Conference corner: ACDIS team shares excitement for 2023 event!
Uplifting speakers, robust education, a gorgeous city, inspiring and collaborative CDI professionals all around—that and more awaits you in Chicago next month! We can’t say enough about how thrilled we are to see the fruition of this year’s ACDIS conference, celebrating the accomplishments of so many in this field as well as lifting each other up toward a successful future. The ACDIS national team hopes you will consider joining and flourishing with us for this one-of-a-kind CDI event on May 8-11.
As the countdown continues, our team wanted to share reasons why we are personally excited for the conference. Here’s a message from each of us about what we’re looking forward to!
Director of Programming Rebecca Hendren: I cannot wait to feel the energy and see the smiling faces. It begins as soon as you get close to registration. You can feel the vibrancy in the air. The space is practically humming with anticipation and excitement. This is our tribe! Everyone around us is here for the exact same reason we are: education, community, networking, inspiration. For the next three days, we’re all in it together.
Associate Editorial Director Linnea Archibald: Beyond the sessions (which are always incredible!), I’m most excited about seeing our members in person. We often describe the conference as a family reunion and that really is the atmosphere. In addition to meeting new CDI friends, getting to see some of our ACDIS CDI Leadership Council and Mastermind members in person is a true highlight. I spend a lot of hours virtually with those folks over the course of the Council term, so it’s always a blast to put faces to names and catch up! The conference is also such a great time for our local chapters and networking groups. Day 2 is always State Pride Day and after a few quieter years due to the pandemic, I know our chapter leaders have a few festive tricks up their sleeves for decorating tables at lunch and gathering attendees from their regions!
Product Coordinator Karla Accorto: Each year, I have the honor of being involved with both the ACDIS posters and the ACDIS Achievement Awards, and it’s something I look forward to every year. This year we have nearly two dozen posters that will be displayed in the exhibit hall throughout the conference. During the first break on Wednesday, May 10, poster creators also stand with their posters to answer questions about their initiatives, programs, successes, etc. Topics this year include queries, mortality, clinical validation denials, sepsis, and more. I’m also so excited for the presentation of the 2023 ACDIS Achievement Awards on Tuesday, May 9. It’s always an emotional one for all of us on the ACDIS team. We love every opportunity to celebrate and lift up others in the profession, and we’re so grateful to everyone who submits nominations. This year will be extra special, as we’re also offering our inaugural Melissa Varnavas Spirit of CDI Award to one individual whose passion for the profession shines so brightly.
Associate Editor Jess Fluegel: The last time I attended the conference, I had only been on the ACDIS team for a week, so I can’t wait to listen into many of these great sessions, this time with an idea of what they’re actually talking about! I also really enjoyed getting to know so many ACDIS members virtually over the last year while working with the Furthering Education Committee, Regulatory Committee, and all those who have so graciously been sources for the CDI Journal, so it’ll be great to meet many of you in person. The conference will be the perfect opportunity to network, so I hope to make many more meaningful connections as well. If you’ve ever considered joining an ACDIS committee, this is a great time to get your questions answered, especially during lunch on Wednesday, May 10, when we’ll have a table set up for you to speak with us and some of our current volunteers. Last but not least, I grew up about an hour from Chicago and it’s been much too long since I went to Navy Pier!
Associate Editor Joshua Raposa: As the newest ACDIS editor, this will be my first ACDIS conference, so I am quite excited to see what all the CDI hubbub is about. From what I have gathered, there is a wealth of information to be presented and therefore, for a greenhorn like me, there is plenty to learn. I have always found it to be a joyfully curious experience to see people get excited about niche topics. Legos, Cold War art between the period of 1965-1967 based in urban America—all these things (and more) are topics which have interested people I’ve come in contact with on Life’s Journey. However, in terms of specificity and “niche-ness,” one would have to look quite far and wide to find a topic surpassing that of clinical documentation integrity. Nevertheless, from what I have heard the uniqueness of this discipline is only rivaled by the excitement of its most ardent practitioners and educators. T-shirts, vendors, networking, rallies, blow-up alligators and palm trees (I am holding the Florida ACDIS chapter to this: I cannot emphasize this enough)—these are the things I am looking forward to seeing at the Hyatt Regency Chicago on May 8-11. I am also excited to procure an Italian Beef from Portillo’s & Barnelli’s, as well as a Samoa Old Fashioned from the Doughnut Vault. I look forward to seeing everyone there!
CDI Education Specialist Kim Connor, BSN, CCDS, CCDS-O: I have been a CDI professional for more than nine years and last year was the first time I attended the conference. What made it even more special was that I had just come on board with ACDIS as a CDI education specialist and I got to present! What amazed me the most was the positive energy everyone brought with them. It was infectious! It has been one full year since I was employed by ACDIS, and I am really looking forward to seeing people that attended boot camps and meeting CDI professionals from across the country. I can’t wait to go to Chicago. Although I am from Boston, my grandparents lived in Springfield, Illinois. My mom would stop in Chicago for at least a day to take us to museums, boat tours, and always a great restaurant before we flew to Springfield. I am really looking forward to getting caught up in the wave of positive energy again!
CDI Education Specialist Deanne Wilk, MPS, BSN, RN, CCDS, CCDS-O, CDIP, CCS: I just joined the ACDIS team very recently and coming into the conference this year from a different perspective is exciting. Having joined ACDIS recently as a CDI education specialist, it will be exciting to see everyone, talk to the attendees, learn the behind-the-scenes, and really gain more insight into what we are all about. I remain as excited to attend the conference as the first one. It never gets old. The sharing, friendships made, and boundless learning are only part of what makes it a must year after year.
Don’t miss your chance to join us! You can register for the 2023 ACDIS conference here.