2nd Annual Medtronic European Internet Forum.

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2nd Annual Medtronic European Internet Forum.

March 24, 2011 by MyPump

Hi all,

Welcome to my latest Blog about my superb trip to Medtronic in Switzerland on Friday 18th March 2011 for the 2nd Annual Medtronic European Internet Forum of which I feel privileged to be asked back for a second time, so having Diabetes can have some plus points.

About Medtronic.

My day started on Friday lunchtime at Heathrow Airport Terminal 1 where I was met by Justin from Medtronic, Anna from Insulin Independent and Lesley from Input so a great start to the weekend. Our flight left Heathrow on time which was 2.20pm and we arrived in Switzerland Geneva Airport at 5.00pm where we then jumped on the wonderful double decker train to Lausanne where we were staying at a lovely hotel. We had time to have a quick was and change before meeting the other guys on the event including Yoan – Medtronic, Mike – Diabetes In Spain, Tim & Allison – Shoot Up Or Put Up, Adrienne – Children With Diabetes, Richard & Jan – Diabetes Zentrale and I am sorry if I have missed anyone. We were also very lucky to meet the (Vice President Diabetes International) of Medtronic Julie Foster and she was a real pleasure to meet, Julie made a great speech to us Insulin Pumpers which put us all at ease. So next we had a walk to a gorgeous restaurant in Lausanne for a good chat and some lovely food (Yes we did have a few glasses of wine which went down lovely), it was really nice to meet so many great people. The evening ended up being quite a late night at the restaurant as the time just flew with all the chatting (Yes and wine).

The Main Event on Saturday (Hopefully you are still awake and I have not bored you too much)..

The Medtronic Bloggers 2011 – if you are wondering where Mike from Diabetes In Spain is, apparently he likes hiding in bushes !!

The morning started at Medtronic’s very sexy offices in Tolochenaz and a quick round the table introduction especially for the new Bloggers who had not been to the event before and an introduction by Yoan to the days activities (plus a lovely cup of coffee).

We were introduced to Julien Vandewalle who is one of the Product Managers at Medtronic who gave us all an insight into new Continuous Glucose Meter Technology and particularly a brand new smaller CGM sensor they are working on which should be available very soon – watch this space. The guys also confirmed that the Insulin Pump Blogger team would be given the opportunity to trial the new sensor – how exciting for us.

Next was Hannah Gough who explained about what clinical evidence is required and what will come up next for Medtronic. Hannah also explained the complex procedure for reimbursement of insulin pumps and CGM in Europe , I really didn’t realise just how complicated it was and to be honest I did lose track a few times.

Medtronic

Lunchtime – thanks guys you really did yourselves proud as we had a scrumptious Sushi lunch which was very nice indeed and washed down with a couple of cups of coffee and a bit of an informal chat with the Medtronic team.

We were then introduced to Aurélie Duplais who is a web site expert and gave us some really useful information on how best to layout our web sites and the best way to attract more traffic, not forgetting how to make our Blogs more interesting of which I hope you all like my Blog ? I can honestly say I picked up some great tips and found the talk very interesting indeed.

Mark & Diego from GTO Europe then joined in the discussions who both have extensive experience in Healthcare Communications , the room was split into two and we had Diego on our team. We were basically suggesting ideas in which we could make Diabetes information more accessible with ideas for Diabetes Apps etc (Top secret at this stage). As you can imagine we all had plenty of ideas and lots to say for ourselves – I know what’s new !!

Next was a chat about how Diabetes bloggers and Medtronic can design and build better Diabetes products to improve all our lives and also just how important it is to raise awareness of Diabetes.

Finally a massive thank you to Yoan, Justin and the team for making the weekend so great and really opening our eyes to the world of Diabetes products and technology, I hope you guys realise just how much we appreciate the opportunity to sit down with you guys – thanks again. >

A big thank you to all my fellow Insulin Pumpers as it was really great to meet you all – Mike, Tim, Alison, Jan, Richard, Adrienne & Jessica (plus Adrienne Mum & Aunt), Anna and Lesley.

6 Responses

on March 25, 2011 at 7:13 am | Reply Michael Hoskins

Very cool! Thank you so much for sharing the details of this great conference over there across the pond. It’ll be interesting to compare accounts of how the Europe version plays out compared to what’s set for the U.S. in the coming week. Looks like Minimed is quite definitely stepping into the Diabetes Online Community, and it’s great to have another company and such a hallmark pump maker engaging all of us this way. Good stuff, indeed!

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- on March 25, 2011 at 12:15 pm | Reply My Pump
  
  Hi Michael, thanks so much for the comment and I can honestly say it was a real pleasure meeting the Medtronic team and them sharing their thoughts with us.
  
  What I liked is the fact we were not given any hard sell regarding Medtronic products, it is vey exciting to hear about new technology they are working on which is quite amazing.
  
  Thanks again.
  
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on March 25, 2011 at 7:45 am | Reply Mike

Hey Andrew

Thanks for the bushes shout out.. I have witnesses placing me on the bus for the 1st picture! 【ツ】Honest guv..

It was a pleasure to catch up with you and gang..

Be good!

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- on April 10, 2011 at 10:46 pm | Reply Andrew
  
  Hi Mike,
  
  So how was the weekend for you – I here it has been lovely and hot over in Spain as always ? We have been lucky as it has been up in the twenties this weekend in the UK. I am already looking forward to the next Medtronic Event – I hope there is one and I get asked back ?
  
  Mike, I am still looking at the IPad which does look very cool but do you still use your PC/Laptop as much as my laptop is really slow to be honest ?
  
  Have a good week.
  
  Andrew
  
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on April 13, 2011 at 2:43 pm | Reply Lesley

Hi Andrew

Great report – I think I’ll email it to myself as a nice reminder of the weekend!

I’m hoping we can get the UK & Spanish contingent together for an interim social before the next official bloggers’ event. What do you think?

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- on April 13, 2011 at 4:06 pm | Reply My Pump
  
  Hi Lesley
  
  It was great to have a catch up and I hope you are well ?
  
  An interim meet up sounds good to me – hopefully we will all be asked to the next Medtronic Event wherever and whenever that may be ?
  
  Take care
  Andrew
  
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