“Thriveabetes isn’t a conference; it’s a community!” Thriveabetes 2023 attendee.
Thriveabetes 2023 took place on Saturday 6th, May in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Blanchardstown. Over 150 people attended and spread across four programmes tailored to that group's needs.
Naturally, as the event took place in Dublin, most of our attendees came from the county Dublin area; however, counties Cork, Clare and Galway were very well represented also. In total, 23 counties were represented. There were 95 Adults and Young Adults living with Type 1 Diabetes, 43 parents of children with type 1 diabetes and 7 Adults with type 1 who were also parents of a child or children with Type 1 Diabetes.
A very brief summary of the day
The day kicked off with an excited welcome from Thriveabetes co-founder Gráinne Flynn and a show of hands, or rather, wristbands. This is something inspired by the Children with Diabetes organisation’s Friends for Life Conferences as a way to find our tribe.
Our first keynote speaker, Stacey Simms, from Diabetes Connections, set the perfect tone for the day with her presentation, “Diabetes Connections”, and how important they are. The reassurance of seeing healthy adults with type 1 everywhere. She shared that when her two-year-old son was diagnosed, one of the nurses in the hospital who lived with type 1 made it a point to introduce herself with I’m an adult, and I made it as a way to reassure newly diagnosed families that it was going to be ok.
From that point onwards, the day was filled with connections, and I loved hearing those stories afterwards from our attendees. I especially loved the story about the newly diagnosed chap who confessed to another attendee that he was so nervous about attending, but from the minute he arrived, he felt completely comfortable, so much so that he made sure others were not sitting by themselves. And the story of the lady outside the venue who seemed reluctant to leave because she came to a diabetes conference but found a community. The story of the two ladies who knew each other to see in their local areas but had no idea that they were both parents of children with diabetes. Other comments we’ve received were that the visibility of diabetes technology and the endless alarms going off everywhere normalised diabetes for people, and there was no judgement of how we do diabetes anywhere.
After Stacey’s presentation, we divided into smaller groups where we could really build on those connections. There we combined multiple round table discussions on specific topics such as exercise, women’s health issues, diabetes in school, to pump or not to pump, navigating the leaving cert, moving from the children's services to adult diabetes services, and asking anything anonymously for the young type 1s.
We ended the day with an energetic presentation on diabetes technology (smart pens, pumps, CGMs and apps) from Kamil Armacky, from the Nerdabetic Channel on YouTube, who rounded off his talk with a fun diabetes-themed quiz that we all won.
Here is a small sample of photos from the day, most of which have been provided by DPRM Photography.
Thriveabetes is a community-led organisation that aims to bring people with diabetes together. Many of us know that we’re not the only person with diabetes where we live, but when you don’t know anyone else in your local community who also has it, it can feel like we are the only one. When you connect with a diabetes support community, you no longer feel like you’re the only one. You can do diabetes alone, but you don’t have to.
Thank yous
Thriveabetes would not happen without the support of our sponsors, whose contribution keeps the cost of attending a full-day event with international and national expert speakers as low as possible for our attendees. Our exhibition space was the biggest and most diverse yet, with 18 exhibitors. We thank them so much for attending, for their enthusiasm, and for their dedication to the community.
The Thriveabetes Organising Team & Additional Volunteers
What is completely amazing about this event if that it’s organised by volunteers. It’s all done during our weekends and evenings because we feel passionate about the mission of bringing people with diabetes together to learn from lived experiences.
We also this year had a team of amazing additional volunteers who helped with room management and supervision on the day; thank you so much to Anna Cooper, Siofra Kelleher, Michelle Lowry, Phil Miesle, Chris Morrissey, Rachel O’Neill, Theo Short and Rafi Short.
We also would like to thank Brian Corrigan Sound Systems and Damien Mangan from DPRM Photography for their services on the day.
Thriveabetes would not exist without you, our diabuddies and our community. You put your hands into your pockets and gave us your time because you believed in the value of community. Thank you so much for your support.
Thriveabetes began because we, the organisers, needed to connect with more people like us. We knew that what we saw and felt in the online community could be so much bigger if we were offline.
Until next time! Until October 2024.