Hey cool – our first dietetics guest blog post!!! The honour has gone to Queensland University of Technology’s dietetics student Holly Harris because she was brave enough to go to the ICD2012 in Sydney recently and rub shoulders with world leaders in the field. Brilliant!! Holly has a blog too, so check it out!!  www.thetruthonthetable.blogspot.com.au

“The first expectation I had anticipated before making my way down to Sydney to attend the ICD was four solid days of back-to-back lectures. I may be crazy for wanting to do this, but now I am ever grateful for that decision where my brain met in the middle with logic. My lecturers were always thrilled to mention the ICD at any opportunity, whether they planned to be presenting or just attending. I understand now, simply from day one. I must say that the unorthodox scenario of watching your lecturers get lectured or supervisors learning was a satisfying experience. And in a room of up to 2000 dietitians from all over the world, I came to the realisation that for the first time, I felt that I wasn’t a student.

Professor Sandra Capra was among the first speakers to open the ceremony to discuss dietitians as leaders of the past, present and future. Her well-executed speech was uplifting and motivational, yet strong and straightforward.  Relevant to the theme of “LEAP” (Leadership, Evidence and Advancing Practice):

PAST– A number of leaders of nutrition and dietetic influences in Australia were acknowledged. To the students, I would like to mention Joan Woodhill, the first dietetic student in Australia.

PRESENT– Sandra mentioned a quote by Autry (2001):

“Leadership, like life, is largely a matter of paying attention.”

I believe this quote is relevant to all students studying nutrition and dietetics. You can interpret your own individual meaning from this quote. Personally, I feel that this quote encourages me to broaden my mind of the profession, beyond the all-necessary medical nutrition therapy. Dietetics is an extremely selfless profession, achieved by paying attention to others, putting your wants and needs after the patient/ client/ community.

FUTURE- This is where we come into it. Another quote by Sandra that particularly resonated with me was:

“We need to have (student) dietitians tomorrow ready, and not today ready.”

I interpret this as always looking into the future, in addition to what is immediately present. This means thinking outside of the box of nutrition, and anticipating arising issues affecting the profession through innovative ways. This allows us to be prepared for any scenario we are confronted with, and be ready to take action if these opportunities occur.

I would like to mention a few ironies:

• The food puns. To name a few- “The banquet of knowledge” and “cracking the nut” have thus far been favourites.
• The water is the first to disappear from the ‘Cocoa-cola’ stand, despite abundance of Cocoa-cola soft drinks.
• The overwhelming proportion of women to men. Of course I have finally accepted that nutrition and dietetics is a female-dominated field, and frankly, I’m fine with that. But this is less than desirable minutes after a break where a lengthy queue occupies the perimeter of the women’s bathroom.
• There is food EVERYWHERE. That goes without saying- there should obviously be a ridiculous amount of food, but this is insane. I had many testers of new supplement products, yoghurts, nuts, digestive prebiotics and chocolate (I plan to do chocolate again tomorrow). There is a new soft drink product to be released which contains a half less sugar and replaced with Stevia. I will let you have your own opinion on that, but they were very excited at pushing this soft drink promotion at dietitians. Congratulations on the bravery.

I would like to conclude this entry with an inspiring and very personal moment shared by Lynne Daniels at the Hot Topics sessions titled “Growing the research arm of the profession”. She mentioned that 35 years ago, at the 1977 International Congress of Dietetics held in Sydney, she was, like you and I, a student too. She revealed her self doubt when attending the conference that she was so ‘inspired’ and ‘never thought that she would be as good as the women presenting’. Now, one of the most well-respected dietetic icons and, who I believe, an inspiring leader in the profession, she was honoured to be presenting at an internationally recognised and prestigious conference.  To say the least, my admiration for her explained the extensive amount of notes written during her 30 minutes speech. And a blend of being mortified yet proud when she sat next to me after her speech and could clearly see all the notes I had written in response to her speech. But I don’t think I was the only person in that room that felt extremely motivated by the talk.

Hopefully more freebies tomorrow. I plan to update you with the developments of the congress.”