Thursday, December 4, 2014

Good Luck to the #dotMED14 Crew, @RonanTKavanagh

I don't go to healthcare social media conferences that often.  There are three partial reasons for this.  First, I don't have much time.  Second, I'm usually too cheap to pay for it.  Third, I only tend to go to those meetings that I am asked to speak at.  I'll let you decide which of these three is truly the rate limiting step.

The DotMed 2013 conference, however, was an exception.  I was asked ( I also begged/pleaded/cajoled some people-you know who you are) to come to Dublin and speak on the topic of narrative medicine and social media.

The trip was magical.  Dublin was everything I could have hoped for: friendly, gregarious, cold.  The hosts and speaking venue were impeccable.  We met for dinner before and after the event.  There were bars, and food, and alcohol (gasp!), and banjos.

But really, it was two aspects of the trip that really make me jealous on the eve of DotMed 2014 which I will not be attending.  One is that I got to give the talk of my dreams.  A narrative that I had been building over years of blogging and decades of life lived.  A presentation that was, for me, pure joy.  There is nothing better than getting up in front of a group of people and talking fluently about something you are truly passionate about.  I live for these moments.  Every blog post I write is a mini sermon.  A talk I'm itching to stand up and give.

The other, of course, is the utterly cool people I got to meet and spend time with.  The creators, speakers, and attendees were a group that I truly admire.  Their words, ideas, and laughter will stick to my bones long after I have sloughed off the minutia of what had been said.

A year later, I am still in awe of all of you that I spent such precious short time with.

It's like it was just yesterday.

Good luck to the #dotMED14 crew.  Enjoy.

1 comment:

kavvers said...

We wish you were here again this year Jordan. Your contribution was invaluable - and, last time I looked, the most watched talk online from last years conference.

We looking forward to having you back again!