Wham Bam San Fran

Bang bang, here is a quick update of a few frantic days in San Fransisco for the American Diabetes Association (ADA) annual meeting, considered one of the biggest diabetes conferences in the world.
Team Type 1 made a detour on route to final preparations for the Race Across America in Oceanside, CA. The American Diabetes Assoc (ADA) annual meeting was held this past weekend in San Fransisco. We appeared on behalf of TT1 and representing our major sponsors Sanofi-Aventis, OmniPod and Abbott Diabetes Care in the trade displays over the three day event. The Abbott Diabetes Care booth chose an innovative way to showcase their newest product on the market, their continuous glucose monitor called the Navigator which was approved for use in the US by the FDA in March 2008. Matt Brooks, Phil Southerland, Matt Vogel and myself were hooked up to a special large screen display that showcased our real-time glucose readings. Conference delegates were able to watch our glucose levels go up and down while we chatted, ate and rode the stationery bike!

Its a posting in pictures, so lets get straight to it:

Hooking up the three navigators required to run the continuous display at the ADA (one for the constant readings, one as a backup, and one which is our own personal navigator)

We also had to come into the booth the night before the trade displays were officially open to the conference delegates to test out the system. Matt did a great job, showcasing diabetes perfection with a 99 (a 5.5 in the Australian scale):

Matt may be American, but that doesn't mean he has ridden a New York Taxi. In fact, he had never been in a cab until our time in San Fran. This was taken on his maiden voyage on route to dinner:

Having three Navigators meant three times the alarms and a lot more packing space, as they need to follow you everywhere. Luckily the hotel room was big enough to dump them on the desk and not worry about them til it was time to leave. The back pockets when riding were pretty bulky though!

I also almost hit a 99 - but we missed capturing it on camera, so did it really exist at all?

Showtime at the booth - my numbers and indicator arrow on show for all to see - in real time. Here is after overcorrecting a hypo (deliberately to show the swinging effects):

Talking the talk:

With our Abbott support crew and project managers Stephanie Wilson and Glenn Berman:

Quite a few Aussies were at ADA, including Melbourne Diabetes Educator Cheryl Steele:

With the President of Abbott Diabetes Care, Heather Mason

Even my endo was at the show! Andrew with his wife Wendy

Abbott's Jay Dunigan with all the Aussies: Kerry White, me, Cheryl Steele and Abbott Australia's Bruce Passingham.

Nightime views from my hotel room:

The fixed gear scene was huge in San Fran, which was so weird considering the terrain! You gotta suffer for fashion though:

Andy getting his just desserts - well after the rest of us

It was great to catch up with Matt Vogel from the 2007 RAAM team - here with 3/4 of the gold member team:

C'mon!

The crew preparing to fly down to San Diego

More later..