Day 1 at CWD FFL

July 8^th, 2009 - The Walt Disney World Coronado Springs resort was buzzing with activity as early as 7:30 this morning; after waking up, I headed over to the convention center to pick up my personal badge for the conference, and it seemed like every person I encountered was either wearing an insulin pump or a t-shirt referencing CWD, the Walk for a Cure, or another diabetes-related event. I overheard one mom saying that she wished someone had told her about CWD earlier, because she had "found it on google" just last year. "If only my child's doctor had directed us to CWD when he was first diagnosed!" she said.

Did you know that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulates diabetes management devices, only requires glucose meter readings to be accurate within 20% of the lab reference? That means that, if your blood sugar were to be measured in a lab, and the lab value was 300, the reading on your home glucose meter could be between 240-360! I learned this at a focus group.

There were several focus groups throughout the day, which allowed companies to hear from us, the consumers, about what we wanted/needed to better manage our diabetes and gauge our reactions to certain technologies.

While the focus groups were taking place, some of the younger attendees hung out at Sports Central, a part of the convention center designated for kids to play volleyball, basketball, etc. Some of the volunteers working with the kids at Sports Central were special guests at the conference -such as Sebastian Sasseville. I was lucky enough to speak with him about his experiences climbing Mount Everest with diabetes.

That night, the exhibit hall opened!