HealtheVoices

I spent today participating in a lot of the HealtheVoices Live! conference.

HealtheVoices (that's Health-e-voices, as in electronic voices, but also healthy voices) is usually an in-person conference, a gathering of about 150 online health advocates. People have to apply (it's a popular conference), and I was lucky enough to be chosen to attend in 2017 and 2018, and then again for this year. It would have been in Dallas this weekend, but it was cancelled.

And instead, it was replaced with Super HealtheVoices Live!, online workshops and opportunities to interact with other advocates. Not quite the same thing as being in a room with people, but still nice to be able to "see" some other advocates that I met in the past.

I learned some new things, and some important lessons reinforced. There are some really amazing health advocates out there, helping people with all kinds of health conditions.

But it also kind of reinforced some of the isolation that our world situation has created. As I've said, I'm home with my wife and kids, and that's been nice. We're all keeping busy, staying out of each other's way, but also coming together a few times during the day. We're managing to keep a healthy balance.

Still, it's hard to be isolated from others.

So I have an idea.

One of the sessions I "attended" was about ways to connect with communities. Obviously, I do that through my writing, here on the blog and elsewhere.

What would you all think of trying some other way to connect? What would you think about trying to set up some kind of video conference, so readers who are interested could see one another's faces (including mine) and hear each other's voices, and maybe share some stories? I don't really have an agenda in mind, just thinking of ways to connect. There would lots of details to work out, respecting privacy, finding a time that's good for lots of people, choosing the right platform. But maybe some of you are looking for a way to connect?

Let me know what you think. Write in the comments or send me an email.

Keep staying healthy and safe, everyone.