International Day of the Midwife 2012: plans so far.

Plans for the 4th Annual Virtual International Day of the Midwife are falling into place. Here are the minutes of our 2012 VIDM committee meeting on February 21st.

1.  Marketing so far

The call for speakers has gone out and the close date is the 10th March. The advert for EOI has been sent to the main European midwifery email lists. MIDIRS has featured it on their website (big thanks to them). We are currently using the VIDM wiki to track where advertising has been sent:

Please feel free to send the call for EOI as far and as wide as you can. 

2. Speakers

The call for EOI has attracted a number of offers, including people who spoke last year. But we also need to shoulder tap a few “names” to attract people in. If you have any ideas about people to contact, or topics to address, please let me know - I would like to see more presentations addressing clinical issues. Professor Lesley Page has been confirmed to open the VIDM and I am in the throes of organising a Maori welcome from student midwives at the opening session.

3. Technology issues

I am still unsure about how Adobe Connect will perform and have questions that I need to clarify with my organisation. I am also in the process of networking with people who have used Adobe Connect for conferences to get tips and tricks from them. However, Plan B will be to use Elluminate as donated by Lorraine’s institution. We will make our decision by the end of March as to which technology to go with. In the meantime, here is the link to the room I have set up in Adobe Connect that we can go into and practice with.

4. Social media

I am delighted to welcome Sarah Catton, a student volunteer to the committee.  She will help run the Facebook and Twitter accounts. We are planning to keep those accounts running actively now until May. Sarah also has first-hand experience of Adobe Connect as a student midwife so I hope to get her to pass on any tips for us as facilitators. 

5. Facilitators

As we have already agreed, we will use the same model of facilitation as last year. We will need 4 master facilitators who are responsible for the general oversight of 6 hour segments. We will also need individual facilitators of each session.  If you know of anyone who would make a good facilitator or would like to volunteer yourself, please let me know, especially for the big 6 hour segments. Once facilitators have agreed they can be added to the wiki program.

Next meeting in March following the close of the EOI.