JellyBean 014 with Tamara Hills

SMACC is over…

The amount of hyperbole that this event is generating is quite something.
Some people will already be whinging about this.
I can understand that.
The amount of enthusiasm that this phenomenon generates is not normal.

But why? What’s so special?

We can hear Scott Weingart on emcrit
We can read Chris Nickson on LITFL
We can fall in love with ECG’s at HQMedEd

I can tell you why I am so enthusiastic about it…

Because of Tamara Hills.
Just watch “17 minutes”

Do it now. Please.

I recommend you do it before you click play on this #jellybean.

Tamara Hills (Keep-Caring.com) has an incredible story to tell and she tells it through her incredible son, Christopher.

I watched it in its entirety just before I spoke to Tamara.
This was a (sort of) mistake because I am a big softy.
I have lived my life with my heart on my sleeve.
It gets dirty there and I bump it into things.

I was actually a little rattled when I recorded this Jellybean

You may be able to tell as I speak a little too much and a little too fast.
But bumping my big soft heart into people like Tamara is the benefit I get.
And she was not the only one who inspired me at SMACC.

All the well known names delivered.

I gave @cliffreid (resus.me) a standing ovation and I laughed until I hurt listening to Dr John “Deadpan/Skidpan” Hinds
I told @karimBrohi (trauma.org) that he was a hero of mine and not for the reasons you might think. I was a little (more) disinhibited than usual.

The big thing about SMACC are the “little” people.

Every time I spoke to someone in the halls and corridors they were bloody interesting.
The paramedic students, kilt wearing horse breeders, the Medicins sans Frontieres veterans, the social workers, the company reps (yes I just said that), the country GP’s, the ENT surgeons, crazy scottish muso’s, flying paediatricians …. I could go on.
The number of people that I wanted to Beanboozle with a Jellybean was somewhere near 1200.

I was a little overwhelmed. I’m not saying it was perfect. I have compared SMACC 2013 to Woodstock. SMACC GOLD was not the same. It was a different beast. I don’t agree with loads of stuff that was said on stage. Of course not. Thats a good thing. I went and chewed someones ear off about it afterwards and late into the night.

Nickson, Brazil, Flower, May, Bowles, Macken, Le Cong, McPartlin, Leo, and Harris are not the FOAMed Messiahs, they are very naughty boys AND girls.

The next SMACC will be in Chicago. It is a brave choice. I thought they might go to New York City, Manchester (which is near Bolton) or maybe San Francisco. However I didn’t think about it as much as the aforementioned naughty people.

Chicago; We are talking Great Lakes, great history, great architecture (think the Great Chicago Fire and the great Frank Lloyd Wright) , great music and great medical education. You get the idea; from Al Capone to Patti Smith, from Lincoln to Obama, from Leon Gussow (thepoisonreview.com) to YOU.

It’s a brilliant choice. If you are “up yourself” and don’t want to talk to a scruffy irishman or an idealistic student maybe you shouldn’t come. One of the “big’ names is Prof Derek Angus; and I can tell you for certain he will be a perfect fit. This guy can talk.

Check out the Jellybean with this charming Scotsman, he certainly left me for dead in the conversationalist stakes. Then he managed to re-animate me, such is his scientific genius, a word used far too often but appropriate for this Glaswegian.

You might be inspired. I was. I was inspired by the crowd, the delegates, people a bit like you and me.

I was inspired by Christopher, Gerry and Tamara Hills.

References

• Tamara Hills on Twitter
• Keep Caring Website
• 17 Minutes Video