750 participants across two days. Dozens of lectures and sessions. Science. Advocacy. Speakers. Chairs (both the human type and the things you sit on). IT is on a grand scale, with simultaneous translation, giant presentation screens, and microphones of all types. Hotel accommodation, including food and drink, for a small army. It can be hard to see beyond the big stuff, but behind it all is a small and dedicated team making HAEi meetings like the GLW and GAF run smoothly. Global Perspectives asked a few behind-the-scenes heroes to step briefly into the limelight and tell you their experiences.
Ole Frølich Christensen
Ole is the Chief Technology Officer for HAEi. At the conference, you’re most likely to see him hunched over a laptop making sure Worldly is running smoothly, but he’s responsible for the many technologies and tools provided by HAEi, including HAE TrackR and HAEi Connect.
Tell me what it’s like to work on an HAEi conference.
Working together as a team where each has their specialty is great. We work together to solve the inevitable and unforeseen challenges in the best way possible.
What were you looking forward to at this GLW/GAF?
I really look forward to meeting the Member Organization leads to strengthen our collaboration with them even more. Part of this is giving people help with any of our online platforms, but they also give us invaluable feedback on improving what we have.
What’s the best bit about HAEi conferences?
Team spirit.
What are the biggest challenges, and how are these overcome?
There are always last-minute changes (in the program, running order, and arrivals/departures). We also have to work closely together to ensure everyone knows what’s happening.
Karina Langsager
Karina is HAEi’s Manager for Events and Conferences. As a result, much of the logistical responsibility for successful meetings like the GLW falls on her. Sadly, she couldn’t be at this conference due to ill health, but you can expect to see her colorful sneakers pounding the venue floors, ensuring the details are taken care of.
Tell me what it’s like to work on an HAEi conference.
It is a highly rewarding and dynamic experience. To be able to share information that helps people advocate for better in their country is incredibly rewarding. It literally improves the quality of life for people living with HAE all over the world.
What were you looking forward to at this GLW/GAF?
I was really looking forward to gathering with Member Organization leaders from all over the world. It is incredible to reconnect with so many and feel the strength of our community.
What’s the best bit about HAEi conferences?
I need to say the team. The conference team always supports each other, works tirelessly behind the scenes, and comes together with a shared purpose to ensure everything runs smoothly. Their dedication, collaboration, and positive energy make every event not just successful, but truly special.
What are the biggest challenges, and how are these overcome?
One of the biggest challenges is coordinating such a large, international event, especially with attendees from different time zones, languages, and backgrounds. Ensuring that everyone feels included and engaged all the way through, can be complex. We overcome this by planning meticulously, relying on strong teamwork, and leveraging technology to provide translation services. Another challenge is adapting to last-minute changes, whether technical issues or schedule adjustments. The key to overcoming this is our team’s flexibility and problem-solving skills, which ensure everything stays on track and that attendees have the best experience possible.
Morten Thøgersen
His job title at HAEi says IT specialist, and he’s the ‘Viking warrior’ of IT security mentioned by Michal. But you’re as likely to see this Scandinavian giant on the reception of the sign-in desk of an HAEi conference, as you are seeing him defending the IT servers from attack.
Tell me what it’s like to work on an HAEi conference.
Working on an HAEi conference is hard work, but seeing how we make a difference in patient and caregiver lives is exciting and rewarding.
What were you looking forward to at this GLW/GAF?
I am looking forward to our Member Organization leads from around the world joining up and sharing experiences.
What’s the best bit about HAEi conferences?
For me, the best bit is connecting with our participants, some of whom I have come to know over the years, and our amazing HAEi staff. Being a small part of a team that works so hard to help is inspiring.
What are the biggest challenges, and how are these overcome?
The biggest challenge is the logistics of assembling 750 people from around the world for three days. We have an amazing team that gets the job done over and over again.
Rikke Sørensen
Rikke is our Manager of Communications, Design and Graphics. Her work in the run-up to an event includes designing the entire program, hundreds of slides, and elements, like the signage that gets participants to the right place and the right time. On-site, she’s next to the audio-visual team, ensuring last-minute changes occur and that everything looks and feels perfect.
Tell me what it’s like to work on an HAEi conference.
Working on a big event like our global workshops and regional conferences is a team effort where we all want to send home people with new skills, new connections, and the power to make a difference in their own organizations or lives.
What were you looking forward to at this GLW/GAF?
We’ve put together an extensive, exciting, and diverse program that tries to listen to all the feedback we’ve received. To feel it gives participants what they want is what I look forward to the most.
What’s the best bit about HAEi conferences?
Hearing from Member Organizations, patients, and caregivers. And the party on Saturday night ;-)
What are the biggest challenges, and how are these overcome?
We have so much to tell and many important programs; the biggest challenge is to cover everything. The team that puts together the program works hard to ensure we meet peoples’ expectations around content and networking.
Debs Corcoran
As you may have seen elsewhere in the write-up of the HAEi Global Leadership Workshop, Debs is HAEi’s Chief Scientific Officer. She is in charge of planning and delivery of all the scientific elements of HAEi’s conferences. In Copenhagen, that meant taking on the first ACARE GAF, the largest-ever HAEi scientific meeting. Although she appears on stage occasionally, her ability to charm, convince, and cajole scientific experts makes her a ‘behind-the-scenes’ hero.
Tell me what it’s like to work on an HAEi conference.
It will be no surprise to hear that organizing an HAEi conference involves a lot of hard work from everyone! There’s creativity, excitement, challenges, problem-solving, laughter, a lot of Excel (possibly just me!), and a collective passion to make sure that each event is as useful as we can make it for the audience.
What were you looking forward to at this GLW/GAF?
My main role was organizing the GAF. It’s the first one and has similarities and differences to our conference’s scientific tracks. I was looking forward to seeing the rich variety of topics presented by our Faculty; our largest-ever poster session (to date), and how Angioedema Jeopardy and the Interactive Patient Journey would come to life!
What’s the best bit about HAEi conferences?
I’m not sure I can sum all that into one ‘best bit’, so how about:
- Our HAE experts who give us so much of their time and support
- Seeing old friends and making new ones
- The team that puts the meetings together
- The support we have from the industry to make the events happen
- Hearing how participating in the meeting positively impacts people’s lives, whether patients, caregivers, or healthcare professionals.
What are the biggest challenges, and how are these overcome?
In the last weeks of planning the GAF, we heard the unbelievably sad news that we’d lost Professor Marcus Maurer. The way the HAE patient and physician community came together to continue Marcus’ legacy and deliver a phenomenal first GAF shows that when we work together, we can achieve anything.
Rachel Annals
She’s an HAEi board member, but Rachel is the Swiss army knife of the HAEi on-site team. In addition to her role as Co-ordinator for Global Advocacy and ACARE, in Copenhagen she was embedded with Debs in the GAF, helping manage attendance from over 200 healthcare professionals.
Tell me what it’s like to work on an HAEi conference.
Working on an HAEi conference is exciting. It starts with being part of the operations team planning agendas, presenters, and logistics of the meeting, as well as making sure all the tech is in place to support our wide range of attendees from different countries and languages. It’s a very busy time, especially in the last few weeks before the event, but seeing the whole event come together and receive great feedback is fantastic. It makes all the time and hard work worthwhile.
What were you looking forward to at this GLW/GAF?
This year, I was lucky to be part of the GAF, which gave me a fantastic opportunity to meet and talk with lots of our HAE medical professionals from around the world and listen to their many presentations on HAE and other types of angioedema. It was an extremely busy couple of days, but so much information was shared and learned.
What’s the best bit about HAEi conferences?
The best part about the HAEi conferences is the opportunities for networking with other HAE Member Organizations and medical professionals worldwide, combined with the many presentations and discussions. There’s always something to learn and put into practice.
What are the biggest challenges, and how are these overcome?
The biggest challenge is to keep making the conferences bigger and better. With the growing number of Member Organizations and medical professionals learning about HAE, the event will undoubtedly grow bigger and more popular each time. Finding a venue to host our event may become more challenging, but it is equally impressive that more people know about HAE and that our advocacy work is paying off!