Essaying the Situation
Saturday, August 30, 2003
"Sharing Wisdom Conference" Literature Rundown
Sharing Wisdom Conference
Moderator: Gary Barg
Keynote Speaker: Deborah Reynolds
August 28, 2003; 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Phoenix, Arizona
Pointe South Mountain
| Literature Description | Comp/Assoc |
| 1 Quality of Life Packet Comprehensive collection of brochures and bookmarks outlining information and services provided through this agency: Senior Adult Independent Living Preventing Stress from Becoming Harmful Family Caregiver Support Groups Senior Help Line Ombudsman Program Caregiver Respite Program Information, Assistance and Education Elder Rights Home and Community Based Services Older Worker and Volunteer Programs Board of Directors and Advisory Council Senior Centers in Maricopa County Eldervention 1 Elder Resources Guide Durable, softbound, tabbed booklet listing service and commercial agencies providing information and assistance to the elderly and their caregivers 1 Getting Around Guide Durable, softbound transportation and mobility guide for older adults 1 Caring for Loved Ones Guide Durable, softbound, short, pithy handbook with suggestions on a variety of caregiver concerns including such things as bathing, enriching the loved one's life and grandparents raising grandkids | Area Agency on Aging Region One |
| 2 Glossy Reprints on the effects of types of brain fluid shunt systems THE LANCET: Relationship of senescence of cerebrospinal fluid circulatory system to dementias of the aged NEUROLOGY: Assessment of low-flow CSF dranage as a treatment for AD | EUNOE |
| 1 pamphlet prices for classes 1 AzNET Holistic Health Newsletter Aug/Sep 2003 3 business cards Resource Awarenes Information Network RSAA - Referrals for Seniors Senior B2B Networking | RSAA |
| 1 Medicaring Brochure A four year demonstration project involving professionally managed caring for the elderly on Medicare A & B with CHF, COPD, cancer and/or neurological disease 1 Integrative Therapies Brochure On the therapeutic value of music, art and massage 1 When It Is Time to Consider... Brochure 1 Company Description Brochure 1 printed Roll-a-dex card | Hospice of the Valley |
| 1 Company Descriptive Brochure 1 printed Roll-a-dex card | Hospice Family Care |
| 1 Application for Membership | National Family Caregivers Association |
| 1 S.E.A.L.S. Brochure A comprehensive, integrated program of evaluative and caregiving services 1 Business Card | Easter Seals |
| 2 Brochures on Skin Cancer Prevention (one for children) | American Cancer Society |
| 1 Finding the Silver Lining Brochure Help for children who live with an ill or disabled parent 1 Mainstay Newsletter Summer 2003 Very informative, supportive newsletter for spousal caregivers with application for all caregivers | Well Spouse Foundation |
| 2 copies Arthritis Today A slick, smart magazine with informative articles, celebrity focus, vital styling and writing; loaded with adds for medications and therapies. Easily grabs the attention of those not suffering from arthritis. Jul/Aug 2002 Nov/Dec 2002 1 2002-2003 Supplement Guide Very Informative and interesting 1 2003 Drug Guide ditto above | Arthritis Foundation |
| 4 much appreciated copies of Today's Caregiver Very vital, timely, well presented magazine; found a lot to interest me. Surprised at the few ads; after careful consideration, think the mag, and the whole company, need more ads. Direct approach very welcome. Reminds me of Country Woman magazine, which isn't bad, but I think it should be reminding me of a cross between Country Woman and Harpers. Jan/Feb 2003 Mar/Apr 2003 May/Jun 2003 Jul/Aug 2003 1 bought, autographed F.E. copy of The Fearless Caregiver All I can tell you is that my mother is still glued to the book and has taken to quoting me "particularly good paragraphs" out of the book, specifically on not feeling guilty and taking life as it comes. I can't wait to read it. | Caregiver.com |
| 1 Brochure for The Patient Advocate Legal Services Care Notes Brochure Family Caregiving: When It Wears You Down AHCCCS Application Filing Brochure Not the application, for which I looked 1 Federal Medicare Hospice Benefits Brochure | Unidentified by Vendor |
I am an information junkie. I love collecting it, consuming it, cataloguing it, contemplating it and creating it. I am (relatedly, I'll bet) a magazine junkie. Although the universe periodically forces me to contemplate the necessity of detachment to things, either by chance or by obsession, I collect and read all kinds of printed information, love being surrounded by it, choosing it, and my favorite type of information presentation is the magazine type, either on
paper or on the computer.
The most valuable (to me) and best presented information of all was the display by the Area Agency on Aging Region One, a local governmental aging resource. The presentation of their most important information in durable,softbound booklets is most appreciated. Their table was stocked with several exhibitors talking to everyone about everything. It was exhilarating. Of course I loved the magazines, was surprised that I found them interesting and eye catching (but, I'm easy when it comes to magazines). I was surprised that the drug booth didn't have more information but they may be keeping a low profile these days. I can't say whether there was too little or too much information; there weren't enough exhibitors nor was the variety of exhibitors at all inspired.
On an individual basis, The Well Spouse Foundation was clearly understocked, most of their brochures were exhibited as examples pinned to a display board including one about the isolation of the charge rather than the caregiver of which I was sorry I couldn't obtain a copy. Easter Seals was set up to show a video presentation on the computer but the computer wasn't working. No one else was using computer information technology. One place was selling it. There were no interactive demonstrations, no active researching, no impromptu mini-panels. In some cases, most glaringly at the American Cancer Society, there was no one available knowledgeable enough to discuss the information being provided.
From the exhibit point of view, the Sharing Wisdom Conference did have its satisfactions for me. It was a short conference and there was an badly handled attempt to corral us into various meeting formats but I went there to network and pick up information, and I did. I didn't visit all the booths because I wasn't interested in all the information. The Parkinson's Association booth, for instance; the booth featuring a modified automobile.
I enjoyed animated conversations with gregarious, informed exhibitors at some of the booths I did visit. The woman at the Arthritis Foundation, for instance, chatted with me on the peculiarities of the therapeutic value of copper bracelets. The drug pusher at Pfizer was surprisingly knowledgeable about why Mom's doctor was avoiding Detrol LA and arthritis medications for her.
I learned, from informal networking with attendees, that there is a helpful and meticulously sophisticated shorthand to identify the stage of caregiving in which one is involved although I got nowhere near learning it, have no idea what my catagory is, but I'll recognize the lingo and, hopefully, my place in it next time. I also learned that most caregivers my age are equally suspicious and intrigued by the 'new' buzzword, "Caregiver" and the self-conscious definition this attention is provoking among us on an individual level.
I sorely missed lots of resource agencies and companies that I was expecting; The American Diabetes Association, for one (yes, I'm still pissed about that one, I had a host of questions prepared); The American Medical Association; more drug companies; convenience product companies; medical supply companies; commercial and private research companies...
I think the lack of exhibitors and the poor forum panel are related. Of the three panel members one represented COGNIShunting. Only one question was directed at her, rightly so. The other two panelists, while undoubtably well informed, tended toward giving advice rather than giving problem feedback and provoking discussion. One very frustrating example of the panel discussion that touched me surrounded the issue of managing and augmenting the charge's professional medical care. When, to an earlier question, the appropriate panelist rattled off a list of 'to do's': fax your questions to your doctor (been there done that); call ahead and inform doctor of need for extra talk time (been there done that; have also done it, unsuccessfully, at the time follow-up appointments are made); all her regurgitated responses caused me to design a question about dealing with the defiance of doctors when you make medical decisions with which they disagree (whether or not your decisions later work out, which they often do). It was, admittedly, a jumbled question, but it sparked a few "yeah's" in the audience. No one addressed it and, finally, the moderator turned to me and challenged, "Do you have a support group?"
What? Yeah...
I'm aware that the paradigm for specialized professsional conferences (Well Spouse Foundation, for instance) is more sedate and requires 3 figure registration fees per person. I also understand that this helps keep them ethically clean and I'm not opposed to this tactic. What I'm saying is that Caregiver.com is already unabashedly commercial. Why not use this quality to both an economic and informal political advantage by building (and owning) very lucrative bridges between the commercial caregiving product and service community, the government caregiving community, the non-profit caregiving community and us caregivers by using your commericial base to lure support for sharp, locally based, much anticipated Conference Expos for Caregivers?
I think if there had been more sponsors, thus more vendors, thus more funding, thus more information to be had and discussed, thus more people chomping at the bit to be panelists, that The Conference that Almost Didn't Convene would have been The Expo Conference for Caregivers by Caregiver.com and everyone it addressed would have known about it and attended, because, "if you don't care for someone, you're not alive".
- posted by Gail Rae @ 12:57 0 comments email...
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"Sharing Wisdom Conference" Promotional Goodies
Sharing Wisdom Conference
Moderator: Gary Barg
Keynote Speaker: Deborah Reynolds
August 28, 2003; 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Phoenix, Arizona
Pointe South Mountain
| # | Item | Comp/Assoc |
| 1 | ball point pen w/holder & neck cord | National Memory Impairment Insititute |
7 | ball point pens w/logo there were many more to be had | Encore Senior Village Celebrex(Pfizer) Friendly Adult Home Care (not vendor; small bus. owner attendee At Home Solutions Sunshine Village Detrol LA (Pfizer) Hospice Family Care |
| 5 | flat, standard refrigerator magnets there were more to be had | Sunshine Village Area Agency on Aging Senior Help Line somehow ended up with 2 Visiting Angels Hospice Family Care |
| 1 | standard sized emery board | Hospice of the Valley |
| 1 | insulating cup holder | Hospice Family Care |
| 1 | wrist sweat band | Hospice Family Care |
| 1 | jar opener | Sunshine Village |
| 2 | 3x5 post-it padsthere were many more to be had | Encore Senior Village At Home Solutions |
| 1 | magnetized grocery list | Encore Senior Village |
| 1 | letter/paper slitter | At Home Solutions |
| 1 | magnetized blank note pad | At Home Solutions |
| 1 | packet of Forget-Me-Not flower seeds | National Cremation Society |
| 1 | band aid mini-holder non-magnetized | Eunoe |
| 1 | business card holder | Celebrex (Pfizer) |
| 1 | sturdy, magnetized document clip w/top perched pen holder | Bextra (Pfizer) |
| 1 | 5x7 post-it pad | Detrol LA (Pfizer) |
| 27 | Total Products | Total Vendors: 12 |
Phoenix is a hard crowd to play. I have this on good second hand authority from a lighting tech/roadie and a past president of the Stage Hands Guild. From the source, this: "It's the redneck mentality." I'm not sure about that, but Phoenix has some unique qualities that caused problems from the start for a modestly funded, modestly promoted, modestly researched, modestly organized conference for one of the most potentially explosive economic demographics. All the problems came down to location, location, location.
First of all, it's hot-hot out here in the middle of August, folks. You have to be good to catch our eye.
Second, what are you doing throwing this shindig in August anyway, when you're missing out on a good third of your attendees and, thus, probably some lucrative vendors?
Third, at least half our population has a multi-generational family care system that is handed down and tended from generation to generation. This group includes more than the expected Hispanic and Native American population. The young man who remarked to me, "Everyone is a caregiver. If you aren't taking care of someone, you're not alive," and his mother are Rumanian. This segment wasn't addressed. I was surprised, in fact, at the lack of Spanish language displays.
Fourth, where the hell was the American Diabetes Association, anyway?
And, what about PR? I heard about it from the Caregiver.com website purely by chance. I'm not an isolationist. I listen to car radio pretty typical of my age group. You'd think, too, it would have been mentioned on our local NPR stations. If I didn't hear about it locally, it's because it wasn't promoted to me, the caregiver. I watch a fair amount of TV. I notice things. I didn't notice this conference except accidentally through an oblique, unexpected source.
Yes, I'm obsessive enough to keep a tally of what company spewed forth what promotional goodies. It gave me something to do while I was waiting for this very slow auto-web page designer/generator. As soon as I realized that some vendors were more generous than others I kept a running tally. Wouldn't you know it, the drug company Pfizer, came out on top with 5 items (under the names of different drugs but distributed from one table). At Home Solutions tied with Hospice Family Care for second place. The Most Unique Item was, hmmm, I think the magnetized document clip/pen holder; also high on the list for Most Appreciated Item, which includes the business card holder and the cup insulator. The paper slitter was a Caught My Eye Item; we need one. So was the jar opener. Most Unique Item status also goes to the Forget-Me-Not seeds. Cool.
I have some ideas for unique and thought-provoking (name recognition) 'hard copy' (versus literature which I would consider 'soft copy') promotional goodie items that at least my part of this crowd of caregivers would appreciate:
- branded/strapped water bottle carriers, insulated
to cart around the promotional free bottled water that should have been provided - branded pill separators with big compartments
someone did distribute pill separators; tiny ones that don't hold my mother's morning supplements - magnets are always good; double-duties are well-loved
- food/supplement vendors with samples of diet-specialized convenience foods
- para-legal services distributing government forms for powers of attorney, advance directives, etc.
- The American Medical Association's handy pocket calendar/diary
Also, abridged pocket PhyDesKAsst's - And, damn, what about the American Diabetes Association?
- Companies passing out glucose measuring sticks
- Trial glucometers on display
- computerized statistic recording demos; pass out the free software
- a nutritionist sub-exhibit
Not to put on too fine a materialistic point but we're a consumer culture. Capitalism fuels our economic engine. More and more of us are going to be caregivers and/or charges. We've already influenced the market, both product and PR, through our ailments and our interests. As well, I didn't observe a herd of mad souvenier snatchers at this conference. I was the only one, I believe, who garnered as many of the freebies as I did and even I passed up a couple of choice items because I knew neither my mother nor I would use them. The attendees, overall, were so little concerned with what goodies they could garner that during the raffles for special door prizes only one of the drawings found a winner on the first draw. When time came for the drawings, quite a few attendees were no longer attendant.
Most of us caregivers are also a generation of reawakening advocates. The reason we identify with fearless caregiving is because we are inventing it. Conferences/Expos are a great technique for pulling together a variety of commercial and social interests to serve and be served by a fundamentally idealist, market-oriented, on the verge of becoming a highly self-conscious demographic who is already redetermining the economic metabolism of this country (at least). Get to know us at a local level. Play with us. Play into us. Consider sponsoring more than one conference in this state (maybe a Northern Arizona conference in Prescott, a Southern Arizona conference in Tucson). Remember, we've got all those recently transplanted Californians and Northwesterners. Dare I say it? Bring us someone besides Debbie Reynolds or get to know your audience and what they might appreciate before throwing your keynote speakers to Arizona wolves. I was looking forward to hearing what Ms. Reynolds had to say about caregiving. Something tells me that lack of area research caused a what could have been a dynamite keynote address to slide down the drain. Find panelists who will help us define our questions. Drum up grant money from the government(s). Did you do that? Drum up more. Pay attention to the commercial possibilities behind social issues. Pay attention to this generation's communication slogan, "The medium is the message."
Remember, you're playing to Phoenix. Even with expensive PR Phoenix isn't kind to its opera, its symphony orchestra or its ballet (Do we still even have these?!?). Most of us come and go within 3 years (including caregivers) and are from someplace else. A lot of us live here and there in the state. We know what's available out there. We know we're in a place that is hard on community but a lot of us are community oriented. A not insignificant number of us are long-timers and a not insignificant number are native. A not insignificant number are bi-lingual. We're used to moving. When we don't like something we don't complain, we move on. This may not be the most efficacious way of dealing with problems in one's environment but it's the way this metroplex does it.
I've begun perusing the literature, first and foremost the issues of Today's Caregiver magazine. In two of the issues different productions of the Sharing Wisdom Conference/Fearless Caregiver Forum featuring Leeza Gibbons (and, apparently her father, for whom she cares and I guess they both cared for her mother/his wife) were reviewed. They were suspiciously glowing but, the truth is Phoenix doesn't make one cynical; picky, but not cynical. I prefer to believe that these two conferences went so well that the only way to communicate this was through standard glowing journalistic feature prose. I want to trust that the conferences being described, with their stocked panels, dynamic discussion forums, well modulated and moderated segments and inspirational keynote speakers weren't, in reality, carbon copies of the Phoenix Sharing Wisdom Conference on August 28, 2003. Let us hope...
Like I said. Hard crowd.
- posted by Gail Rae @ 00:08 0 comments email...
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Friday, August 29, 2003
"Sharing Wisdom Conference" Review
Sharing Wisdom Conference
Moderator: Gary Barg
Keynote Speaker: Deborah Reynolds
August 28, 2003; 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Phoenix, Arizona
Pointe South Mountain
I remember the year I saw Mary Poppins. The build-up of advance advertising was excruciating, not the least of which was that the movie was going to be shown in Guam's one commercial theater so we'd get to see it. I'm not sure what I was expecting, perhaps the children's version of Moulin Rouge, but I was disappointed, although my sisters and I spent the following summer singing the entire score of the movie every chance we got.
I feel the same toward the Sharing Wisdom Conference [sponsored by Caregiver.com] I attended today. I was expecting, hmmmmaybe the Moulin Rouge of Caregiver Conferences: Inspiration about all aspects of caregiving not only from speakers but from an atmosphere encouraging displays of the wisdom from the attendees; exhibits encouraging not only networking with professionals but among attendees; an exhibit hall at least three times the size of today's, filled with the flirting of a diverse, dynamic metro-community well-stocked with commercial and non-profit resources arrayed before me like waves of fan dancers; facilitated work-shop time designed to help attendees network with one another and the professionals regarding a variety of focus issues; a problem sharing forum so well organized that people on the panel cross-talked with themselves as well as attendees and issues were discussed rather than simply questions being answered.
I liked the homey, accessible ambiance of today's production and I don't want to downplay this. Without intention (partly due to phone instructions received yesterday from the Pointe South Mountain, partly because I thought I might be battling some of the worst rush hour traffic in the nation driving to the conference), I arrived 40 minutes early. I bumped into Steven Barg of Caregiver.com, who I assume is the foremost organizer of the conferences, and Caregiver.com founder Gary Barg. Both welcomed me as a caregiver [versus a vendor, for which I was mistaken so many times I began to wonder who the conference was really intended to benefit]. One, I can't remember whom, said, "This conference is for you," and I felt he meant it and was echoing the sentiment of the other. Their attitudes and generosity of spirit further aroused my interest before the convention began. From both I learned that today's event was the only conference being held in Arizona. It is the same conference that operates nationwide as Fearless Caregiver's Forum and Fearless Caregiver's Conference. My own 'story' of hearing about the conference was solicited by both. I was astonished and flattered that Gary Barg remembered having viewed my website Mom & Me (which I've attempted, so far unsuccessfully, to have listed in Caregiver.com's Personal Websites of Caregivers links section); mentioning, "It's the one with the medication schedules..."; the research for which led me, initially to Caregiver.com. I told them I'd be 'reviewing' the conference for my website.
I was surprised at the turnout: Much less than I expected, maybe 300-400 in all. I understand the clumsiness and consumerism that could threaten a conference of this nature if it had been produced on a Women's Expo scale. I also think there exists a much more exciting standard for size that would have added electricity to the ambiguous networking air and could have solicited a lot more money and sponsorship. Successful conferences of this nature shouldn't, as well, charge entrance fees, no matter how grand. Having a much larger roster of vendor/sponsors would have taken care of some of this problem. Better PR aimed, perhaps, at the whole community rather than what is still considered to be a special interest segment might have also boosted attendance and the desirability for potential vendors (both local and national) to sponsor booths.
There were few vendors. A shortlist in the program contained the names of 29. There were three additional exhibitors not listed. Of those on the list there was one potential vendor at whose booth I would have lingered because of my mother's health profile, The American Diabetes Association. I don't think they made it. The areas of interest lined up like this:
- Non-profit Organizations Sponsoring Disease Research and Support (1 no show): 9
- Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing Facility Companies: 7
- In Home Care Assistance Companies: 6
- Referral Associations: 4
- Commercial Companies Showing Products of Particular Interest to Caregiver Families (not listed as exhibitors): 2
- Insurance Company (1 not listed): 2
- Unidentified (I don't remember seeing this exhibit): 1
- Death Arrangements: 1
- Special timepieces, for instance;
- food and supplement vendors who specialize in products for the elderly and the middle aged;
- legal clinics;
- the Attorney General's Office, for that matter;
- the American Medical Association, since more and more money is being apportioned to health care specifically through caregivers and their charges;
- companies specializing in products designed to prepare specialized diets;
- medical supply companies who sell to the public
- companies manufacturing and distributing in-home testing equipment;
- local 'Multi-generational Centers' (as 'senior citizen centers' are now called, and designed to suit, in Mesa, AZ, at least);
- local specialized libraries and research facilities who can help caregivers research a variety of topics.
As a caregiver I came ready to network with my peers and those who are interested in displaying their products and services to me. I even designed and made 'calling cards' listing my name, website and email address. Although such an idea didn't occur to me until I was at the conference, I would have loved the presence of a miscellaneous, on-the-spot caregiver booth, maybe designed like an outdoor cafe with a free coffee/tea/water/maybe juice bar where attendees can relax and go through their collection of information, plan their next assault, trade and maybe even display on free counter space their own calling cards and small presentations, etc.; maybe replete with literature racks with copies of magazines and books for perusal that might be of interest to caregivers.
The miscellaneous goodie factor was underwhelming both in variety and quantity. Although this doesn't need to be a draw at well-planned, well run conferences, it helps; and, anyway, if there aren't free goodies and there's a cover charge, it's usually called a "Benefit Luncheon/Dinner", and there are still goodies. Caregiver conference organizers, by thinking creatively about what products primary caregivers use ubiquitously, both the obvious and the peripheral, could enter into a mutually advantageous, reciprocal relationship with companies seeking to promote their products to one of the largest advertising demographics in the nation. Want to know who these people are and what they'll buy? Think about your product in our hands then bring your product and your ideas to one of our conferences!
I was surprised that the burgeoning literature for this demographic, both instructive and pleasurable, wasn't represented. It was also too bad that copies of Gary Barg's book The Fearless Caregiver weren't available. The book was between hardback and paperback editions. Toward the end of the conference I grabbed the display copy of the hard cover edition and approached Steven about buying the book for cash on the spot if I could get Gary (who was approaching from behind) to autograph the book. My mother is now reading it voraciously, "..in order," she jokes, "...to hold [me] up to standard." I'm pleased she's reading it (as well as reading again, by choice). I love discussing aspects of her care and caregiving in general with her from all angles. This book looks as though it's going to provoke many such discussions between my mother and me. Plus, I have an autographed, hardcover First Edition, my all around favorite kind of book.
The first presentation was led by Gary Barg. After honoring caregivers he suggested we "share the wisdom" by turning to our neighbor and soliciting their story/introducing ourselves. We, the audience, didn't take him seriously until he dropped the mike and paced the stage. So we did, for less than 10 minutes. I would've much preferred audience groups organized by interest or issue, even off the cuff, with appropriate facilitators chairing discussions, asking questions, taking directed surveys (what a great way for research companies to get information about this life style). I was also very curious about the designation of "The Fearless Caregiver" and was hoping for more direction, which was not forthcoming in this conference.
I was unaware of the local hero who received the 2003 Care Award, although I assume she was worthy. I just hadn't heard about the nomination or the criteria.
There was a question and answer session fielded by a small, curious panel. Advice was given (in some cases, inappropriate or non-sympathetic advice), but wisdom wasn't sought or displayed.
I had envisioned a type of floor organization that supported the forming of groups designed to, say, practice journal writing; discuss community resources for medical information; talk about the dilemma of having to doctor one's charge often to the expressed disapproval of the charge's doctor; etc. This atmosphere remains a vision although one I think is easily achievable.
Debbie Reynolds, the keynote speaker was entertaining. I had been excited about hearing what she had to say, knowing that she has spent decades in intense needs caregiving for at least one of her parents. I didn't know that she is continuing to caregive. She played to the crowd and told jokes. The questions she fielded, although dropped in a box during the 'networking' part of the conference, seemed to have been specially selected and answers prepared ahead of time. I don't fault the conference for this but all except one of the questions had been addressed during the previous forum. As I listened through Ms. Reynold's keynote address and question fielding I couldn't help thinking about an interview with Kirk Douglas I heard some months ago on one of my mother's favorite afternoon shows. He talked about how the encouragement and irritation of his wife was his primary spur to recovery and revitalization. Although I caught the interview serendipitously, the mere mention of the struggles these two people took on when Mr. Douglas suffered his stroke has inspired me since hearing it. I would have loved to have heard more, to have been able to question this couple about their journey, their gained wisdom. I would have loved this couple as a keynote speaking team. Although Ms. Reynolds provided a copacetic end to a copacetic conference, I left thirsting for so much more and disappointed because I expected Ms. Reynolds to be so much more.
Since this is the only Arizona franchise (so far) of a series of several local caregiver conferences scattered around the country, I was expecting and I would have liked to have seen more resources from other parts of the state. Aside from mom and me living in two unique parts of the state depending on season and availability of services, a great deal of intra-state travel goes on within the group of citizens most likely to be caregiving or partaking of caregiving. Community-to-community resource information would not only be of high interest to attendees, such an effort by conferences to encourage local resources to recognize their out-of-town constituency might promote easier coordination of services between communities.
I see a lot of commercial and social possibilities for conferences directed at caregivers and their charges. There are so many issues that our 'special interest' group is capable of bringing to the fore and conferences such as these can promote the defining and addressing of these issues from a variety of fronts. I'm not sorry I attended this one. I certainly think I'll be singing the material from this one for some time to come. The catch is, much of the material I'm having to improvise from the provocative, yet ill developed suggestiveness of this conference. I'd love to be involved in the brainstorming, planning and/or organizing for the next such conference if my caregiving duties permit (which they might).
I noticed one man at my table who attended half the conference with his mother, the owner of a small in-home care/respite business. His obvious youth prompted me to ask him if he was a caregiver. He replied, "Everyone's a caregiver. If you are not taking care of someone you're not alive." Wouldn't caretaking conferences inviting the commercial, social and governmental thrusters of our society to combine in support of and solicitiation to this ideal make for a splendid conference? That's the one I'd like to attend.
Update - 3/20/04: The Arizona Women's Expo is happening this weekend in Phoenix, probably at the Phoenix Civic Center. It is a 250,000 square foot commercial and informational extravaganza including celebrity speakers, mini-seminars, all kinds of samples, hawkers, things to buy, activities and memberships for which to sign up and the price, this weekend, is being advertised as "$8.00". I don't know if this includes the $1.00 discount being advertised if you buy your ticket at one of two local chain grocers. I wish I could go this year. I now have a concerted interest, since the Sharing Wisdom Conference in scrutinizing how these events work. The Arizona Women's Expo has what is probably a temporary website that I hope to take some time to study before it disappears, to see how they gather the capital to put the expo on and how valuable the sponsors consider a presence at the event. Why couldn't a Caregiver's Expo be designed along the Women's Expo structure? The entrants wouldn't need to pay $45.00 for a dinner when they can lunch on free samples or buy whatever they like for a minimal price from kiosk vendors promoting their food at special prices. Consider the opportunity to combine commercial and community concerns. Surely someone out there, maybe even a PR firm, has the resources to pull something like this off nationwide once a year.
- posted by Gail Rae @ 19:39 1 comments email...
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