Following the success of the five Global Conferences, the HAEi Board of Directors was thrilled to welcome just short of 500 participants representing 75+ countries to the 2022 HAEi Global Leadership Workshop in Frankfurt, Germany.
In his opening address, HAEi President & CEO Anthony J. Castaldo talked with enthusiasm about ‘The spirit of Budapest’ when Prof. Henriette Farkas invited scientists to the first-ever meeting on HAE:
“But patients were also welcomed and embraced at the 1999 meeting in Hungary. Soon followed another crucial gathering hosted by Prof. Marco Cicardi in Italy, ultimately leading to the founding of HAEi in 2004. No doubt these events gave us the backbone to get to where we are today – having grown from the seven founding countries to now 95 Member Organizations across the globe.”
As for the choice of title for the workshop – ‘Together Again’ – Anthony J. Castaldo said:
“The title celebrates that this is the first global in-person HAEi event in more than four years. We are very excited about bringing leaders of the Member Organizations together to, once again, experience the extraordinary sense of community felt by all when HAEi friends meet face to face. The workshop provides a unique opportunity for global HAEi leaders to not only share their approaches to advocacy but also generate new ideas that can be applied at home.”
With HAEi Executive Vice President & COO Henrik Balle Boysen, Anthony J. Castaldo said, “This workshop is all about being together again”, and strongly encouraged the participants to make new friends and contacts.
Throughout the workshop, it was evident that ‘Together Again’ was a very well-chosen title. Again and again, you could hear patients, caregivers, physicians, and pharma representatives tell each other how good it was to finally meet once more. However, after a little while of greeting old HAE friends, the participants also met with people they had never had a chance to see in person.
After a joint opening session Friday morning, the workshop continued in two separate tracks: One for Member Organization leadership and another for healthcare professionals and researchers.
“As I just said to some of the other guys from the youngsters’ group: We were KIDS when we last met in person! It has been too long.”
“It is wonderful to finally be able to meet people that you’ve only seen via Zoom.”
“It is so nice with all the sessions, but it is also evident that people want time to interact after all these months and years apart. Finally, here we are!”
“All the hugs and kisses from friends old and new – that’s really priceless.”
