I got to participate in Roche’s Fourth Social Media Summit last week. Naturally I brought my handheld recorder and chased down some of the other attendees to come on the podcast. The next hour covers a range of perspectives on the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and patients, diet soda, the future of DSMA, and much, much more. Enjoy.
There were a number of participants in this week’s podcast. If you want to follow any of them on Twitter, here you go (in order of first appearance).
Upon registration to Roche’s Social Media Summit we were given a goodie bag with lots of goodies in it. Personally, I was impressed by the inclusion of the juice box. Well-played.
Who loves stuff?
But then there’s that non-consumable featured in this picture. What about that little guy. (See what I did there?)
Last week I attended Roche’s Fourth Social Media Summit. Roche flew a bunch of us crazy blog-type folks to Indianapolis and put is in a hotel that featured televisions in the bathroom with the goal of advancing the conversation between the patient and our evil corporate overlords. Actually, they aren’t evil. Not at all. I was quite impressed at both Todd and Rob’s ability to maintain any element of control in a room with so many personalities. Not to say that we were hostile or anything like that, but there’s a lot to consider when you bring this amount of raw opinion under one roof. Of course, being the fourth summit, this was not their first rodeo. However, this was my first go-round and my thoughts on all of this must be taken with that specific context. As a noob.
This insight isn’t unique to Roche’s Social Media Summit, or even massive diabetes gatherings like Friends for Life, but I was reminded of this particular comfort during one of the presentations. It may sound mean, but trust me, this is being typed with the highest sincerity: I liked hearing other people’s Dexcom alarms go off.
I wasn’t celebrating someone else’s lows or highs. Particularly with the low alarms, I had to restrain myself from leaping into action to get a snack or non-diet drink for the “alarming” person with diabetes. We’re all adults, and if we need help we’ll ask for it (right?). But hearing the alarms was another reminder that I’m not alone.
I didn’t think it would take me this long to figure out what I want to say about Roche’s Social Media Summit, and more importantly, how I want to say it. A mere play-by-play breakdown of the 48 hours doesn’t do anyone any good, especially since there will probably be other blog posts that will provide a better breakdown of what went down. It’s probably best I leave those details to others. I’ll be sure to provide links to that content as it’s made available – of course you could always just go through the blogroll too.
Lucky for me, and you, I took a decent number of pictures of my adventures. It’s probably best you start there for my perspective. And be sure to check out the Aston Marton that was hanging out in front of our hotel.
Roche’s Social Media Summit is over but it’ll still take me a couple of days to process everything and figure out what I want to say about the experience – and how.
Apparently this button is now in demand?
A Consequence of Hypoglycemia. 