I had the pleasure of attending a Celiac conference on Saturday and Sunday. This American charity/not-for-profit’s full name is the Gluten Intolerance Group aka GIG. I pronounce it like the “GIG” in “Gig Harbour” which is in the Seattle area where GIG is based. However in North Carolina everyone calls it G I G with each letter separate and it was quite funny when someone asked me who I was talking about when I said GIG without spelling it out!
Similar to Celiac Canada, both these charities are education based and both have their own program for certifying gluten free food. GIG’s is mainly in the USA, and I would say the biggest one down here, where the Celiac Canada one is the only one in Canada. That said, there is a lot of cross border traffic of gluten free food so we see both logos in each country.
One of the speakers was Shelley Case, RD, who is a Canadian dietitian that I know from Celiac Canada – there were 3 reasons why I wanted to attend this conference – one was to hear Shelley speak about oats, as I find it a fascinating subject on how Canada started producing gluten free oats that now supply 80% of the world’s oat industry. Another reason is they had a medical person from GIG reporting live from the International Celiac Disease Symposium, which was going on concurrently in Sheffield, England. I attended ICDS about a decade ago in Chicago, and found it an amazing experience – the research and forward thinking talks that happen at the conference really are empowering to hear how a cure for Celiac Disease is in the works and to obtain a better understanding of why for some people gluten affects them so much. Lastly, while it is interesting to hear the top level doctors that Celiac Canada brings in as the CCA now holds an online conference, the list and type of speakers was really interesting to me, as they were mostly from the local community and seemed to have a diverse amount of information they wanted to speak on! So MANY notes I took! I have 30+ pages of notes on my laptop from the day and a half of speakers!
I am not going to bore you with the details here – those that want them can contact me to get my notes, which I am happy to send out once I clean up the typing and spelling mistakes!
What did I learn from a conference perspective now that we are meeting in person again?
There IS a place and time for online conferences – for a charity/not for profit, they can attract experts in their field to speak, as these experts do not have to travel which is a benefit for their busy schedules. However the biggest loss is a lack of networking that online conferences provide. For those with gluten disorders, the ability for newly diagnosed to talk with each other or people who have been diagnosed for a longer period of time, during coffee breaks and meals is invaluable. Being in person, it also allows the speakers to receive feedback on their studies and hypolthosises they are working on and if they are targeting the right population or they should adjust their theories. Normally this type of feedback is not available if you are doing a session online.
The gluten free food served over these two days was beyond excellent – from bbq chicken to wonderful salads and salmon and rice with fresh veggies. There was meat too but I do not eat it so I cannot comment 🙂 It was great to see how well a hotel can put together a gluten free buffet!
On the Saturday evening (Sept 7th) I went to the dinner where Shelley was presenting with Cynthia, the Executive Director of GIG, a 50 year history of the GIG organization. Shelley and Cynthia are very good friends and both dietitians. As I have also spent time in the USA and gone to GIG conferences in the past when held in the Seattle area, as usual, it was quite a fun evening! It was great to see how Celiac Canada, which is one year older, and GIG’s history has intertwined and how the Canadian government has lead and pushed the American government to develop legislation on things like oats and labeling, as it was put into place in Canada earlier. Some core people from Canada were mentioned along with a lot of Americans, like Bob from Bob’s Red Mill and his history building his business, which I was not aware of all details, which helped shape the gluten free market developing in North America over the last 50 years.
So you ask, what did Andrew do while I was at the conference? Well, he went downtown on the transit train just outside of the hotel’s door and visited the NASCAR museum and had a great time! He even raced cars with 10 other people and came in 2nd place, a mere second after the guy who placed first. The rest of the field? They left them in the dust, laps behind them! Here are his pics – and more conference info below!
While I am watching my sugars, I could not resist when on the buffet table when I was leaving (sorry no pics of the dinner buffet), there were 2 chocolate cupcakes left – so I bundled them up in my bag and brought them back to our hotel. Andrew met me half-way on my walk back to make sure I was safe in my journey. Thankfully, his cupcake in the paper napkin, made it back without much damage, however mine was like eating a pancake with some icing on top! One flat muffin, which is pretty hard to do with a product that is gluten free and has a mind of its own when it comes to “fluffiness”. Here are some pics I took over the 2 days.
September 7th – Full Day of Conference and Evening Session on History of GIG
September 8th – Half Day of Conference and Food Truck lunch
