Earlier this week we attended the Society for Endocrinology’s clinical update event in Birmingham. This is a great opportunity for us to engage with Endocrine consultants, registrars and nurses, and tell them about how we can support their patients. Over the three days, we had spoke to many medical professionals, some who knew about our services, but many who didn’t.
Each year, our long term volunteer, and brummie, Steve attends the event. He’s tells us about his experiences in the blog below:
“Has it really been a year since I last sat here?
Monday
After checking in at registration, I made my way as usual to the dining/exhibition room. I started walking round looking at the vacant tables trying to find mine. I greeted many of the other exhibitors who I know well. One of them had a layout plan and she pointed me to my table – right in the furthest corner – typical!
As usual, the parcels from The Foundation, with the publications and stand materials, were not waiting on the table so I went in search of them. After some walking around and talking to staff, I still hadn’t tracked them down and I went back to my table to have a brief sit down. Two women from adjacent stands asked what was happening and they said to leave it with them – off they went and five minutes later returned to say that a porter would be delivering the parcels shortly!
Last year, I had the company of our new CEO, Ren, for part of the day. On Monday, I had the pleasure of meeting James from the Bristol staff team and I have to say that the day passed by quickly. It was good to have someone to talk to and James certainly did his share of talking to visitors – this must be the first year that I haven’t started losing my voice by the end of the day! Thanks James, it was a pleasure to meet you and thanks for all you did.
This year, the set-up was slightly different. The delegates on Monday were consultants and registrars – we discovered that the endocrine nurses would be attending on Tuesday. The breaks and lunch were very much quieter this year because of the reduced number of people. I wasn’t sure if we would have any visitors because of not having the nurses but we did a good trade of both consultants and registrars – James was very enthusiastic in getting them to sign up for the newsletter.
Tuesday
I didn’t think I was ever going to reach the hotel this morning. There was obviously a big show on at the NEC today because the on-site traffic was gridlocked – it took me as long to get from the entrance to the hotel as it had taken me to reach the NEC on the motorway.
Definitely a lot more people today because of the nurse attendance but still down a little on last year. I had the company of Pat for part of the day and it was, as always, a pleasure to catch up with her again – thanks for the chocolate! Pat disappeared for a while as she worked her way around the other exhibitors – all day yesterday people kept asking me when Pat was arriving.
Visitors to the table today were the usual mix of nurses who know about us and use our services, along with at least three nurses who are new to endocrinology. As usual, positive feedback from all of the visitors to our table.
The new banner looked great and some visitors did comment on the new look. I told everyone that The Foundation was hoping to eventually update all of the publications. I also had at least three people ask about bulk supplies for their clinics!
Definitely a good meeting and we all waved the flag for The Foundation. As usual, I’m feeling a bit fragile today but some extra hydrocortisone will help!
I’m going to make a mug of tea and road test the new website now!
Steve”