Brainstorming about our 2017 meet-up!

[Julie G]

It's that time of year already. Our board of directors have begun chatting about our 2017 meet-up. This has become an annual tradition where we provide an opportunity to meet as a group and learn how to best optimize our health based upon our shared gene. Last year we partnered with the Ancestral Health Symposium in Boulder, CO and brought in Drs. Bredesen & Gundry as presenters and provided opportunities for us to spend private time (dinners) with them for Q & As. Dr. Terry Wahls, who also presented, afforded us that same opportunity.

Please share your ideas for our 2017 meet-up. Does anyone know of an amazing upcoming conference or symposium that might overlap with our interests? Should we utilize the AHS again given our genetic mismatch with modern civilization? Would you prefer something more specifically geared to our population? Any ideas for speakers? How about an ApoE4 retreat with guided exercise, meditation, cooking, and lots of socializing. Let us know how we can best serve you. Help us plan this opportunity to reunite with old friends and meet new ones.

[Julie G]

LOL, Julie sits alone in a dark conference room thinking about ApoE4... . Give me something, guys. If we put a meet-up together, how many might be interested in joining us? I know it's impossible to commit without have a location or place, but we're just trying to gauge interest at this point.

Might it be better to try to set up multiple, more intimate, regional meet-ups here in the US. For instance, I'd love to personally connect with our Midwestern members and would be happy to arrange a "local" meet-up. I suspect we'd have an easy time finding similar hosts around the country. Just another thought...

Also, if we skip a big annual meet-up, perhaps we could use our resources to bring in more guest experts who can either host threads or participate in live podcasts. We want to serve the majority of members in the best way, but need your input. Please share your thoughts and brainstorm with me.

[slacker]

I am sitting in a dark room ruminating about most useful type of group meeting for ApoE4...

I tried to listen to as many YouTube recordings as possible from last year's Ancestral Health conference. I found them and the website conversation about them helpful. The recorded dinner conversations were hard to follow. For me, there is a balance between the benefit of a live experience, and the flexibility of recorded presentations. If you held my feet to the fire and forced me to make a decision, I would vote for smaller regional meetups (less travel time and expense) with an emphasis on access to "expert" opinion (live webcast with Q&A that can be recorded would be one option). Meeting tribe members in person facilitates connection and mutual respect, but I would not attend a meetup that focuses on meditation, exercise, and cooking ideas.

JulieGee, I would try to attend a regional or national meeting if my schedule allowed. Short driving distances, or locations with direct flights and facilities with easy transportation from the airport would be pluses.

[Julie G]

Great feedback, Slacker. I should have mentioned that we're aware the sound/accoustic problems from our dinners last year were an epic fail... despite GOLDTHREAD's valiant attempt to save us with a sound system. We'll definitely arrange for private dining spaces in the future to both honor our guests and to make better recordings for our members who can't attend.

[circular]

I will always try to attend a national meet up but it will almost always probably be beyond my budget.

I think the regional group idea is worth pursuing whether or not there is a national meet-up. If there are designated regions (not too big), and volunteers to coordinate each region (or as many as could be found), then activities could be organized by region too and most likely more people could engage in person than if there are only national meetups. Regions could have their own contact list with addresses (optional to be included) that are managed off the forum by the coordinator and shared by email. This would allow people in the same towns or metropolitan areas to find each other and get together more often if they wish.

Another idea would be to have a volunteer keep up a Google map in the apoe4 Google account that shows pins where members live who want to get together casually with other members. Each pin would have a person ID so it could be publicly viewable but anonymous. The volunteer would keep a document/spreadsheet in the Google Drive to keep track of which person is which number with their contact information.

That said apoe4.info may already be short on volunteers and I can't myself add to my pile at this time.

[TheresaB]

While we were riding the ski lifts today, George and I did do some talking about this.

The Ancestral Health Symposium was wonderful last year, but we hit a home run by getting Drs. Bredesen and Gundry to present and provide Q&A sessions that evening. It would be hard to match that.

If one of the goals of the annual get-together is to get the word out to others, then that or another similar symposium would be good. We’re going to a low-carb conference next month, George says there are plenty of those around the country.

The downside of the AHS was everyone stayed in their own rooms/own motels so we didn’t have the interaction/conversations like we did in Berkeley with many of us staying in one big house. We did get together for dinners, but all the acceptable restaurants were busy with other conference attendees and it was noisy and very difficult to even talk to the person next to you or hear when the speaker during the Q&A sessions.

A retreat would be wonderful, great to interact with fellow ApoE4-ers. Could do this with “guest speakers” along the lines of a Dr Bredesen or Dr Gundry?

We also talked about where could we do this. If we did our own thing vs piggy-backing onto a symposium, it would probably be cheaper for attendees. Is there something we could do in alignment with the Cleveland Clinic?

I’m not suggesting folks come back to Colorado a second year in a row, but there is a place in the mountains here called YMCA of the Rockies, which has family reunion facilities, gathering areas as well as sleeping arrangements, a wonderful location in the mountains, outdoor activities and recreation facilities, a venue like that would be perfect but I am unaware anything like that somewhere else.
Ski areas tend to have large houses, for big groups/clubs that get together to ski. Maybe if we got something off season, we could do something for a reasonable cost and there would likely be activities like hiking there. The downside to that is ski areas tend not to be close to airports.

Don't know if any of that helps, but that’s my stream of consciousness recollections from our ski lift conversations today.

[TheresaB]

One more thing, many years ago when I was in the Navy I (my people) was/were in charge of organizing a very large meeting of folks. We ended up going to Reno, Nevada. They gave us great deals on accommodations and meeting rooms because they were banking on the attendees spending their money in the casinos. Plus it was convenient for folks flying in from literally all around the world, not a big airport, but a close, commercial airport.

[Stavia]

I may have a locum 6th to 19th August. Long story but ya.

[christian.vuye]

Well, I'm living in Europe, and although I'd be up for coming to the States for something like this - along with visiting California - I'm currently planning a trip to Asia with my girlfriend in the summer.

[hill dweller]

There are various LowCarb conferences that might give us a discount if we piggybacked. For instance, San Diego in early August
https://go.lowcarbusa.org/events

Regional meet-ups offer lower cost, allowing more folks to attend. With videoconferencing, the entire group could meet up, but from the convenience of a local site.

Personally, I would love it if the 2017 meet-up could return to the Buck Institute. That venue could attract researchers and practitioners, and for me, it's local.