Update from HAEi’s Executive Vice President Global Operations and Chief Compliance Officer, Jørn Schultz-Boysen

Great to see so many people at the 2023 HAEi Regional Conference EMEA!

For the past year (and longer), preparations have gone into the 2023 HAEi Regional Conference EMEA, in Munich, Germany. And after such a long preparation period, it was finally showtime!

Being part of the Global Operations team, a lot of effort went into planning and executing the conference. This means everything from booking rooms and working with the conference venue and the AV team to communicating around the conference.

If you’ve engaged at all with HAEi before, during, or after the conference, then it’s likely you have dealt with our operations team. Here’s a snapshot of the team’s work:

  • Handling Travel Grants and registrations – as well as the online platform to capture these
  • Booking flight tickets
  • Preparing the three tracks (patient/caregiver, youngsters, and scientific tracks)
  • Producing and packing all the materials for the conference (stage material, program, hand-outs, banners, brochures, posters, etc.)
  • Developing online tools such as the conference app and links to Wordly for translations
  • Post-conference survey, and of course
  • Running the show with the right presentations at the right time to ensure the conference delivered the biggest impact amongst the participants.

In short, it’s been a massive job, and I am proud of the team’s effort to make the conference a huge success. We welcomed 650 participants; patients and caregivers, physicians/scientists, young people, and industry representatives. We aim to connect people and ensure we all have somebody we can go to with our HAE. As Professor Maurer said, “No patient is left behind”!

With one conference ending, our work begins on the next: The 2024 HAEi Regional Conference Americas is from 15-17 March 2024. And we continue to provide a range of exciting and extremely helpful tools that HAEi can offer both local Member Organizations and patients and caregivers. You can hear lots more about these in the write-up from the 2023 HAEi Regional Conference EMEA, but I want to call out a few here:

Apps for iOS and Android: HAE TrackR – your electronic HAE diary, including a reminder functionality for prophylactic treatments. HAE TrackR will keep your data safe! HAE Companion – your pocket-size travel partner. Store the emergency card on your smartphone in the language of the country you are in. And know exactly where to find help if an HAE attack occurs.

For Member Organizations: Free hosted websites service and HAEi Connect, the free and secure (and EU GDPR compliant) membership database from which you can also communicate with your members. No more Excel sheets on a computer that can crash!

And HAEi Advocacy Academy, where our Member Organizations, patients, and caregivers can find a wealth of information and learning a lot of topics.

Also, a big shout out to all HAE youngsters (patients and caregivers) between 16 and 25: Look out for the HAEi LEAP 2024 educational program! We invite you to apply for a place in next year’s LEAP class. Speak to your Member Organization about a project that you can work on to benefit your HAE community.

You’re reading Global Perspectives, but please encourage your family and friends to sign up for the magazine on our website: haei.org.

The show now moves on from Munich to Panama City. Thank you to everyone who made the recent conference so amazing, especially the supporters, for making it possible. We can already feel the impact of so many patients and caregivers, physicians, and industry representatives being together under one roof. We want you to ‘Take Action’ on the HAE challenges and opportunities. Here’s to the next one!