I got back from conference on Sunday night, absolutely exhausted. I always find it amazing how tired you get just sitting there at conferences… and it didn’t help that we had our six month old son in the room with us both nights either I guess – gosh babies can make some noise even when they’re sound asleep! (Actually add to that the fact that it was our first flight with him: I encourage any of you who are not already parents but are planning to be to take at least one aeroplane flight before you have children, and sit back, relax and do what you want – that is currently something I imagine I’ll be able to do again in about 15 years from now ).

Anyway – what a top weekend. I met loads of interesting, and very motivated people. In summary, I am very enthused and confident at the new era Diabetes New Zealand is ushering in. And I’m keen to support them as much as I can/time allows.

I started off the weekend by joining a few of the Welly BeingDiabetic community for a drink in central Wellington. Lovely to meet any readers any time, and this was no exception. Always good to get different tips and tricks from different people in different areas with different health care advisors too. More of those in the weeks to follow.

So, my review of the conference itself…

Overall

Yes, it was very introverted. Unlike the Youth Conference I went to last year, this conference was less about telling stories of people’s lives with diabetes/treating diabetes; this conference was all about Diabetes New Zealand (DNZ) as a national charity. It was about DNZ taking a look at itself, warts n’ all, and gathering up the troops to propel it forward in a meaningful and efficient way. The strapline for the conference was “Destination Unity” – this is where those at the helm want to be as soon as they can.

Highlights for me:

• Watching the mighty Chris Baty (President) in action. That lady is formidable and I know she could take on even the most stony-faced politician and win. We are seriously lucky having this lady leading the pack.
• Meeting DNZ’s new CEO (announced on Friday) – Joe Asghar. This man has energy to burn, a brilliant smile, enthusiasm galore, and will absolutely hit the ground running come end May/June when he starts. Good luck to you Joe.
• Meeting many members of the Board. A good bunch of people with a varied skillset.
• Discovering that DNZ is well aware of the fractured nature of their societies, has a plan to rectify this, has agreement from all the regions and is going to get stuck into achieving it over the next three years (i.e. Destination Unity). This was presented at the workshops – I’ll let you know when the documents are published on the DNZ site so you can have a look at the proposed structure for yourselves.
• Hearing Julie MacIver from TBWA Whybin/Tequila speak on getting a decent campaign together for Awareness Week this year (because I’ve been a little unimpressed with what’s happened/not happened in years past)
• Sitting next to Philip Rush at dinner – what a lovely guy, what amazing achievements!
• Seeing a start to smoothing out what has been a bit of a fractious relationship between Diabetes Youth and DNZ. I’m pretty certain I interpreted this right – Diabetes Youth are going to be taking up the offer of having their own member on the DNZ Board. (Chris Murray/Hayden Vink please correct me if I’ve interpreted this wrongly)
• Hearing that the New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes (NZSSD) are going to take up a place on the DNZ Board, and will be offering a reciprocal place to DNZ on their board.
• Being given a bottle of olive oil from the olive groves of the late Professor Sir Don Beaven (see pic at top). I really wish I’d met him – the respect he commanded and still commands is truly amazing.
• All foods at morning/afternoon teas and lunches labelled with carb count – ahhh!
• Excellent AV setup and I.T support… all presentations went without a hitch in that regard.
• No hypos all day!
• I actually even enjoyed the AGM (only stayed for half). It was my first AGM, and I had expected it to be a little droll, but I found it really interesting and a lot more lively than expected.

The most interesting things I learnt:

• Diabetes Supplies Limited (whose profits/losses go directly to DNZ) is still not out of the hot water, but Paul Forno and Dennis Baty are giving it their all to try to turn it around and make it profitable again. (Don’t forget to use them to get your test strips people, you will be helping in a big way. Also – Shannon who reads this blog has done an awesome job of re-designing the catalogue – well done Shannon)
• There are 37 local societies (by my count from the AGM document) sitting under DNZ. If you lay out their promotional material side by side, there is no consistency in look and feel, no unity in branding…. if you google Diabetes + NZ you get pages and pages of a confusing mix of local/regional/national societies. (Try looking at a few of these: http://www.barnabybee.com/; http://www.diabetesnzrotorua.org.nz/; http://www.diabetesauckland.org.nz/; http://www.diabetes.org.nz/). It seems that also while some resources are shared between these societies, there are bound to be a number of instances of ‘reinventing the wheel’ and loss of continuity, ultimately resulting in (a) ineffectual use of resources and (b) confusion for the people the societies are supposed to be helping – people with diabetes, in particular the newly diagnosed looking for support. As Chris Baty described it, “we are currently like a house with three kitchens and no bathrooms”. (Another key point she made is that if you’re looking to make a bequest to the ‘diabetes’ cause, it’s tough to figure out which society is which or where you should send your money to).
• DNZ have been given a year to sort out their national consistency in order to get/maintain funding (in particular they need to have accountability, transparency)
• DNZ plans to move towards being one unified national organisation by 2013. The structure must be able to deliver national brand management, ad campaigns, strong governance, strong government relations, strong relationships with health professionals, compelling reasons for corporate sponsorship, compelling reasons for philanthropists, compelling reasons to grant/bequeath, and most importantly, compelling reasons for people with diabetes to connect with DNZ.
• Diabetes Awareness Week this year (16-22 November) has a theme already assigned: “Know Your BGL: Keep Well“…. this has been used in Australia and the UK previously, apparently.
• Despite the figures of NZers with diabetes being about 170,000, DNZ still only has 13, 476 members. In order to have a voice/be successful in lobbying, DNZ recognises that this membership number needs to significantly increase. (Note: it costs $32 a year to join. That’s one CD. You should definitely think about joining, even if just to get the quarterly magazines and help bolster numbers so we present a united front when lobbying government. Link to join here)
• Philip Rush won a competition to represent NZ in an Egyptian swimming competition when he was 15. So, not only does he hold the record for the triple crossing of the English Channel, he has also swum for several hours in The Nile (yuuuuuuk) and lived to tell the tale!

So – overall I found the conference very enlightening from the point of view of looking at Diabetes New Zealand as a charity who recognise they need to make some changes in order to go meaningfully forwards. They definitely presented themselves as super strong in terms of volunteers and people passionate for the cause (which has always been the case), but my personal feeling after leaving the conference was that, with the team they now have in place, they will be driving DNZ into a much stronger position over the next few years – which has got to be good for us.

Next up: Diabetes Youth New Zealand’s conference (Rotorua, end of August). I’m currently on the bill as MC and speaker (will be talking pregnancy and motherhood at this stage). See you there!