Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler, friends! The Children with Diabetes team had the opportunity to attend the Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists (ADCES) Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, and we can’t wait to share some of our highlights from the event with you. This year’s annual conference was held at the Ernest N. Memorial Convention Center in New Orleans. It featured four days of continuing education, keynote speakers, hands-on workshops, and a giant exhibition hall. Grab your café au lait and a crispy beignet, and let’s recap ADCES 2024!
ADCES brings together diabetes care and education specialists from across the country for an annual conference that covers all things related to diabetes care, education, and technology. There are general sessions, education sessions, and research poster sessions during this four-day conference. In addition to educational sessions, there are networking events, corporate symposia, and celebration events planned throughout the weekend. Attendees participated in the conference in-person and virtually through an On-Demand program.
The CWD team was excited to attend this year’s conference in NOLA. Our hotel was conveniently located across the street from the Convention Center, which made it very easy to access full conference events each day. From the moment that we entered the Convention Center, we spotted many of our dear Friends for Life faculty members and industry partners. We spent our days and evenings celebrating our shared mission of providing care to individuals living with type one diabetes. The exhibit hall was bubbling with excitement as attendees moved from booth to booth, learning more about products and services that can help enhance the lives of those living with diabetes. We were thrilled to see so many of our industry partners in the exhibit hall and loved catching up on the latest news with their companies. We got a sneak peek into what is ahead for the remainder of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 for many exhibitors, and we are excited about the future of diabetes care and improved patient outcomes.
CWD Events hosted two educational sessions at the Four Seasons New Orleans. On Saturday, August 10, 2024, our Lunch and Learn Event focused on the topic of “Expanding Diabetes Toolkits.” This event was sponsored by our friends at MannKind. The educational session helped practitioners learn more about helping patients with diabetes expand their toolkits and introduced the use of inhaled insulin as a rapid-acting option to help lower blood sugars in approximately 12 minutes (for adult patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes). On Sunday, August 11, 2024, our Lunch and Learn Event was on the topic of preparing for emergencies with diabetes and treating severe hypoglycemia. This event was titled “Preparation is Key—Treating Severe Hypoglycemia” and was sponsored by our friends at Baqsimi. Practitioners learned more about the use of intranasal glucagon and the treatment of severe hypoglycemia in adult and pediatric patients (ages 4 years and above). Both lunch events were huge successes and the meaningful conversation lasted long after the events ended.
CWD Events also hosted a Health Care Provider Reception on August 9, 2024. This social event was held at the River Ballroom at the Four Seasons New Orleans and was sponsored by our friends at Sanofi. This invitation-only special event is designed to thank healthcare providers for their dedication to the diabetes community and for being partners in our lives as we continue our daily journey with diabetes. Guests enjoyed having conversations with colleagues while watching the sun go down in a beautiful venue overlooking the Mississippi River. This social event is one of the most highly anticipated CWD Events when we attend professional conferences and we had the best time celebrating and thanking our healthcare provider friends for life.
During our time in the Exhibit Hall, we met with our current industry partners and FFL exhibitors. We also had the opportunity to meet with several new companies who would be a great fit for our Friends for Life Conferences and FFL families. We are excited to tell you more about these potential new partnerships in the coming months. As we made our way through the exhibits, we stopped whenever we saw “Diabetes in the Wild” and made so many new friends for life. We learned about their own experience with diabetes and celebrated milestones by awarding Journey Awards to those who have lived with diabetes for 10, 25, 50, or 75 years. These connections made our hearts smile and created memories that will last a lifetime.
As we concluded our time in NOLA and at ADCES, we left feeling energized about working with individuals who are affected by diabetes. We loved the friendly people in the city of New Orleans and are already missing our family meals together as a team. We are so excited about attending next year’s ADCES conference in Phoenix and look forward to continuing to connect with all of our new friends for life that we made this year at ADCES.
Green and Orange Forever,
Leigh
Written by Leigh Fickling, JD, MEd, MS
