Over 1,500 people from the UK and around the world take part in RCOT ’ s first ever wholly-virtual annual conference
Wednesday 30 June and Thursday 1 July saw an incredible 1,596 members of the occupational therapy community come together for RCOT ’ s 44th annual conference , and its first ever wholly-virtual event .
The vibrant and lively two-day event saw delegates get involved in a creative mix of live and pre-recorded sessions , chat rooms , live video link-ups , poster presentations , product demonstrations , an RCOT Hub area , and a fast-moving Twitter wall , which showcased all the # RCOT2021 activity in one accessible place .
With 99 sessions over the two days , four member-chosen themes – equality , diversity and inclusion ; the impact of occupational therapy ; new ways of working ; and rehabilitation and recovery – a huge range of different speakers and panels discussing the four conference themes , and # RCOT2021 trending on Twitter , there was a fantastic amount of lively and engaging content and debate .
The top three sessions by unique views were : Professor Sally Singh , head of pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust , who said we need to develop the research , and evidence the strengths of pulmonary rehab as an intervention for people with post-COVID-19 symptoms ; Professor Sir Michael Marmot , who called on government to ‘ put a fair distribution of health and wellbeing ’ at the heart of its policies ; and the plenary panel on inclusion , where five people with expertise and experience looked at what inclusion means to them and what an inclusive occupational therapy profession should look like .
And with six months ’ access to the annual conference platform to watch everything on demand , delegates can keep on connecting with each other , forging new networks and sharing useful resources until the end of the year . On the following pages we review some of the most watched sessions .
14 OTnews July 2021