Hello friends,

Thank you to everyone who attended the 2012 AANAC Annual Conference and Exhibition, Better Together: Connecting Care and Assessment. We still haven’t stopped receiving notes, calls and community messages about how much everybody enjoyed the experience. We knew that with so many new additions and opportunities it truly was the conference to remember. Here are just a few specific examples of the things that attendees and staff loved:

The AANAC Help Desk: We brought the aanac.org website and community to attendees with the addition the new Help Desk. Attendees visited with staff and AANAC Board Members for website walk-throughs, community advice and answering any and all other questions that attendees had. The positive feedback has been exceptional and you can expect to see this become a permanent fixture in future conferences.

QR Codes: The introduction of QR Codes helped make session sign-in easier and more high tech. Not only did more than 50% of attendees take advantage of this new technology, but they found it easy to use and were excited to go home and share with their own friends and family their new “technological savvy.” Even better, one lucky winner took home a $100 AMEX gift card for using the codes.

Education: AANAC always strives to take complex material and make it as easy as possible for attendees and members to understand. This conference was no different with the addition of clinical content on dementia, pain and wound care; product theaters that introduced new medications designed to help our residents obtain a better quality of life; and welcomed the Department of Justice, CMS, and famous author Kris Radish to be a part of the event. We look forward to expanding offerings to include more of the same and (hopefully) even more new ideas that will provide you with a positive conference experience and the knowledge and resources you need to provide the best resident care possible.

AANAC Awards: Who could forget this night? Walking down the red carpet, being interviewed by our own “Ryan Secrest” (AKA: Tony) and recognizing the best of the best in our field. If there was one night that all attendees would not soon forget, this was it. During the night, nine award and scholarship winners were honored in addition to all of us bidding a fond farewell to our own Rena Shephard and welcoming a new Board Chair, Ruth Minnema. Now the only question that remains is… What are we going to do next year?

We look forward to seeing you in San Antonio, May 1 – 3 at the 2013 AANAC Annual Conference and Exhibition and want to finish by sharing a few photos that showcase favorite memories. You can see them all by clicking here.

Thanks,

                              

Carol Siem                                           Diane Carter  

AANAC Board Chair                           AANAC CEO and President