Last week I had the outstanding privilege to attend the 2018 DiabetesMine University which consisted of the Innovation Summit & DData Technology Exchange.

I was one of 9 Patient Voices Winners from across the globe. I am humbled to be in the company of others influencers within the diabetes sphere. I felt extra special to be in the same room with so many dynamic attendees from various areas of expertise.

Takeaway 5: Never let fear steal your joy. I’ve thought about applying as a Patient Voice for years, but I let fear get the best of me. As you may know, I’ve run this blog for 6 years under an alias because of the impact of Type 2 stigma. Applying this year was one of the steps I made to step out of fear and shame. So, I’d like to give a special “thank you” to DiabetesMine for accepting me as it has encouraged and reassured me that I did the right thing by living boldly as a Type 2 diabetes advocate.

Takeaway 4: Meeting people, making friends, and establishing connectinos. I love meeting new people and connecting with like minds. The 2018 DiabetesMine University did not disappoint in this regard. Just look at my selfie collection. I left the summit with more friends than I arrived with and that’s a great thing.

Takeaway 3: Learning about Block Chain, Data Science, and AI. I’ve heard about Block Chain and AI before the conference, but my level of understanding deepened through the presentations and I also learned how these can be integrated within healthcare to help improve the lives of people living with diabetes.

Takeaway 2: Testing Virtual Reality technology. This was an interesting experience. I’m not a gamer, so it initially took some time to get use to, but after a while I was able to catch the hang of it. This particular VR experience was designed to help others become more empathic to pump users in the work space and elsewhere.

Takeaway 1: Being a Demo Day Judge. By far one of the greatest moments of the weekend for me was having the pleasure of commenting on the demos by Klue, Dance 501, Diabits, Sugarmate, Diabeloop, and BG Aware. Each company was given roughly 5 minutes to tell us about their products. I was impressed with them all and as a person who enjoys doing product reviews, I look forward to posting my review of the products that I can. Many were focused on insulin-users and at this present time, I am not using insulin as a management option for type 2 diabetes. That can change at any moment for me, however, as this summer I was using insulin therapy.

Conclusion: The DiabetesMine University was the perfect way to bring in Diabetes Awareness Month. I remain ever grateful for the opportunity to attend and hope to attend again in the future.

* Feel free to click on any of the hyperlinks in this post to learn more about the products displayed at demo day.