each speaker having their own look and feel.

Feel free to ask questions :D
 
Thank you Cate, your offer is very kind 🙂 I wouldn't know where to start - we'd probably all end up in a pub somewhere! 😱
 
One thought that struck me last night (sad, yes, I was lying awake thinking about this! 😛) was what about a uni, in the summer hols? My local uni definitely has conference facilities & holds conferences, has good access etc etc etc (think empty halls of residence they want to get revenue from, empty lecture halls etc...!). I don't know how 'available' they will be over the next couple of years though, as they are going to be hosting one of the olympic teams :confused: ...
 
great idea !! DUK should seriously involved ...JOE ???? right up your street me thinks ..or you will have the contacts !!??😉
 
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