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The Dry Eye Zone cordially invites you to attend its first annual conference held by, for and about dry eye patients, which will take place at the Safety Harbor Resort and Spa (near Tampa, Florida) on February 17-19, 2006.
The purpose of this announcement is a heads up for planning & travel purposes, for those of you who have been keeping tabs on this and are interested in travelling to the event.
The full prospectus for this event, as well as registration forms, will be available online on Monday, October 31st.
A brief preview:
DATES / TIMES
The conference opens with a cocktail reception on Friday, February 17th at 6:30 pm; continues Saturday February 18th with a full day of seminars, workshops and other sessions, followed by a special dinner reception marking the first anniversary of www.dryeyezone.com; and closes Sunday, February 19th with morning sessions and lunch.
VENUE
The Safety Harbor Resort and Spa is... well, suffice to say I am simply thrilled that we were able to get it. I have visited it and checked out all the facilities. The spa and hotel have an interesting history, and the springs on which they are built supply most of the water used throughout the hotel & grounds (including swimming pools). The grounds are very nice and the location is beautiful - across the harbor from Tampa, and just a few miles from Clearwater. Locally, everything is full of character, including a quaint nearby main street with shops that are anything but your usual mall fare. The rooms we are getting are unusually spacious (great for doubling up if you’re on a budget, but without stepping on each others’ toes) and are even going to be freshly redecorated a couple of months before our event. The spa defies description so some of you ladies (though actually the spa is popular with men too and has great workout facilities) with an extra day on your hands will probably want to put it to good use.
PROGRAM
Top secret, for the time being. All I will say for the moment is that this is NOT going to be conventional convention fare consisting of random carefully selected speakers droning away at a microphone and making up for their lack of substance with impressive video clips. In fact we can virtually guarantee against the calamitous indignity of being forced to contort one’s face into a polite expression of rapt attention to mask extreme boredom. - Though come to think of it, even if you were to suffer such an outrage, you could slip quietly away to the spa or tennis courts.
SPONSORSHIP & EXHIBITS
This conference is a unique patient-centric event, entirely non-commercial in intent and content, and is organized and subsidized by The Dry Eye Zone. We are not accepting corporate sponsorship. We will however willingly consider arranging for exhibits of products that meet these criteria: 1) their potential utility to dry eye patients is clear; 2) they are not readily accessible to most patients; and 3) they can be tested by patients on site. So, if there is a product you have heard of and would like to learn more about it and maybe try it out, but don’t know how to get it or it’s too inconvenient (or too expensive to test), drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do.
VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES
Would you like to be involved? Do you have a great idea for a session or topic that we may be overlooking? Do you enjoy organizing and coordinating? Have a hankering to pitch in at a hands-on level of some sort before, during or after? Have ideas about how we can pamper everybody as much as possible all weekend? We’d love to have your help! We are not exactly Fortune 500 here as I’m sure you all know, so more brains and hands can only make this event better – especially when those brains and hands are YOURS.
REGISTRATION
Please do not be overwhelmed at the thought (and cost!) of a 3-day weekend at a spa. We are anticipating everything from out-of-state attendees going for the full weekend package, to local patients attending just the day sessions Saturday, so we will have (or will make, if necessary) a registration option that works for you.
Registration opens Monday, October 31st. Space will be limited, particularly for those who want rooms at the spa, so we will be encouraging early registration. Details of packages and pricing will be announced with the full prospectus on Monday if not sooner.
The purpose of this announcement is a heads up for planning & travel purposes, for those of you who have been keeping tabs on this and are interested in travelling to the event.
The full prospectus for this event, as well as registration forms, will be available online on Monday, October 31st.
A brief preview:
DATES / TIMES
The conference opens with a cocktail reception on Friday, February 17th at 6:30 pm; continues Saturday February 18th with a full day of seminars, workshops and other sessions, followed by a special dinner reception marking the first anniversary of www.dryeyezone.com; and closes Sunday, February 19th with morning sessions and lunch.
VENUE
The Safety Harbor Resort and Spa is... well, suffice to say I am simply thrilled that we were able to get it. I have visited it and checked out all the facilities. The spa and hotel have an interesting history, and the springs on which they are built supply most of the water used throughout the hotel & grounds (including swimming pools). The grounds are very nice and the location is beautiful - across the harbor from Tampa, and just a few miles from Clearwater. Locally, everything is full of character, including a quaint nearby main street with shops that are anything but your usual mall fare. The rooms we are getting are unusually spacious (great for doubling up if you’re on a budget, but without stepping on each others’ toes) and are even going to be freshly redecorated a couple of months before our event. The spa defies description so some of you ladies (though actually the spa is popular with men too and has great workout facilities) with an extra day on your hands will probably want to put it to good use.
PROGRAM
Top secret, for the time being. All I will say for the moment is that this is NOT going to be conventional convention fare consisting of random carefully selected speakers droning away at a microphone and making up for their lack of substance with impressive video clips. In fact we can virtually guarantee against the calamitous indignity of being forced to contort one’s face into a polite expression of rapt attention to mask extreme boredom. - Though come to think of it, even if you were to suffer such an outrage, you could slip quietly away to the spa or tennis courts.
SPONSORSHIP & EXHIBITS
This conference is a unique patient-centric event, entirely non-commercial in intent and content, and is organized and subsidized by The Dry Eye Zone. We are not accepting corporate sponsorship. We will however willingly consider arranging for exhibits of products that meet these criteria: 1) their potential utility to dry eye patients is clear; 2) they are not readily accessible to most patients; and 3) they can be tested by patients on site. So, if there is a product you have heard of and would like to learn more about it and maybe try it out, but don’t know how to get it or it’s too inconvenient (or too expensive to test), drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do.
VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES
Would you like to be involved? Do you have a great idea for a session or topic that we may be overlooking? Do you enjoy organizing and coordinating? Have a hankering to pitch in at a hands-on level of some sort before, during or after? Have ideas about how we can pamper everybody as much as possible all weekend? We’d love to have your help! We are not exactly Fortune 500 here as I’m sure you all know, so more brains and hands can only make this event better – especially when those brains and hands are YOURS.
REGISTRATION
Please do not be overwhelmed at the thought (and cost!) of a 3-day weekend at a spa. We are anticipating everything from out-of-state attendees going for the full weekend package, to local patients attending just the day sessions Saturday, so we will have (or will make, if necessary) a registration option that works for you.
Registration opens Monday, October 31st. Space will be limited, particularly for those who want rooms at the spa, so we will be encouraging early registration. Details of packages and pricing will be announced with the full prospectus on Monday if not sooner.
I'll try & speed it up! As I mentioned there will be various options. We have a special guaranteed rate on rooms at the spa - and they are well suited to doubling up. And you certainly don't have to stay AT the spa to attend. We'll have a lot of locals there and people who are staying with family/friends or someplace else.
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