i ate san francisco, part 4.

Tuesday was our last full day in San Fran, and Susan and I made it our goal to make the most of it!!

To do that of course, you must be completely rested, so we both hit snooze for a bit and skipped the first conference session….shhh! Don’t tell!! We got all beautified and headed over yonder to downtown. We started our day with some delicious sushi at Sonraku. We shared edamame, a Spider Roll (with soft-shell crab + masago), a Crunch Roll (spicy salmon + tobiko), and a Rainbow Roll (an assortment of everything)! We had a slice of super sweet pineapple for dessert and then we morphed into our sharp, high-class selves as we donned our lanyards to go conference!

I heard two very interesting lectures about cancer communication, and how physicians and patients communicate differently in that realm than in other communities of medicine. One was from New Jersey and the other was from Cali, so it was fascinating to see that they both came up with the same conclusions!! Afterward, an oncologist responded to both of their papers—AWESOME! It was so great to see that the knowledge they were creating (and the traditional forms of medicine/communication that they challenged) was applicable to a man who is in the trenches of it all! His concluding remarks, after stating that their theories should be applied to physicians’ practice, were something to the effect of: “Are the physicians educable??”

speaking of social media,

this building is where Twitter 

is housed--right next to

the loft where we stayed!!

Susan and I both then attended a session about social media use in the field of health communication. Here’s what ya need to know:
1. Social media is considered the easiest (and often cheapest) way to communicate a message with an audience (i.e., H1N1 is here, wash your hands!)
2. The population that is considered the most “ill” are those under the poverty level (and, thus, they don’t own computers, cell phones, etc.)
3. The people who need to hear the social media messages the most (those folks in #2) don’t hear them because they don’t have the means/time by which to read them

and this warehouse is where the wired

digital magazine + facebook live...

right across the street from our front door!

It was definitely a challenging conversation, but the most integral part to take home was that social media is a TOOL. It is NOT the campaign. It cannot act on it’s own. It should be considered supplemental to other schemes.

With a heap of knowledge in our brains but hardly any food in our tummies, we waved so long to the NCA conference and walked a few blocks to a restaurant called Farmhouse. It’s supposed to provide organically grown and raised soul food. And they did! The atmosphere was fun and jazzy and the food was excellent! We split a shrimp + grits app (Susan had never had them and thought my friends, LA and Kyle, were totally brilliant when I told her that they had it served at their wedding) and we both enjoyed fried chicken, mac-n-cheese, collard greens and buttered biscuits for our entrée! Yummo!! 

With totally, embarrassingly full bellies, we bought a few traveling necessities at Walgreens for our day ahead, tidied up the apartment, and poured ourselves into bed after four fabulous days in California!

say cheese,

katy