Have you booked your place at the College of Occupational Therapists 40th Annual Conference?

Zoe Parker the College’s Education Officer takes a peek at our annual conference. Follow Zoe.

This year is extra special because it’s our fortieth and as ever it’s a marvellous CPD opportunity. It makes a great example of a significant learning event for you to celebrate in your profile if you are chosen for audit by the HCPC in 2017.

“Preparing and presenting my paper at COT2015  was a great experience, preparing it gave me an opportunity  to develop my writing style and critical skills, being able  to write about something I was passionate about and truly  believed in meant that it was fun to write and research.
Presenting the paper was a wonderful opportunity; it was great to meet students and practitioners from all over the world, to have some feedback on my work. The positive feedback I gained at COT2015 motivated me to apply for a masters to explore the idea further. It has been a valuable contribution to my CV and not only increased my personal confidence, but my passion for Occupational Therapy as a profession”
Jemma Morgan, occupational therapist, and student presenter at Annual Conference in Brighton, 2015

“Condensing my literature review into a ten minute presentation was challenging, but it certainly helped me to focus on the key points and messages I wanted to share. I very much enjoyed presenting at the conference, and answering questions from the audience, especially since everyone was so supportive and encouraging.”
Sara Spruce, occupational therapist, and student presenter at Annual Conference in Brighton, 2015

The quotes from students who presented last year capture the value of attending conference as a superb learning opportunity for presenters and for delegates. We will have some wonderful speakers coming to share their knowledge and inspire you to progress in your own practice whatever your role is as an occupational therapist. If you come as a delegate this year, please consider submitting an abstract for next year’s conference and experiencing the same learning buzz as those students.

The opening plenary speaker is Professor Sue Baptiste of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. She is one of the occupational therapy world’s outstanding researchers and Vice President of WFOT. She was an author of COPM the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure and has wide-ranging research interests.

This year’s Casson memorial will be given by Dr Wendy Bryant from The University of Essex who has an abiding interest in human rights and occupational alienation as a mental health expert and participatory action researcher.

Rob Webster, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation has a strong commitment to values based systems leadership and partnership working and as a strategic leader in the NHS will be sharing his insight on its future direction. You can follow him on Twitter @NHSConfed_RobW.

Professor Simon Kay is the world class plastic surgeon who performed the first hand transplant in the UK and his work has transformed many people’s lives.

Closing the conference will be the jockey Brian Toomey who has credited occupational therapy as the key factor in his making the biggest sporting comeback ever.

If you are presenting at conference you may like to use social media to test out your ideas for your presentation to whet people’s appetites and garner an audience in advance – use the conference hashtag #COT2016 this will share your work in progress and provide an extra record of CPD activity for your portfolio.

This year’s conference programme committee includes social media aficionado Sarah Bodell who tweets as @otsalford & is to be found on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sarah.bodell.  She has asked for delegates and presenters to connect with her so don’t be shy.

Visit the conference site for regular news and updates as they unfold. Listen to the podcast on how conference is important for the profession and what conference means personally to Sarah Bodell, Chair of the Conference Programme Committee (CPC); Dee Christie, CPC member and Alicia Ridout, CPC member, and what they are looking forward to at the 40th Annual Conference.  We will also be publishing a conference blog.