July 10, 2024
A Big Tent - U2FP's Symposium
Matthew Rodreick
Who are you in relation to spinal cord injury? Are you a scientist? A clinician? A biotech representative? A foundation funder? A government regulator? And - most importantly - do you live with this injury?
I’m asking because your relationship to SCI determines how you view the problem of paralysis. Which is why I believe our upcoming Science & Advocacy Symposium on September 27-28 in Atlanta (register here) is so important. Our conference brings all the major stakeholders together to share their latest work (and yes that includes non-academic folks with lived experience sharing their point of view). Then we facilitate practical conversations between everyone in the room to foster understanding and collaboration. All with the goal of accelerating treatments for functional recovery after spinal cord injury.
Which is why we need you to come. I want your individual perspective and the professional or personal community you represent. Your experience with this injury is a powerful lens for how you prioritize the many challenges SCI presents and how you define success. Getting everyone aligned is hard but necessary. We can’t do this in our individual silos - we have to do this together.
Agenda
We’ve got a great agenda taking shape. We will host eight sessions over the course of two days. You can view the entire agenda and see who's presenting and how we've grouped various speakers across eight sessions by going here.
Poster Session
We want to highlight the work of up-and-coming graduate students/postdocs while exposing them to the voice of the SCI community early in their careers. As it was last year, I know the posters will enrich the experience of everyone in attendance. If you are a trainee in the SCI field and would like to present your work at our Symposium in Atlanta, please click here to apply.
Travel Grants
We offer eligible SCI attendees the opportunity to apply for travel grants to our annual meeting. We know the financial barriers that exist for our community and want to give motivated SCI advocates every opportunity to enrich our Symposium through their presence and participation. Hurry, the deadline to apply for a travel grant is this Friday, July 12th. Apply here.
Hotel
Secure your spot at our conference hotel and lock in our special group rate of $189/night. Don’t wait, rooms are going fast - book your room now!
Individuals from last year’s Stim Participant Panel prepare to share their varied experiences about the impact of the epidural or transcutaneous stim devices they use. Click the image above to watch the full panel discussion. From left: Traci Fernandez, Shelly Hayes, Zach Wagner, Jerod Nieder, David Tarro and Ajay Shenoy.
We hope you can join us for this year’s Science & Advocacy Symposium in Atlanta on September 27-28 (register here). Please share this important event in your networks and on social media, or forward this message to a friend, family member or colleague with an SCI. We need as many people as possible, from all areas of the SCI and Scientific communities, to ensure everyone’s voice is heard.
Join us!
P.S. We have a growing list of top notch companies, organizations and institutions who are supporting this year’s symposium. Click here to view our sponsor benefits and levels and then consider joining them along with our title sponsor, The Emory Neurotrauma Translational Research Center (ENTiRe).
2024 Science & Advocacy Symposium Sponsors
