The 13th International Conference on Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes (ATTD 2020) took place 19-22 February in Madrid, Spain, and brought together more than 3800 prominent healthcare professionals from 81 countries, start-ups, and investors, reaching a new delegate record in a time marked by massive event cancellations. The announcement of the cancellation of a major event such as the Mobile World Congress, which was supposed to take place 24-27 February in Barcelona, certainly raised the awareness of the whole events industry on the effect of COVID-19 onto meeting planning.
At Kenes Group, they have been monitoring the situation since early January. With a large international event as ATTD coming up, they began regular meetings with the Conference Chairpersons – Professor Moshe Phillip and Professor Tadej Battelino, to discuss the situation. A plan was set into motion in terms of keeping all delegates informed about the outbreak and its effects on the host destination, any travel information that they had to be aware of, such as the World Health Organization’s (WHO) advice on how to stay healthy while travelling, while providing anti-bacterial gel and making available masks for all delegates.
For all registered participants in China who could not travel, but also for everyone who had an interest, including the participants onsite, a significant part of the conference was live-streamed. Earphones were available on-demand for the delegates in Madrid, giving them the opportunity to choose how to enjoy each session, plenary, or presentation on the latest updates in diabetes technology.
“At the ATTD Conferences you can meet people that come because they want to contribute and be part of the ATTD Community that really moves things forward and strives to make a significant change for the lives of people with diabetes”, said Prof. Tadej Battelino, Conference Co-Chair.
Ori Lahav, VP Clients & Operations at Kenes Group commented: “It is a challenge to organise international meetings in times of a growing epidemic such as COVID-19. However, we have to remember that staying calm, analysing the situation and the risks, is of key importance. We need to keep on providing healthcare professionals platforms to meet for finding solutions to pertinent problems of our society, such as diabetes, as there are over 400 million diagnosed around the world, according to WHO. We are very proud to work with outstanding professionals as Professor Moshe Phillip and Professor Tadej Battelino, who gave us all their trust to continue forward with the meeting, only to create the best one to date.”
