Note from the ACDIS Editor: A newbie’s conference experience

by Carolyn Riel

While this isn’t technically my first in-person ACDIS event, it is my first national conference. I first came on board with ACDIS in September 2019, and just two short months later, they threw me in the deep end with that year’s Outpatient Symposium. I think at that point, I had just started to get a grasp on what exactly CDI is. The different nuances between inpatient and outpatient were still beyond me.

Now, two years later, I am finally attending my first annual ACDIS conference. I remember I was overwhelmed at the Symposium with the amount of people in attendance, commenting on that, and then being told, “this is nothing…wait ‘til you see national.”

They weren’t wrong, and I’m told this year’s attendance is lower than normal due to the pandemic, yet I’m still overwhelmed by just how many new faces there are. I guess that just speaks to how dedicated ACDIS’ members are.

When I attended the Symposium, I hadn’t spoken to anyone outside of the ACDIS national team. Over the past two years, however, I have done my fair share of networking and meeting new people, virtually of course. I have had the honor of working with so many amazing folks on articles for the Journal and for our various boards and committees. While I’ve seen pictures or been in video meetings with some of them, it’s nice to finally put a real, human face to the names and voices I’ve learned. Plus, people always look just a bit different in person than what you’d expect. For example, I assume I’m much taller than most people would have imagined (I’m 5’10” without heels, for reference).

As I’m sitting here at my first ACDIS conference (well, technically the pre-con at the time of writing), I have some initial impressions…

The food is (insert the chef kiss gesture) delicious. Day one of the pre-con we had a lovey hot breakfast with the most delicious breakfast potatoes I’ve personally ever eaten. They were shredded, covered in cheese, mixed with some bell peppers and onions. Again, this would be the time to insert a chef kiss emoji should I have the ability to do so. Lunch was brisket, chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, jalapeno cornbread, and the star of the show: macaroni and cheese. How can you not love macaroni and cheese? The afternoon snack was probably my favorite coming in with bite-sized cakes covered in chocolate. This morning? Greek yogurt parfait and avocado toast. From what I’ve been told, by the time you read this, we’ll also have enjoyed an Asian-inspired hot buffet lunch, incredible appetizers at the opening reception, and more.

Second thought: Our ACDIS members are even better than I already knew they were. I’ve worked with plenty of folks from the CDI community on articles for the Journal, local chapter business, and general inquiries so I already knew how engaged everyone was. But when I actually saw folks in person talking with each other and engaging with our instructors in class, it’s obvious how passionate you are about the profession.

For example, I’ve been a room moderator for the clinical validation pre-con session with our two ACDIS CDI Boot Camp instructors Sharme Brodie and Dawn Valdez. While attendees at other conferences I’ve attended want to get in and out as quickly as possible, here there’s been an open line of communication, constant question and answer, discussing the topics and having conversations about the topics at hand.

You see, what I’ve found makes the ACDIS conference different than any other is not only the genuine desire to learn, but the shared mindset of wanting others to succeed. If someone has a question, it’s not a quick one-word answer; it’s an involved conversation where other attendees get involved to share their own experiences. Everyone wants to learn while also wanting to share their thoughts with others to see someone else succeed too.

That’s a sort of community mentality you don’t see often.

Third impression. There are a lot of educational opportunities. Like, a lot. From my understanding, a typical ACDIS conference has six tracks simultaneously running on different umbrella topics. This year that’s been trimmed down to four, and it’s still amazing to me that that’s an abbreviated version of what the conference usually is! We have tracks on clinical and coding, management and professional development, quality and regulatory, and even innovation and expansion. That’s not even including the pre-con session on clinical validation, management essentials, and the physician advisor’s role in CDI.

Almost any CDI-related topic you could think of, odds are we have a session covering it. While I’m moderating sessions from the management and professional development track, I do have some free periods to go and attend other sessions. Let me tell you, sitting down and deciding which sessions I wanted to attend myself was so difficult! I wanted to go to every session available, but I am just one person and can only be in one place at a time, so I had to settle on a few.

Fourth, and final impression, for sake of not rambling more than I already have. We do spirit days at the ACDIS conference, and I absolutely love it. The first full day of the conference is ACDIS pride day, and while the ACDIS team wears staff T-shirts, I’m hoping to see some attendees go all-out with their outfits sporting orange and purple shirts, pants—dare I even say wigs?

The next day is state pride day, and it’s always fun to see where most people are coming from to join us. While I personally won’t be representing my home state, you all should know that I “love that dirty water, Boston you’re my home.”

For the final day of the conference, we made a last-minute decision to encourage folks to wear their most exciting footwear to go along with this year’s conference theme Stepping Forward. It was a soft announcement in last week’s CDI Strategies edition, so I’m not sure how many folks will play along with us. But you can except Associate Editorial Director Linnea Archibald to wear magenta high heels, while I’ll be sporting some light-up sneakers.

As a final thought, I just wanted to thank everyone who was able to attend the 2021 conference with us in Dallas. It’s been a long time since ACDIS held its last in-person conference in 2019, and I know I’m speaking for more than just myself when I say we’re happy to be back connecting with you again. If you were not able to join us, please do consider joining us in six months for the 2022 ACDIS conference in Kissimmee, Florida, from May 2-5. We’re currently working on getting all the details finalized, and I can promise you it’s going to be a beautiful event with the theme of “imagine.”

It’s been so good to be in-person and connect faces to names and voices. There are people I’ve been working with for the last two years and never been able to meet them face-to-face until now. If I could say one final thing to sum up how this conference has made me feel, it’s hope: Hope that by the 2022 conference we’ll be settled in this new normal, hope for the CDI profession as a whole, and hope that all ACDIS events will have such delicious food.

Editor’s note: Riel is the editor for ACDIS. Contact her at criel@acdis.org.