A Note from the ACDIS Conference: Purple, orange, and community

By Melissa Varnavas, Associate Editorial Director

It was an odd experiment in creating a social support network for those attending the annual ACDIS conference. Roughly six years ago, just prior to the conference in Chicago, we invited attendees to wear purple and orange during the first day as an outward symbol of pride in the profession and their excitement about attending the conference. Sure enough, on that first day a number of attendees came down the convention center escalators all decked out.

The following year in Orlando, however, the first morning of the conference was pure river of people dressed in their purple and orange finest. Even the physician advisors donned purple shirts and orange ties under their charcoal-gray suits. I stood in the hallway leading to the registration desk hugging every orange-clad guest I saw. To me, it represented a profound moment of connection to our ACDIS members and conference attendees.

In the airport and on buses and taxies and in the hotel lobbies of convention centers over the past few years, conference attendees have stopped others similarly dressed to introduce themselves and talk excitedly about their profession. Although profoundly important, CDI activities aren’t easily summarized into dinner party dialogues—And what do you do—so coming into a space filled with brightly clad clansmen (and women) who need no further introduction can feel like a homecoming, like entering a room full of friends you just haven’t met yet.

This year, we added teal to our color scheme and I was just as amazed to see how quickly the attendees picked up the spirit. And like I’ve done every year since Orlando, I stood at my post in the halls leading to the conference registration desk and exhibit halls and welcomed the throng—hugging every purple, and orange, and teal-clad attendee. Reminiscing with old friends and introducing myself to new ones. For me, as ever, ACDIS is about the generosity of its members and the community we create together.

Let the river flow.