Reflections on a Conference

It was so easy to take conferences for granted a few years ago – the magic of being able to come together, to learn and hug and talk until the wee hours of the morning with people who understand and are bound together by this weird thing that we all love. I have been extremely grateful for the availability of online conferences and classes over the past 3 years and hope that we continue to keep this as an option through the future.
I just returned from the At Peace Worldwide Kinesiology Congress in Budapest, and there were moments during the week where I felt utterly overwhelmed with joy and gratitude at being able to spend this time with people that I love. The three most important bits of a conference in my mind are the presentations, the time together and the experience of the place where it is held.

Presentations: One of the big perks of attending conferences is the ability to listen to a variety of instructors talk about different modalities and show new ways of doing things. It can offer a glimpse of systems and ideas, helping you to determine what classes you might want to take in the future, or who you might enjoy studying with. I will admit that I particularly enjoy presentations that go a little more in depth with an idea; not just sharing a personal story but explaining research or demonstrating something new.

Presenting on zoom is actually really difficult. When you present to a room, you can get a feel for how the information is being received. Are people nodding along with you? Did the joke land? Is there some confusion about the way you just described something? Presenting to an audience offers real-time feedback which allows you to correct if something isn’t working well. I am so grateful to everyone who was in the room as I presented last Saturday on Universal Information Systems and Morphogenetic Fields! And I watch my friends as they present and feel very humbled that I get to share a platform with such cool people! Which brings me to my next point…

Togetherness: About half of the learning that we receive from a conference comes from presentations and the other half comes from the time that we spend together outside of the formal forum. Meals together, dancing, singing and late-night talking. This is the part that is hard to reproduce in an online forum and this was what I was missing so desperately! An impromptu bachata in the hotel restaurant, listening to my friends sing along with the musicians in Italian, and walking into breakfast each morning to join a table of peers discussing our work. Of course, we don’t only talk about work, we occasionally venture outside of the confines of the holistic health world…

Above: Adam Lehman, Emma Aquarone, Alexis Costello, Monica Rado, Marco Rado

Culture: At this congress, the team in Budapest (lead by Zsuzsanna Koves and including a group of volunteers that made everything run beautifully) organized treats for us like a river cruise of the Danube, a gala dinner, a Latin band, and traditional Hungarian dancers. Having never been to Hungary before, it was food for the soul to spend some time in the city and appreciating the richness of the culture.

Coming up: Are you reading this and wondering how you can get in on an event like this in the future? In 2023 K-conversations will be hosting another amazing event in conjunction with the International Kinesiology College (IKC) and the International Association of Specialized Kinesiologists. March 31-April 3, come join us for an unforgettable event in Tenerife, or join us online! Find out all the juicy details and register here.

And if you attended the conference in Budapest (or anywhere else this year) and want to share your stories, then post a comment below and keep the love going!
We’re all in this together.
Alexis