Recent Leicester CLLSA Conference

[thelutondodger]

To the organisers - many thanks for an excellent day. Lovely facilities with ample, nutritious and satisfying refreshments kept us sustained all day. Excellent contributions - those who've followed some of my previous posts - concentrating on the "science" eliminated my tinnitus at least for the duration of the presentation! Most rewarding was the afternoon session of sharing experiences, ideas and opinions. It was also good to meet again folks who when we met previously were pre-treatment and are now post-treatment and picking up the treads of their lives. Inspiring and encouraging.

Thoroughly recommended.

Roger

[Jm954 Administrator]

Hi Roger, I agree with everything, a really good day.

[PaulaS Volunteer]

Hi Roger,

I agree, it was a great day, well worth the effort in getting there. The afternoon sessions of sharing experiences were the most rewarding for me too. My energy levels are usually so low in afternoons that I sleep, but I managed to stay awake yesterday!

Glad to hear that the science talk eliminated your tinnitus for a while.

My regret is not meeting more HU folk who were there, such as you and Jm954 . Maybe next time we could ask the organisers for a 5 minute slot to talk about HU, and invite any HU members to meet up for a cuppa?

Paula

P.S. A couple of people I talked to yesterday did unexpectedly turn out to be HU folk, which was rather special.

[thelutondodger in reply to PaulaS]

Thanks, that's a good idea. I used to work for Headway (the acquired brain injury charity) who have a HU forum - getting clients to engage with HU was hard work! But once folk got used to it - they felt the benefit. Headway only had national conferences once a year though - at University of Warwick usually.

Best wishes - I should have made more of an effort to get around. I'm a bit of an anti-social whatsit sometimes!

Roger

[pkguk2 Partner CLL Support Association in reply to PaulaS]

Good idea Paula. As one of the organisers, I will take that on board and see if we can work it into the next conference in Oxford on 8th September. Watch this space!

[PaulaS Volunteer in reply to pkguk2]

Thanks so much, pkguk2. I doubt if I'll make it to the Oxford conference myself (much further away from Sheffield), but I'm sure there will be many others who will appreciate an HU slot and a chance to meet up.

Paula

[Myrddin in reply to PaulaS]

HU was a topic as the Oxford meeting and a video will be available shortly

[Oleboyredw-uk]

I too enjoyed the meeting, a great key speaker session, but could have done with longer reading a couple of the charts, I must learn to read quicker.

I always write my HU userid on my badge, perhaps we should all do that in future to help recognise other HUers. I guess it would gave helped if I'd mentioned that before the meeting!

A good location, facilities and not too far from home.

Meet up for a cuppa.... you have my attention for one.

rob

[thelutondodger in reply to Oleboyredw-uk]

Good idea about the user ID tag. That's where I need to be careful what I choose as a "handle"!

R

[MsLockYourPosts Passed Volunteer]

For the two Niagara Conferences I attended I posted to all of my groups that I would be the very tall lady in the bright red jacket. I connected with a lot of people that way, but don't know how many of them connected with each other. The Lymphoma Research Foundation, at their National Conferences has ribbons that attach to the bottom of the name tag. It really doesn't work well. LLS had diagnosis specific tables for lunch one year, but then they had speakers straight through lunch. No chance to talk to others. I tried a second name tag to pin on to the name tag lanyard which people could use to indicate their on line groups at the last Niagara Conference - also didn't work well. I'm thinking that we all need to get red baseball caps to wear. In the US there are often people who cross paths at the NIH, MD Anderson, Ohio State and other centers, but don't know that they were sitting in the same room until later. I suspect that the same sometimes happens in other countries. Red caps - pin on tags with groups if you want to list the groups you're involved with - cap not worn if you are having an off day??? There has to be a way for us to find each other in crowds other than being exceptionally tall and wearing red jackets and caps are cheaper than jackets.

Other ideas???

[thelutondodger in reply to MsLockYourPosts]

Good ideas - however, personally, I'm not a baseball cap fan, neither tall nor prone to red coats! - but the additional tag to slip on the conference name badge might work. Or maybe a meet and greet table in the reception area where everyone passes through where there is sometimes coffee etc. It is nice to link up at the beginning - it helps those initial conference nerves.

Thanks, good to hear from folks so far geographically but close at heart humanly.

R

[MsLockYourPosts Passed Volunteer in reply to thelutondodger]

LOL! I haven't found the perfect answer yet, but still trying.

[RZ8983DV]

Good conference and nice food.

[parkmoy]

Didn't know about this unfortunately - perhaps because I've only been a member for a few weeks? Where are thet normaly advertised?

[thelutondodger in reply to parkmoy]

Thanks, that's a good question. I think on this forum. You can set notifications to pop into your inbox. You can sign up to the CLL Support Association as a member. The information is always on the website. I thoroughly recommend following.

Best wishes,

Roger

[Oleboyredw-uk]

The info for upcoming meetings is on the CLL Support Association website, along with previous meetings. If you are registered on the website I think you get notification emails. I think, from memory, there are two more this year, London and Oxford. I'll post a link later today when I get home.

best, rob