3rd Anual Arequipa Medical Conference and Healthcare Training Symposium - DAY TWO

Photo: The Physician cohort.

Photo: The nursing cohort.

Photo: One of our fantastic nursing education speakers - Alana.

Photo: My job . . . the PowerPoint slide advancer.

Success is really the only word that comes to mind when I am seeking words to help me describe day two of this years conference. Yes, the numbers were much less than we had originally hoped for - and, we still had almost 90 participants in our two-day event.

The second day was a marathon day of trainings and educational symposia. I should imagine that everyone was thoroughly exhausted by the end of the afternoon. I will say, however, that the smiles and warm remarks definitely gave testimony to the enjoyment that people had.

We have already started planning the conference for 2011. We will tabulate the evaluations and build a strong theme for next year. Our goal is to build on the experiences from this event and create a conference that dwarfs this year's numbers. In fact, Daniel (HBI's in-country lawyer and all around "get-it-done" staff person) said to me this afternoon after our "debrief" meeting - that he hopes we will have over 250 participants in 2011.

I am certain that next years event will be even better - but it will be really hard to surpass the fantastic group of speakers and enthusiastic audience from this year. Alas - we will sure give it a shot.

Thank you for all of your continued support. Our next event is the Andina Restaurant Benefit. We invite everyone to attend this, sure to become, annual event.