Our awesome Sunday panel: Amy, Kelsey, Marty, Jordan, Steph and Heidi-Jane. Pictured here with the other stars of the conference: the faux rocks (focks) and pohutukawa tree. Photo credit: Helana Flowerday.

Well I’m pleased to say that the third DYNZ conference was another brilliant one! I set off in the rain on Friday afternoon, and four hours later (having had the windscreen wipers on the WHOLE WAY) I turned up at the Heritage in Rotorua for the conference. The hotel was a typical kitsch sort of Rotorua feel, but it was pretty impressive. Lovely rooms, good food and an amazing outdoor heated pool and spa pools (neither of which I sampled seeing as I didn’t think to take my togs with me – duh). The main room where we held the conference was a huge auditorium which had a multi-level stage with fake rocks around it and artificial NZ fauna (tacky, yes, but in a good way). I reckon it would have been great for culture shows – and it was quite cool having our conference in this grand room.

Friday night was the AGM which I’ll admit I slipped out of about 3/4 of the way through (was still totally knackered after three weeks of getting up in the night five times with the baby then heading off to work at first light). The best out-take for me from that meeting was that a letter of understanding has been signed between Diabetes New Zealand and Diabetes Youth New Zealand. An excerpt of below:

Diabetes New Zealand accepts that Diabetes Youth New Zealand accept that people with diabetes have dissimilar needs at different age levels. Diabetes New Zealand and Diabetes Youth New Zealand acknowledge that Diabetes Youth New Zealand’s focus is to support youth (aged 0-25) with diabetes and their families, and to represent their interests both locally and nationally.

Diabetes New Zealand accepts that Diabetes Youth New Zealand is the primary voice for concerns that relate to children and young people with diabetes and their families.

Diabetes New Zealand and Diabetes Youth New Zealand will collaborate to improve healthcare and social outcomes for youth with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

Basically the letter of understanding is about the two organisations working together to ensure they are maximising their limited resources and working together efficiently. I really hope we see more of this in future. Great to see the intent there.

So on Saturday the conference opened at 9:45. I definitely worked hard as MC at this conference so even though I had every intention of taking notes, I didn’t get much of a chance as was running around behind the scenes or zig-zagging across the floor with the mic most of the time. However, here are a few bits and bobs (those of you who were there with me feel free to fill in the gaps):

• I was pleased to be opening speaker so I could stop being nervous! It went ok I think, although I suppose the audience for my message was slightly narrower than the whole crowd there (i.e quite interesting for any young women with T1 thinking about having a baby in the next few years, of which there was at least one; quite nostalgic for women with T1 who had had babies; and hopefully re-assuring for parents of T1 little girls that one day when their daughters are ready to have children they can do so safely…. and hopefully with even more medical advances than I enjoyed in 2009…. but as one Dad was overheard saying to his 14 year old boy, “OK son, plenty of relevant stuff in there for you ”)
• Fog is a bit of a conference enemy! Our second speaker’s flight got diverted to Tauranga from where she was driven down to Rotorua in a bus…. so we had quite a bit of time to kill before she arrived. We quickly pulled out one of the polls from this site and did an interactive session which finished up in all of us sharing stories about some of the ignorant comments we get re our T1/our kids’ T1. Thankfully Dr Robyn Toomath came early (she was booked for the afternoon) so we put her on before lunch, brought lunch forward and got our second speaker (Vicky Anderson) to take the after lunch slot. Dr Craig Jefferies was not so lucky – his flight circled Rotorua a few times then turned straight back to AKL – so we never got to hear from him.
• Dr Toomath gave us a good run-down on some of the research which is going on…. but I get the sense we are still quite a few years ago from nailing a cure.
• Vicky Anderson was a classic. Her topic was about “beyond the apron strings” and she told us her story (she’s had T1 for 31 years, since age ten)…. this is one person who’s not been an angel in her life (god bless her, it takes one to know one) and has an interesting take on things as a patient and a health professional.
• Dr Jo McClintock had some really interesting stuff about the psych effects of T1 on kids. In particular it was interesting to hear her “ages and stages” predictions around what parts of diabetes we can expect kids to cope with/take control of at what age (I will try to track this slide down)
• The three athletes who spoke about diabetes, exercise and sport (Mark, Claire and Steph) were inspirational, humble and very entertaining.
• The family dinner was good… and there were a few adults who may have rinsed it a little too much afterwards, there were definitely a few hangovers the next day.
• Sunday was a day for our interactive sessions, which from the feedback I’ve received were popular with the conference attendees. We started with the ‘diabetes mavens’ – Kathy, Chris, Vicky and Karen R…. they told us their incredible stories (the stories were involved as you’d expect so we didn’t get time for too many Qs unfortunately, I reckon if we’d had longer we could have got some really good discussion going). The best group were our teens and twenty-somethings – Heidi-Jane, Steph, Jordan, Marty, Kelsey and Amy. They were the true hit of the conference. Really honest and I think they put a lot of minds at ease. Although they were all pretty headstrong, they were all pretty accepting of their condition. They agreed that testing is a complete pain in the arse but is the key to getting things right. As one parent said to me “hmmmm I think sport is the key to getting kids to look after their levels” – because the sporty kids were completely motivated to get the best control they could so they could be on top of their game. We finished off with the T1 parents session where four parents took the stage and counter-balanced the testimony of the kids. There is a definite chasm between the things which concern parents and what concerns kids and I think the session highlighted that and gave some food for thought on how to close the gap.
• We finished with an address from new DYNZ president Hayden Vink, and a closing from the lovely Charlie Windell who’s Youth Co-ordinator for Rotorua.

Overall, I had an amazing time at the conference. I am always bowled over by how close people can get when they have an issue like diabetes uniting them. There are so many good people out there doing their bit for the community too – so many hours of peoples’ precious time are spent striving to make life better for us T1s.

My favourite analogy of the conference came from Vicky Anderson – I think we all agreed. Diabetes is like a hitch-hiker you wish you’d never picked up. You know you should let it ride in the front seat with you every day, but there are loads of days you sling it in the back seat, sometimes even the boot. And I know I have definitely done both the “pull diabetes behind the car on a tow rope” scenario; along with the “reverse over diabetes and leave it for dead on the side of the road” option.

To everyone who I met down there – awesome to meet you, have a laugh with you, and pore over the issues with you. To those of you I knew already – it’s always fantastic to meet up for these conferences. And to those who worked SO HARD to get this conference together (I’m looking at you, Chris Murray) – job well done. Looking forward to the Rugby World Cup themed DYNZ conference next year