December 2018
Case study
15
Insider story for Diabetes UK
Event: The Diabetes UK
Professional Conference
(DUKPC)
When: 14-16 March,
ExCeL London
Organiser: Diabetes UK
he DUKPC is the foremost
event for up-to-date research
and developments in the field
of diabetes in the UK, held
over three days and featuring an extensive
exhibition, satellite symposia and multi-stream
scientific programme.
In 2018, DUKPC welcomed 3,300
attendees, one of its highest ever recorded
attendances.
DUKPC is an opportunity for the charity
Diabetes UK to position itself as a catalyst
for change, transforming care treatment and
outcomes for people living with diabetes
(PLWD) and driving prevention of Type 2,
one of the biggest public health challenges.
Following an extensive programme of
market research by the charity, which resulted
in the publication of the Future of Diabetes
report at the end of 2017, the 2018 event
specifically targeted the primary care audience
as an improvement in the knowledge and
understanding of diabetes among primary care
professionals was highlighted as a key area of
need.
The primary care health care professionals
(HCPs) are also one of the most important
audiences for sponsors and exhibitors and this
prompted the launch of a new Primary Care
Course (PCC) held alongside the DUKPC
conference.
Diabetes UK has always been keen to
integrate the patient voice throughout its
conference, using lay bloggers as part of its
media team, encouraging presenters to include
patient speakers in sessions and actively
tweeting from the conference to take the
messages of DUKPC outside the venue walls.
However, following years of requests from
lay members and patients asking to actually
attend the conference, organisers agreed to
look at a way to make this possible for 2018,
which did not contravene industry regulations.
The DUKPC Insider was launched,
an additional day directly after the main
conference which brought all of the key
research and messages from DUKPC straight
to the people most affected – those living with
or affected by diabetes.
Altogether, 259 attendees (against a target of
200) came and there were many calls to make
this an annual event.
The annual Young Diabetologist and
Endocrinologist Forum (YDEF) was
also organised on the day before the main
conference, so DUKPC 2018 was technically
four events in one, quite an undertaking for an
in-house team.
Therese Dolan, who headed that team, tells
AEM: “We reached nearly 3,600 people from
diabetes students, researchers, HCPs across
many disciplines and also the people affected
by the condition. We managed to deliver on