SMS Bright Futures 2022 Conference and 30th anniversary celebrations

SMS Bright Futures 2022 Conference

We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who attended our SMS Bright Futures 2022 conference last weekend.

It was truly wonderful to see so many new faces, as well as those who have been part of our SMS family and community over the years. After everything we’ve all been through with Covid-19 the past couple of years, it was amazing to share company and good times with you all! 

Back at SMS HQ, our feet feel as though they are finally touching the ground again after an incredibly busy few months preparing for the conference. A huge amount of work goes into planning all the sessions, topic streams, and speakers – so we really hope you found the content informative and useful. Also, a huge thank you to Caroline Richards and Ashley Liew, co-chairs of our Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board for all the help and hard work they put into planning and arranging speakers. We had over 30 speakers delivering a range of presentations on topics including sleep, genetics, behaviours, education, benefits, adult care, transitions, health, and wellbeing. We will try our best to upload presentations (where appropriate) to our website as and where we can.

Once again we were honoured to have both Ann Smith and Gail Reiner attend this year. They both bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to our conferences, and their presence is invaluable to so many families. The medical Q&A session was a wonderful opportunity for families to ask questions about their SMS health concerns with Ashley, Caroline, Gail, and Ann – thank you all so much!

As ever the evening entertainment was huge fun! Paul Brown of Magical Mayhem delighted our children and SMSers (and many adults too!) with his balloon modelling and magic show. Justin Perks did a fantastic job lighting up our 30th Anniversary Celebration dinner, and keeping many of us in the party mood with the disco and karaoke! Once again Justin closed the conference entertainment with a girls-v-boys rendition of ‘Summer Nights’ on the dancefloor, watch out Britain’s Got Talent! We were also very pleased to have visual illustrator David Lewis with us, who visually recorded one of our strategy sessions on Saturday and then spent time in the evening drawing caricatures. 

We’d also like to thank our exhibitors and sponsors Abram’s Nation, Flynn Pharma, and Murray’s Medical for supporting our event.

Conference Feedback

If you attended the conference we would be very grateful if you could complete our conference feedback form, it will only take 2-3 minutes. The information you provide will be helpful in understanding what worked, and what didn’t work, and useful for planning future conferences and events.