WEGO Webinar on IRL

 Photo found (and subsequently photoshopped) here.

Ok this one cracks me up just a little bit. 

Sometimes I ask myself questions to assess what I'm doing with my time and how well I'm doing it.  Lately, one of those questions has been "in relation to my role as a health activist among activists, what do I bring to the table?  What value do I contribute?  How am I unique in this community and how can I leverage that?".  And no, I'm not being self-deprecating or modest; I KNOW that I add value, I'm just trying to focus in on how exactly I do that so I can do it better. 

My age is sometimes an oomph factor...though less and less these days (darn kids speaking up and making me feel old).  A pretty solid perspective I bring is that of a working professional & chronic patient.  I like this role, it's become one of my favorite angles to portray.  I think my story is inspiring - not even so much because of what I do to make this work, but because I can go out there and HONESTLY speak from the heart about cooperative employers and trying to make accommodations a viable solution.  I know many people listening either truly can't carry the workload or will only be able to for a while longer, but it always helps to have a real basis for hope for the future.

In the past few months, it became obvious that the other reason people are interested in my work is because of my experience with IRL - In Real Life - activism.  I think you all know some of my stories about presentations at Villanova (if not, go back a few posts), and of my new hat as a Sjogren's Awareness Ambassador (and on that note, remind me to tell you about the VERY cool things going on with that soon).  I've even had the occasional friend ask for my thoughts on some IRL ideas of their own.  I began IRL, then moved online, and LOVE to bring them together (my recent panel appearances related to social media speak to this idea). 

So, how did WEGO Health, the trail blazers of all things activist-related, decide to make use of my experiences?  By having me do a webinar on IRL activism.  That's right, a WEB-BASED session on doing things in-person.  I love it!  How much more to the point can you get?  We don't exist in isolation; we aren't just a Twitter persona OR a face behind a podium.  That would be like saying we either have one symptom or another, only see one type of specialist, or even that we only enjoy either the ice cream or the cherry on top!  Ridiculous! 

I do Tweet, blog, Facebook, and play with a variety of online tools...but I also talk, educate, coordinate, and put myself on a stage, or in a classroom, or in an audit room where I simply won't stop "sharing".  I get excited when I bring these worlds together; synergism is an awesome thing.

You knew, of course, that this post could only end one way - with a link to sign-up and a call to action: register now to attend the webinar!  Once you spend the grand total of 20 seconds or so to register, you'll receive a link and instructions for logging in on Thursday (5/26) at 7:00PM ET  You are able to submit specific questions ahead of time, as well as during the program via the webinar tool and even on Twitter using the designated hashtag!