Global Meetings

Leaving a Life-Saving Legacy Behind

Celina Renner, congress manager for the International Diabetes Federation, talks about the federation's "global-to-local" strategy — and the value of working with destination alliances like the Best Cities Global Alliance.

When the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) holds the World Diabetes Congress every two years, thousands of research scientists, endocrinologists, nurses, general practitioners, dieticians, diabetes educators, and health-care policy makers show up to learn about the latest advances in diabetes treatment and prevention.

But the IDF also employs a “global-to-local” strategy to ensure that diabetes education will have an even greater impact — by taking steps to transfer knowledge from the congress into the local community, says Celina Renner, IDF’s congress manager.

In 2011 in Dubai, for example, the IDF partnered with 100 leading figures from the public and private sectors to convene a Global Diabetes Forum. The forum created the Dubai Blueprint, including a set of practical recommendations that is boosting local efforts in diabetes treatment and prevention in the UAE, Renner said.

The IDF has also streamlined their ability to replicate the initiative by holding meetings in a succession of cities that are part of the Best Cities Global Alliance. “It makes things much easier for us,” Renner said. “There is an internal, transparent transfer of knowledge that obviously facilitates things for us on site.”

Convene Editors