2012 NWNPC Conference Highlights
May 17-20, 2012
“Physician Heal Thyself,” the 2012 Northwest Naturopathic Physicians’ Conference (NWNPC) was held May 17-20 at Semiahmoo Resort–Golf–Spa. This year’s truly therapeutic convention offered an extra day of leisure, and the serene resort setting was ideal for hikers, golfers, and beachcombers alike. Calm seas greeted those attending Priority One’s whale watch, and the sunny weather held for a beachside BBQ, generously sponsored by Dr. Chris Turner from Winnipeg, featuring steel drums music and delicious seafood.
A highlight reel of keynote speakers began with Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., MD on Thursday night. This year’s convention was praised for its caliber of lectures provided by doctors Walter Crinnion, Jeff Bland, Peter D’Adamo, Bruce Lipton, Holly Lucille, Paul Anderson, Doris Rapp, Denis Wilson, Ariso Vojdani, Sahrum Sjarif, Amit Goswami, Martin Pall, Tabatha Parker, Alex Vasquez, and Michael Varon.
Camaraderie and opportunities prevailed throughout this convention, beginning with Karaoke night on Thursday evening. Friday night featured an all-colleges alumni and dance night, starring recording artists from the country rock band Aces Up. The Saturday evening banquet featured awards to Dr. Allen Tyler (the Dr. Gerald Farnsworth Award for professional dedication) and Dr. Russell Kolbo (the Dr. Kenneth Freeman Harmon Award for outstanding naturopathic medical practices), as well as a touching tribute to those passed in the last year. The evening wrapped up early with an uproarious performance by slight-of-hand magician and comedian Carl Andrews. The balance of the evening found friends gathering throughout the resort at beachside bonfires, guest rooms, and at Platters bar and grill. Meal times were another opportunity to socialize, and delegates raved about the Executive Chef’s creations including parfaits, fruit skewers, gluten-free options, vegan options, wild salmon, NY steaks, seafood shish kabobs, roasted vegetables, and countless salads. Rest, relaxation, and exercise were part of the weekend as delegates and their family members enjoyed the spa services, the pool and hot tub, and tennis courts—just ask Dr. Doris Rapp, and kayaking—ask Janet and Mike.
Delegates came from far and wide including Dr. Gamage and family from Fort St. John, BC (a 12-hour drive), Dr. Karen Tan and Dr. AnneMarie Lambert from Hawaii, Dr. Tori Smith from Alaska, and several others from the east coast. In addition, many joined us from a distance to participate in our inaugural webinar offer, developed jointly by NWNPC and NCNM. If you missed this conference, you can still obtain CEs from the webinar by visiting our website at NWNPC.com. In addition to the hundreds of delegates, dignitaries from all walks of our profession joined us, including college presidents Dr. Khalsa, Dr. David Schleich, and Dr. Dan Church, as well as AANP president Michael Cronin.
The NWNPC serves as the host site for the Bob’s Red Mill Cup competition. Congratulations to our three student finalists: Erin Rurak, Ed Szymczak, and Renee Purdy, who shared in the $15,000 prize money. Lori Sobelson from Bob’s Red Mill helped judge the competition.
This year’s free registration winner was Crystal Hadikin, and next year’s winner goes to Christine Horn from Silverdale, WA.
The 2012 convention served as a platform for several new announcements from the NWNPC. First, we are excited to announce the launch of the Northwest Naturopathic Physicians Association, or NWNPA. The NWNPA will provide small, hands-on seminars in exotic locations, to compliment our annual conventions. These seminars, along with numerous other benefits, will be available to members only. To learn more, visit our website at www.NWNPC.com. Also, this year we launched both Twitter and Facebook accounts, and we encourage your participation and feedback. And, finally, we are incorporating a special app that lets you keep in touch, in real time with events during and after the convention. With more to come, stay tuned to the website.
The NWNPC succeeds in no small part because of the invaluable participation of our exhibitors. Thank you for your support all weekend, including your booth rentals, speaker sponsorships, whale watching tour, gifts for the exhibitor raffle, and contributions to our camaraderie. Tree Farm once again recorded our lectures and helped out with their usual technical flare. As always, you can source audio recording of the lectures from them. A special note of appreciation goes out to our gold sponsors, especially Biotics NW and Key Pharmacy, for the lunches and Cyrex Labs for breakfast.
Special thanks go out to our student volunteers, to Dr. Chris Turner for buying meals and 50/50 tickets for our students, to Laura Farr, OANP executive director, for capably filling in as our MC, to NCNM for sponsoring the food and beverages enjoyed during the Bob’s Red Mill Cup, to Justin from NCNM for his technical expertise in launching our webinar and, finally, thanks to Dick Hoeninger and your NWNPC volunteer board of directors who worked hard all weekend ensuring another successful conference.
You can visit our website for a montage of photos; you might see yourself there having fun. See you in 2013, April 12-14, at the Downtown Marriott Waterfront Hotel for the 57th annual NWNPC convention.
