Behind the Scenes at OTX: Our Conference Journey

Join Cheri and Hannah as they take you behind the scenes of their conference journey at OTX! From taking the leap and submitting their application to preparing their presentation and stepping onto the conference stage, they reflect on the challenges, lessons, and memorable moments along the way.

They also share insights from their presentation, the connections they made, their favourite moments from the conference, and what they might do differently next time. Whether you’re considering presenting at a conference yourself or simply curious about what goes on behind the scenes, this episode offers an honest look at the experience from start to finish.

Be sure to follow us on instagram @ots_figuringitout

This podcast is brought to you by Charge Your Mind Program, WonderGlowOT and Joyful Journey OT.

We acknowledge the Wathaurong people as the traditional ownders of the land on which we work and live here in Geelong, Victoria. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.

Produced by Abbey Jacobs

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to OT's Figuring It Out. A podcast where two occupational therapists chat about the messy, meaningful, and sometimes hilarious parts of life as OTs.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

We're learning, growing, and definitely still figuring it out. In

Intro

SPEAKER_01 0:25

today's episode, we're taking you behind the scenes of our whole conference journey, from applying to planning what we'd actually say to presenting on the day, and then what it was like actually attending the conference.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Cool. So

Why Did We Actually Apply?

SPEAKER_00 0:38

why did we actually apply?

SPEAKER_01 0:40

That's a good question. I uh in summary, I think it was a moment of cognitive lapse that all turned out in the end. Yes. So I shouldn't say that.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

I think neither of us had been to a conference before. I think we were really proud of the program that we made and we really wanted to share that with everyone.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Absolutely. I had always wanted to present at a conference too. So it kind of felt like, you know, we had a topic to present, the conference was coming up at the right time. It's something I wanted to do, not necessarily yet, but it was a perfect storm.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Yeah. And I don't even think we really thought about it. I think we just applied and we're like, I think in the back of our minds, we were kind of like, oh, we are probably unlikely to get it because we're also told it's really unlikely to get a present, like we're playing for a presentation. It's unlikely to get that. It might be more of a poster. And but lo and behold, we we got accepted.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah, I feel if it had been just you or just me, we wouldn't have taken that plunge. But there's something about having both of us being accountable to each other. You suggested it. I didn't want to say no. Or if I suggested it, you didn't want to say no, I don't remember. But I have no idea. I can't remember. Yeah, we kind of just dragged each other along and it worked out great. Yes. Here we are.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Yes, exactly. So that that's why we applied, and then like moving on to the actual application

The Application Process

SPEAKER_00 2:11

process. I thought that was pretty easy and straightforward. Yeah, it was scary. Yeah, I think the one thing that was a bit tricky. So I knew OTA have, did they call them like mentors or something that could help you with your application? And we sent through stuff for that, but we actually never heard back, which was kind of disappointing. I'm not sure what happened there. Yeah, whether that was on us or their blog. Well, yeah, because there was a certain amount of time you had to access the mentors to apply. But yeah, we just didn't never heard back. So but we did get feedback from Claire Batkin. Yes, yeah. So you reached out to her, obviously attended and applied for lots of things before.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Yes, she's very experienced and she offered a presentation to give some tips and tricks on making that application and then offered to review applications if the people that attended wanted to take advantage of that, which I thought was a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

And that was really helpful having her feedback. And I think she gave um some examples as well of what an application could look like. So that was really helpful to kind of have that to be like, okay, this is like what it could look like.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah. Maybe that's our first tip as well for anyone who's interested in the future of applying to a conference, is to get some outside perspective and feedback if you can.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Absolutely. So the actual

What We Loved About the Conference

SPEAKER_00 3:41

conference, I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Yeah. Me too. Once I got out of my head from our presentation, because we presented within the first hour, I think, really.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

It was it was the first session, so that was fantastic. Because so good. We could just get that out of the way and then enjoy the rest of the conference.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Did you have a favorite part of the conference other than obviously our speech?

SPEAKER_00 4:04

There was a few things I enjoyed. I loved the sensory rooms.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Oh, you stole mine.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

I knew you were gonna say that. Rude. I I actually did also really enjoy the exhibits and going around to seeing what's what was there. And I guess having that ability to connect with other people, right? Like other OTs or other professionals and what they can offer. That was actually really good. I I really enjoyed that. And obviously, there was lots of presentations that I attended, which I had posted on Wonder Glow OT's social media, a few that really stood out for me. It was good, and I really liked OTA's gamified version of doing things. We won prizes because we did a lot of stuff through there.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

We scanned a lot of QR codes.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Oh, we sure did. So Hannah won a merchandise pack from ParaMobility. Is it ParaMobility? Yes, yeah. Sorry, I I had mobility and then I was like in my doing better than me and my baby brain. And you got a really nice visa gift card with that. Yes, I did. And I won two supervision sessions with Tara from Vervo T. So I'm excited to do them. Yeah, I'm actually really keen, especially from that NIS perspective, because she is she is so well versed in NGS. And I'm like, yes, I can dive deep into her brain and get what I need from us.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

And I think that was my favorite part of the conference with meeting Sarah and Alice and the Kid Link team and all these people that I listened to online, meeting them in real life was just really nice. Yes, not even to get anything from, just it was nice.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Yeah, it was it was kind of funny because we'd be walking around and we'd be like, oh, there's Greg Santucci, and then we're like, oh, there's Sarah, oh there's Caitlin.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Exactly. Yeah. All these people that don't know who we are, but we know you.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

We were like, it was kind of like almost like Ice Five. Yes, yeah. Whereas Well, oh, we should have had a bingo card for people next year. Next year, all right. We're making a bingo card of people that we're gonna spot at the conference. Love it. We'll do our own prizes, yes, so should have done that, but anyway.

What We Would Do Differently

SPEAKER_00 6:28

We've also discussed like what we would do differently in the future as well with like meaning. And one of the things we've spoken about was I think we had in our minds that we could only do like one thing, like we could only apply once for one thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

And afterwards, we were like, why didn't we also like put in for posters and stuff?

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Like, yeah, and to be fair to us, we like we said, we'd never attended a conference either of us. We didn't know how these things worked. So I'm proud of us for just doing it, getting started, you know. Yes, and now people are gonna be sick of us. We'll be at all the conferences.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Don't bother me to that. No, uh, there's so there is so many at the moment on, and there's so many that I wanted to attend, but I was like, I'm not signing up knowing my capacity.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah, would be one at a time, pretty drained after after being interstate for this one.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

But yeah, so once we got accepted, we then had to actually write our speech or presentation.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Yeah, I feel there was a cognitive block there, you know. Oh, we got accepted, this is so exciting, let's celebrate. And then all of a sudden I was like, conference is actually like coming up, you know. We should probably take that next step.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yes, and I think a couple of our first drafts were good, but then they strayed away from what we were actually there for, and we had to kind of like scrap it and be like, okay, hang on, we're missing the point of this presentation.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Our whole program is good. We want to share our whole program, but yes, that's not possible in a five-minute speech.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

It was also really hard too because we weren't allowed to like advertise or like market ourselves. So it's a little bit hard to say things without saying things, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Yeah, well, you and I are very much rule followers. We did not want to make any mistakes.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Yes. Yeah, it was a little bit tricky of like, oh, can we use that word? And we had to like replace things and yeah, I mean, it worked out all fine in the end, and our good friend AI helped us fine-tune things. I mean, even up until the week beforehand, I was still changing what I was saying.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

I was not.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Mine was little words. I think it was whatever I was naturally gravitating towards. I was like, oh, actually, I'm saying it like this. I'm just gonna change the script to actually shite what I'm saying, just so I don't get confused on the day. Yeah, that's totally fair.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Is there anything that you would do differently with how you presented it if you did it again?

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Like actually presenting it on the day.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Anything, the whole process, what would you change?

SPEAKER_00 9:07

I would be more prepared. I I was already in Queensland and I didn't have a hard copy of the speech on me. So I was like, oh, I went and to the supermarket and bought a notepad and I wrote it out by hand.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

That's a good strategy to help memorize too.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Yes, well, that that's what I thought as well. I did a couple of times just write it out by hand and then like copy it and then did what I did from memory to see what I could remember. But apart from that, I I don't know, like we didn't even practice together. We practiced separately. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Was it our first time speaking together at the conference? Or did we do it once the night before? I can't remember. No, we did we didn't practice the night before. No. So we literally just did it for the first time in front of people.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

I think we did it very initially, like once we did our draft, we went through it together, but that was it.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

So if anything had gone wrong and one of us couldn't have presented, we'd have been in so much trouble. Yeah, because that was a bit of a concern for both of us at the time. It was not out of the realm of possibility. Uh, but hey, we did it.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

How

What it Was Like Presenting

SPEAKER_00 10:22

did you feel presenting?

SPEAKER_01 10:23

I was not nervous at all until maybe 60 seconds beforehand. I think it hadn't hit me that I was about to stand up and talk. So then it hit me hard and fast. The heart rate was definitely high. But I'd been telling myself the whole time worst case scenario, I get up there and I read my speech. And that's fine. And it was fine. And I didn't even have to read it all.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yeah, I I I felt the same. I wasn't really nervous at all, which was a huge shock to me.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

You were so calm and put together.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

That was probably just me masking. Hey, it worked. I felt good after it. Like I was like, hey, I actually did a really good job. Like I felt proud of myself afterwards. Yeah. We we did have a couple of people come up afterwards as well to say that they they enjoyed the presentation, which was nice.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Yeah, and people that I know that don't know me, you know, I know them from their own work. So they feel like not celebrities, that's a bit extreme, but professionals. Are they telling me that I did a good job? Like, thank you. Can you write that down for me?

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Such a huge compliment coming from you. Yeah, literally. And we did post our presentation that we recorded live on the day as our last podcast episode.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Yep. So if you've missed that, go and have a listen.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Absolutely, go hear it. Five minutes, quick, easy, listen to. But I thought it would be a good opportunity today to talk a little bit more in depth of what we were actually talking

What We Talked About in our Presentation

SPEAKER_00 11:56

about. Because we had five minutes, right? We didn't have very long to discuss our in-sync framework. So that can be something that we can chat a bit more to now.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Yeah, absolutely. And we can share a copy of it too for people that are interested. Yes. Yes, in-sync framework is our seed, really. That turned into the whole program. Yes. The foundation, maybe that's a better word.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Yeah, it's the model that underpins the entire charge your mind program. In my brain, I see elements of like the POP model in it.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Absolutely. I think if you're familiar with the POP model, you will see that in the InSync framework.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

We I guess have taken that and pulled it apart a little bit specifically around regulation and added in specific elements as well. So like it's kind of almost like a pathway, actually, when I'm looking at it. We have the caregiver, then we have the co-regulation pathway, then we have the child, then we have the pathway to the occupation.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Yeah, when I think about the model, I think about yeah, the PEOP, but like we said in our speech, regulation is relational. And the PEOP, yes, it has social environment and social um context built into it. But when we're talking specifically about regulation, we needed the model to better show that relationship because otherwise there is no co-regulation. And so, yeah, that pathway and that social connection is what is highlighted in our model.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Yes. And I think like the POP is used for like a single person more like more often than not. Whereas our model has the caregiver and the child, so they're both considered, and like I guess like what you're saying, like that relationship, how it crosses over. So, how does the environmental and personal factors of the caregiver cross over with the environmental and personal factors of the child?

SPEAKER_01 13:52

And if you'll let me be really niche, I've been playing the Sims. You know, in the Sims, if you have a newborn baby, they're they're actually an object more than a playable character. That's how I feel in the PEOP model, that if you're only focusing on the one person, yeah, you've got the the environmental factors that consider social context and the and the relationships and people around them, but it doesn't feel dynamic and like they're really a part of that consideration, like it does in our model. They feel like the the caregiver and the child are both full people.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Yes, they have their own place within the model.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

An equal place too.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Yes. I think that's a good point. The POP model, the caregiver, you know, if we have the child as our client and we're implementing the POP model, the caregiver isn't an equal piece in that model. It's kind of the social environment, which is only a small part of the whole model. Whereas ours, the focus is the caregiver and the child, right? They're the two big things in our model. It's a very simplistic model, right? So they're they're the two, and then it's got obviously the occupation because we are our teams.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Yeah. Um and this is not us critiquing their POP either. No, it's just contrast of different models. They're both needed.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

And you know, we we've we've utilized the POP model. We know that it's a really well-researched and really well known and utilized model. And that's why we've taken parts from it to create our framework.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

That's what makes the basis of our framework evidence-based, using that model.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yeah, so it it really underpins the whole program, right? Where we first have to consider the caregiver because caregiver regulation and their ability to co-regulate is the absolute foundation and starting point of the journey for a child's regulation.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

And I think it's also worth uh commenting on the name of our model too, being the in-sync framework, you know, I-N-S-Y-N-C, for anyone who likes it spelt out. We're talking about these two people at the same time being connected and in sync. Otherwise, you know, you're out of sync, for lack of a better term. You know, you can't get that really good co-regulation to support regulation further down the track either. You're skipping that foundation.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Yes, it's about being in tune with each other and knowing what each person needs in that moment, instead of, well, what does just the child need in that moment? Because we all know our families are pretty burnt out. They deal with a lot, so we also have to consider like the caregivers' capacity and their regulation. And so that's why they have an equal role in our framework. And that's why we need to have that why we've called it the in-sync, because we as therapists supporting families also need to be in sync with the family, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Yeah, I think pediatric OTs, and that's all I can speak to, really, are very good at being in sync with the child. That's where our skills lie. It's the being in sync with the caregiver that takes that to the next level. And that's what our model and program attempts to support.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Absolutely, absolutely. And that's the whole battery boot camp. Our first book is for the caregivers so that they have the knowledge, the skills, the ability to build their own capacity so that they can be in sync with the child, so that there can be successful co-regulation.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Absolutely. I love our model. I love our program. I want to share it with everyone.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Yes. And we're we have sold five copies of our book, which has been an exciting week.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Yeah. Thank you to anyone who has supported. And hopefully you get your copy soon if you haven't already and you enjoy it and find value in it.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

I need to do like a video flip through, I think, of the book has been on my mind to do. We um super proud of our book. I feel like I need to go back through it again. I feel like my brain's been really fried from being away and doing the OT conference. I'm like, I need to get back back in um in tune with our product.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Yeah, some light bedtime reading for you. Beautiful. We've kind of spoken about two things today. So spoken about the conference and then our topic.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Yeah, what we presented.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Yeah. I feel that in summary, we're just really proud of ourselves. In a humble way.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Proud of ourselves every right to be proud of ourselves. Like we did such a big thing. That was a big thing for us to do.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yeah. So maybe those listening, can you share something that you're really proud of for yourself in the last month or so? Let's absolutely. Let's celebrate together. What have you done? What are you going to do?

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Even if it's in the future. We've decided next year at the OT conference, we want to stand. We want an exhibit. Are we crazy?

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Maybe. But we're having fun. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

If

Outro

SPEAKER_00 19:05

you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review or share it with a colleague. And be sure to follow us on our socials to stay updated with Charge Your Mind program, as well as future episodes of OTs Figuring Out. And on that note, I have so many guests coming onto the podcast in the next couple of months. So I've got speeches, I have NDS advocates, I have neurodivergent OTs, early career clinicians, I have people with beautiful initiatives that have play apps, and there's just so much that's going to be happening. So really do follow us on social media and stay tuned.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

You won't be there though, but I'm gonna listen though. Oh yes, please do listen. All right. Thank you.