CAM Expo 2014

What a weekend! Integrative Health Education has returned to base after a successful CAM Expo event.

Well what can we say about the weekend? We had a fantastic time seeing some old friends and meeting lots of new, passionate practitioners who wanted to learn more about Integrative Health Education and how they can develop as practitioners.

Here is our run-down of the weekend (including blood, sweat and a few tears).

Four months before the event we received a pack through the post explaining all that needed to be done for the expo. It was Integrative Health Education’s first time at CAM and we really did not know what to expect from the event… and this pack was huge!

So over the coming months we designed our stand, which we think looks pretty cool, polished our literature, filled out the necessary paperwork and made lots of lists. The days started to fly by.

Arriving at CAM on the Friday to set up was quite daunting – we had an hour to unload the van and get all our display equipment in place. Thanks to Nicky and Sarah’s organisation and Nick’s amazing handyman skills, the stand was soon up and looking fantastic, as you can see.

Our stand was divided into two sections – Integrative Health Education and Parasite Testing Europe. Emma had managed to obtain some real-life parasites; we had some worm jelly sweets for a joke and a TV showing some of our presenters, such as Dr Amin, in action.

The doors to Olympia opened and the weekend started. Our stand was flooded with practitioners who wanted to learn more about our story and what courses we offer.

The parasites were grabbing quite a lot of attention with some people fascinated and, of course, some not wanting to come near them.

On Saturday morning we had a visit from the editor of Nutrition I-Mag, Rachel Symonds. Rachel asked us lots of questions about what we were trying to achieve with Integrative Health Education and how our philosophy of bridging the gap between the allopathic and holistic professions had developed. Of course, she also was fascinated by Parasite Testing Europe’s resident parasites and also how we were working with the world’s leading parasite lab to bring these tests to Europe.

Emma was giving two talks over the weekend in the Demo Theatre – the first on Saturday was the last talk of the day. The second was mid-morning on the Sunday. The theatre talks had been quite quiet in general, however, Emma had a full house and people were even standing outside to get in, all wanting to learn more about parasite infection.

On the Sunday morning we had a visit from Simon Martin, the editor of CAM Magazine. Simon spent almost 30 minutes at the stand, fascinated by our work with parasite infection and our educational courses that are science-based and give students lots of practical take-home information. Simon even cleared his schedule to see Emma’s talk and we are really looking forward to working closely with our industry’s leading publication next year.

We met some fantastic practitioners from all areas of the world and it was such a positive weekend spreading the word about what we do – we look forward to going back in 2015.

We have to thank everyone in the Integrative Health and Parasite Testing Europe team, without whose efforts the weekend wouldn’t have been possible. Sarah and Nicki put in so much hard work running up to the weekend and then also being there during the weekend to help take payments and answer questions. Thanks to Nick, whose handyman skills meant the stand was set up and ready within a few hours, and also for his support throughout the run-up to the event and during the weekend. Thanks must also go to our practitioners Hannah, Abbey, James and Debbie, whose ideas and support in the run-up to and during the event were invaluable. We couldn’t have done it without you all.

See you at next year’s CAM Expo!