The Club had a special meeting at the Marine Hotel in Brighton so we could participate in the 2022 District 9810 Conference launch
Here are just a couple of photos - all photos are contained in an album here.
This week’s club meeting was held on Friday evening 25/3 in the Stables Room at the Marine Hotel, and was held in conjunction with the commencement of this year’s District 9810 conference. All clubs in the district were invited to participate and join in the conference opening and hear the opening address from D.G. Daryl Moran and presentations from the first two conference presenters using technology to Zoom in. The evening commenced with drinks and nibbles followed by the conference opening and the two presentations, before enjoying dinner mains and dessert. This year’s conference theme was working towards a Healthy World and Healthy People with a focus on sustainability.
A reminder, a full album of photos can be found here.
Veena Sahajwalla was our first presenter – she is an inventor and Professor of Materials Science in the Faculty of Science at UNSW Australia. She gave a very detailed presentation on what is possible focusing on using waste products to repurpose into other products using cutting edge technology – commenting that waste is a hugely untapped resource. She illustrated the cyclic design process and provided examples of products made from waste materials. Examples included items for the home such as tiles made from glass and textiles, ceramics, kitchen benches, feature walls and furniture, and packaging. The aim is to use holistic solutions that are useful and good for humanity by creating jobs, using waste to make other products that are of value and fit for purpose, and avoid putting waste into landfill. It needs consultation and collaboration with inventors, designers, businesses and communities in partnership with industry and other related bodies.
Dr Norman Swan was our next presenter – he is a physician, journalist and a multi-award winning producer and broadcaster. He provided a brief overview of Covid and our current position, saying we were not ready for the next pandemic. He outlined the history of the vaccine and the testing process. Whilst vaccination is now available reducing the risk of severe illness, it is still a very serious illness that changes its spots quickly and remains a threat for those who are immune compromised and stressed it is not a mild virus. The current strategy is 3 doses of the vaccine, and whilst the third is referenced as a booster – it is actually a third dose of the vaccine which is in line with other vaccination programs where 3 doses are required to provide the most immunity. Current measures of social distancing, washing hands etc are important, however the highest level of risk comes from breathing in the air of someone who has Covid. Good air circulation helps and wearing masks is important but they need to prevent you from breathing in the air from someone else such as an N95. Whilst medical authorities don’t know how long the virus will be in circulation, Dr Swan expects it will behave like many other viruses and will come and go in waves, and could well be around in 10 years’ time, adding we will need to change our habits.
Dr Swan recently released a book he wrote on wellness and resilience which touches on topics such as diet, mental health, and taking a common sense approach to health. He is not in favour of extreme diets and advocates the Mediterranean diet. He feels many of today’s parents are risk adverse which impedes children from becoming resilient, and that too much emphasis is placed on emotions for being a trigger for medical intervention, when often these are just normal everyday stresses and reactions everyone experiences as part of normal living.
The club thanks Ian for setting up the session so that all that members had to do was turn up, sit back and enjoy the presentations. It was successful and as an inaugural event for use at a district conference, the concept worked very well. Thank you Ian.
