The CWD Friends for Life conference returned to Falls Church, Virginia - a beautiful mid-October weekend spent with several hundred FFLs half of whom were brand new to CWD. Quite a few were newly-diagnosed as well, and we welcomed them warmly into the FFL family! The Fairview Park Marriott continued to be a wonderful home base for the event, with plenty of meeting space, lots of room for the kids’ activities, excellent food and beverage, and close proximity to the DC area for those who wished to add a bit of sight-seeing to their weekend agenda. The conference kicked off on Friday evening with a reception and several hours to visit with the sponsors and exhibitors. Saturday morning, just prior to the keynote, we had a real surprise as Mayor David Tarter – a CWD dad himself – pronounced October 20, 2019, as “Children with Diabetes Day in Falls Church, Virginia.”

Many thanks to our wonderful presenters and discussion facilitators - your expertise is unmatched, and you have a real talent for helping families and individuals with type 1 understand the most challenging concepts. The Saturday program featured opening keynote presenters Stewart Perry and George Huntley, and a full schedule of breakout presentations. We continued to offer a full day of advocacy sessions on Saturday as well. Both Saturday and Sunday featured sessions for adults with type 1 and their significant others. Sunday’s closing keynote featured Ed Damiano’s “iLet Update: The Bionic Pancreas.”

To the Youth Program leaders and staff - thank you for your enthusiasm, energy, and talent. Your commitment is appreciated by all. The kids had such a great time and learned so much!

To our wonderful sponsors: Dexcom, Inc., Lilly Diabetes, Insulet, Novo Nordisk, Beta Bionics, Inc., JDRF, and the Tandem Diabetes Care -- thanks for continuing to believe in CWD and for supporting our mission to reach ever more families with life-changing conferences. You make a difference.

Chef David Nvodjo, Jo Stroud, Kristen Seiz, and Liz Dodson – thanks for all of your hard work with the food and beverage, including all of the carb counts, portion sizes, and attention to food allergies. Everything was so delicious. Well done.

FFL Support team – thanks for keeping everything at registration and in sessions running smoothly! Rich and Carolyn Meredith – thanks for making that very long drive from Florida with all of our AV equipment!

To everyone else behind the scenes - you work so tirelessly, with the goal of a seamless conference. Most people don't know how much elbow grease goes into a weekend event. And that's the beauty of it. You have our most humble thanks. Hope to see everyone next year, October 4-6, 2019!