Monday, October 27, 2008

DRI Conference - Fun, Informative, Inspiring!!

I was one of the lucky people in the New York City area who was able to attend the Diabetes Research Institute's day-long conference, DIABETES 2.0 -Harnessing New Technologies in Research and Treatment. There is probably no way to actually sum up this experience in words. Although it was a very long day, starting with a 6 am train ride and ending with a 6:30 pm blogger dinner and a 9 pm train ride home, the hours flew by. The sessions were very informative and the first two took away some of my cynical doubting attitude about the chance of a cure in my life-time. (I do believe a cure for diabetes will be found.  I just sometimes doubt that it will be found in my life-time.  But the information I saw on Saturday made me more hopeful). Another session inspired me to get back on track with my exercising, and had me on the treadmill this morning before 7 am - and before the excuses for skipping my workout cropped up. The last session, about Diabetes Burn-Out, left us with lots of laughs and good tips.

Equally as important as the information was the social aspect of the day. I was fortunate enough to meet a whole gang of fellow diabetes bloggers. It was awesome to spend the day with a bunch of people who really get what I live with every day, because they do too. Some people I "knew" from their blogs, and it was great to put real-life faces and personalities to their on-line ones. Others were new friends who's blogs have quickly been added to my feed reader. All were delightful! I was battling high blood sugars all day, but my frustration was lessened when several others admitted theirs wouldn't come down either. I think maybe the conference center was pumping a sugar-mist into the air! (Just kidding.)

So, who did I meet? Well, it's easy to remember because my Event Photographer was on hand to take some group shots. In this first one, we are striking our best Rockette pose - but I obviously missed the announcement that our pumps were supposed to be on display.


We quickly realized we had left out a few key people and gathered again for another group shot.

From left to right: Scott (who it turns out I went to college with), Fran, Gina, me, Lee Ann,
Val, Kelly, Allison, Amy and Bernard (who Pea and I were fortunate to spend the train ride home with).

If you ever have the opportunity to attend an event like this, I would highly recommend it. As my post title stated, it was fun, it was informative and it was inspiring.

I thought I'd end this post with a little video that was mistakenly taken as we were lined up for pictures. It seems my camera was on the wrong setting, so we got some inadvertent video footage. There isn't much to it, but I think you can hear our laughter and the fun we were having.


So yeah, I guess the red light really means the camera is recording video!

7 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Karen -
    I deleted my first posts because I didn't know if they sounded negative & I'm always glass 1/2 full -except when I flip my Bitch Switch on.
    I decided to write a more simple & to the point post. DRI is doing great research towards a cure and the fact that 80 percent of monies raised goes directly to fund research for a t1 cure knocks my socks off!
    Like you, I believe in a cure, just not so sure if there will be a cure for MY diabetes.
    I'm hopeful and positive that others will reap the benefits of a cure - I'm just not sure if my pancreas is capable of learning new tricks. Still,any improvements to said pancreas due to research would be greatly appreciated!
    W.T.F

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  3. You were inspired to exercise too? I felt so guilty after admitting to a room full of people how much I hate exercising that I made Jason show me how to use the Wii Fit yesterday. Of course, the trick is to stick with it...

    It was so awesome to meet you too. You're my new knitting goddess! I wish someone would put more hours in the day so I could spend more

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  4. woo hoo! SO glad you all met. Glad you had fun Karen and were informed at the same time, sweet.

    I am with you and Kelly, no cure for "our" diabetes but it Will happen some day.

    The pics are great and the video snippet is funny. Oops. ;-)

    And I agree with Lee Ann, if there was more time I would love to learn to knit. Maybe sometime in the future.

    And to all those out there, Karen's socks, ROCK!!!!! I will be posting about the Karen's Socks Are a Hit at the Step Out Walk soon.....

    Thanks for the awesome socks (I think I wore them ALL weekend) and the sharing this great post.
    ;-)

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  5. So awesome meeting all of you guys! Real life IS as good as the Internet, ay?

    Hope you enjoyed the panel!

    Best,
    AmyT

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  6. Karen! You are so awesome! I wished I had seen you earlier too BOO! I got there late because of the subway, I planned on being there before 9am. God Bless the NY Subway system. I wished I had known you were coming also! I would have made you make me a pump sock WTF! lol

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  7. Way, way, way cool! I wish I could have come. Someday I will get the chance. Really I will. :P

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