Conference Online Q&A Chats

Children's Activities
Transcript: 5/28/08

Moderator/Jennie (May 28, 2008 2:09:02 PM)
Welcome! This is Jennie Carman, PHA’s Meeting Planning Associate. I will be moderating today’s chat for First-time Conference Attendees. Please keep in mind that because this chat is being moderated it may take a minute for your questions to be answered and appear in the chat box. Thanks for your patience.

DonnaKuhnen (May 28, 2008 2:09:17 PM)
Hi, My name is Donna Kuhnen, and I am in charge of the Chilrens Room, also known as the Round Up Room, at the convention. I have a Masters in Teaching Degree, and have been working daycare-middle school levels for about 15 years. I look forward to meeting everyone in Houston! I plan to try to call all parents of registered kids in th next few weeks to touch base about individual children.

PHAWebmasterDiane (May 28, 2008 2:09:41 PM)
Welcome John! where are you from? Do you have a child with PH attending Conference?

John (May 28, 2008 2:10:20 PM)
Hi, I'm John Hess. We live in Denver, and yes both my son and I will be attending in Houston. He's 8 with PPH

LaurieJeter (May 28, 2008 2:10:57 PM)
Hi, My name is Laurie Jeter. I was responsible for organizing the children's activities at both the 2004 and 2006 conference. I am also a parent of a 12 year old girl who was diagnosed with PH 9 years ago. I am looking forward to answering any questions.

PHAWebmasterDiane (May 28, 2008 2:11:31 PM)
Hi John! Have you attended a PHA Conference before?

John (May 28, 2008 2:11:51 PM)
Hi Diane. I have not.

John (May 28, 2008 2:12:05 PM)
Which is a great segway to a question.

PHAWebmasterDiane (May 28, 2008 2:12:22 PM)
I'm looking forward to finally meeting you! For those of you on here, John has been advising us on our website redesign. Go PHA volunteers!

John (May 28, 2008 2:13:01 PM)
We did not attend two years ago in MN because of a concern of my son, then 6 being exposed to too much information that he wasn't able to handle.

John (May 28, 2008 2:14:05 PM)
I have the same concern this year, although he is now more mature.

LaurieJeter (May 28, 2008 2:15:27 PM)
John, I had the same concerns that you have when we exposed Anna and her siblings to the conferences. Our experience when Anna was younger is that for her it was more

DonnaKuhnen (May 28, 2008 2:15:55 PM)
John, The childrens room is all about fun. No activities or information will be handed out in reguards to PH from the adults there.

LaurieJeter (May 28, 2008 2:18:18 PM)
Sorry everyone I didn't finish. Anyway, when Anna was younger it was more fun and social for her. It was very positive and the younger children really did not discuss the disease. As she has gotten older she is interested in more information and therefore searches it out. In our experience she was not exposed to any information she could not handle.

John (May 28, 2008 2:19:47 PM)
That is good to know.

John (May 28, 2008 2:19:48 PM)
Thank you Laurie.

John (May 28, 2008 2:20:46 PM)
How many PH children are you expecting this year?

Moderator/Jennie (May 28, 2008 2:20:46 PM)
It is hard to track with on-site registrations and the way the registration categories work but we expect a large number of children to be in attendence at Conference.

LaurieJeter (May 28, 2008 2:20:51 PM)
I think that the conference is very hopeful and the message is all about new treatments, meeting a community of friends and a positive message about the future. Believe me, if it wasn't I would never have Anna exposed to it.

John (May 28, 2008 2:22:07 PM)
Great. that is my biggest concern. I want him to approach it the same way as your daughter has. It sounds like that shouldn't be an issue.

John (May 28, 2008 2:23:09 PM)
I really don't have any other questions right now. It looks like everything is well organized, and clearly much thought and planning has gone into the children's activities/room.

Moderator/Jennie (May 28, 2008 2:23:30 PM)
At this Conference the children will be so busy with all of the great activites Donna has planned for them - including a ballon artist and a wild west show!

DonnaKuhnen (May 28, 2008 2:24:14 PM)
I would just like to mention some of the wonderful activities we are planning for the "Round Up Room." Friday afternoon we are planning a balloonist, games, face painting crafts, and a professional cookie decorator is coming in to help the kids decorate their own fancy cookies. Saturday we have an off site trip the the Aquarium for kids 12 and under, and a trip for teens to Dave and Buster's or they can stay in the room with me for other activities.

PHAWebmasterDiane (May 28, 2008 2:25:32 PM)
Kids also like going to and/or participating in the fashion show.

PHAWebmasterDiane (May 28, 2008 2:26:00 PM)
And of course there's the Ask a Pediatrician session.

DonnaKuhnen (May 28, 2008 2:27:28 PM)
Friday night is a "Kids; Movie Night" (G raded movie, probably Charlotte's Web) and Saturday night is Teens movie and a pizza night. I am just mentioning the activities in the Kids room, but parents may check their kids out of the room at any time to attend other appropriate sessions at the conference.

John (May 28, 2008 2:30:40 PM)
OK. When does the children's room shut down, both on conference days and at the end of the conference?

DonnaKuhnen (May 28, 2008 2:30:40 PM)
It shuts down for meals. The hours are Fri-12:30-6:45 close fior dinner and then open for movie night for younger kids (@7:30-9pm). Saturday-8:45-6:45 and then open for movie night for teens (@7:30-9pm), and Sun-8:45-11:30.

Moderator/Jennie (May 28, 2008 2:32:19 PM)
Great! Well unless there are any other questions, I think we will wrap up this chat. Remember more information about children's activites at Conference can be found on the Conference website - http://www.phassociation.org/Conference/2008/ChildrensActivities.asp.

John (May 28, 2008 2:32:54 PM)
Thank you everyone.

Moderator/Jennie (May 28, 2008 2:33:14 PM)
Thanks everyone for joining us today, espically our speakers Donna & Laurie!

PHAWebmasterDiane (May 28, 2008 2:33:23 PM)
cya in Houston!

LaurieJeter (May 28, 2008 2:34:04 PM)
Thanks Everyone, I am looking forward to seeing you all at the conference. Great Work Donna!!!

DonnaKuhnen (May 28, 2008 2:34:35 PM)
See you soon! Safe travel everyone!