Hello! ^^

On March 10-13, an online conference on ataxia will be held, organized by NAF. I am delighted with this solution – so far the possibility of taking part in this event was unattainable for me. But now? I am already signed up and I am going to comfortably watch the lectures from my home in Poland and I will be happy to share my thoughts with you.

NAF organizes its events in a wonderful way – even previous conferences were available to watch online. Not entirely, but the most important speeches were. I remember watching one of the lectures from the Las Vegas conference two years ago. As a newly diagnosed person with ataxia, I was thrilled with the fact that so many people devote their lives to ataxia. They conduct research, workshops and support us. And they don’t have ataxia at all!

For now, there is a „sneak peek” video available and it shows what to expect at the upcoming conference.

Watching a sneak peek is fun because it allows you to feel the excitement, it builds up hype. The organizers are a group of very nice people, the presentation is very coherent. For those curious about what it was about, here are some short information:

1. First, a few very general words what to expect,
2. Then a very detailed discussion of how to navigate the platform – platform is not ready yet so the tutor showed examples of other conferences and their construct.
3. Then the most important doubts were answered

WILL LECTURES BE AVAILABLE ONLINE AFTER THE CONFERENCE?

The most important lectures will be available on YouTube, but e.g. greeting, closing ceremony, games and other social activities will not be recorded or shared.

CAN I WATCH VIDEOS LATER?

For people who have signed up, it will be possible to watch every video later. On every evening during conference videos will be uploaded to a special tab and each participant will be able to watch them on demand.

SOME TECHNICAL ASPECTS; WHAT IS THE BEST DEVICE?

Before the conference participants will get a link to a website. The platform was created for a Chrome browser so it is recommended to use that. But of course, you can use another but be prepared for unexpected issues if you do not use Chrome. No special app is needed – so you can watch it even on your mobile device. But the video will be small then so still best option is a laptop. You do not need a camera.

If you sign up before February 16, you will get a mask with the NAF logo as a gift! 😉

You can watch a Sneak Peek video here:

And here you can read more about conference:

https://ataxia.org/2021-annual-ataxia-conference/

What topics are you looking forward to? I am waiting especially for every science-related lecture. Current therapies, drug testing, gene discoveries – all of that sounds awesome to me. I am also looking forward to meetings with people with ataxia. It helps me a lot to see that I am not alone and that a lot of people share the same fears and concerns.