As I said, I'm working on a few advocacy endeavors, trying to figure out what I'll do with all my free time once this puppy is potty trained and Quinn is in kindergarten next year. KINDERGARTEN! I swear he was just learning to walk last week. Now look at him go (in the dark green).

Quinn hits the slopes from Jennifer Campisano on Vimeo.

One of the things I've signed up for is an advisory role for a conference taking place in Chicago in April. It's on how to build better online communities for healthcare, how to amplify our voices as patients and find each other as we stumble around in the dark after a devastating diagnosis, waving our little candles of shared experiences at one another.

Can you relate? Have you got an online presence in the healthcare space? Are you living with a disease -- whether cancer, diabetes, mental illness, HIV/AIDS, you name it? If so, I encourage you to apply to attend. If selected, each participant's airfare, provided meals and hotel costs will be covered by Janssen and you will receive a formal agreement for your review and signature indicating that you agree to these terms. Janssen is accepting applications through February 22, 2016.

"The mission of HealtheVoices is to provide educational tools, resources and inspiration to help you better serve, expand and grow your online communities. We believe our 2015 conference was a great success because of the close connections that were formed across multiple health conditions, and we want to encourage you to consider being part of the conference again this year.

This year’s conference will feature nationally recognized keynote speakers focused on the power of online patient communities. New sessions will highlight the value of video blogging, how to maintain consistent fresh content for your communities, growing your impact as a patient advocate, while returning favorites will dive into new areas in analytics, how to handle compassion fatigue and more!

Janssen will once again be covering costs for travel and hotel accommodations."

You can see my post on last year's conference here, help the folks at Janssen's partner Everyday Health out by taking a survey about why you read my blog (and others) here, and look at some of last year's highlights and SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION TO ATTEND THIS YEAR'S CONFERENCE HERE. I hope to see you there! And if I miss you in April, I'll be returning to Chicago in June, but that's a post for another day.
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