THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED!

For further information, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tickets Now Available….CLICK HERE to purchase!
Early Bird pricing ends on April 1st, 2020!

July 23rd–25th 2020 — Farmington, Utah

Located 20 minutes north of Salt Lake City, the conference will include opportunities to hear from leading experts and researchers who’ve been involved with 7q11.23 Duplication.  In addition to education opportunities, 7q dup families from all over the world will be able to interact through planned conference activities as well optional group activities.

 

Lodging: Discounted hotel rates of $129.00 per night have been negotiated with Hyatt Place in Farmington Station, UT. This is a new and modern facility, with Wi-Fi, a pool, nearby shopping, entertainment, and free parking. The conference is being held at the Hyatt as well as the adjacent Fountain View Conference Center. We can’t emphasize this enough: PLEASE DON’T DELAY IN BOOKING YOUR LODGING. Hotel space is limited. There is only one overflow hotel (located down the highway) and our conference falls on a state holiday. Hyatt rates include breakfast.

To book your room CLICK HERE. The booking link is connected to our discount rate. There is no need for an additional discount code.

Flights: Please book your flights into the Salt Lake City (SLC), International Airport. Delta is a hub. Jet Blue and South West are discount airlines for SLC. From the airport, you can reach the hotel and Farmington Station by riding TRAX and the Front Runner Train. You can also utilize Lyft, Uber, or a taxi or shuttle service. A rental car is not necessary unless you prefer a car. Farmington Station is about a 25-minute car ride from the airport. Note that the TRAX and Front Runner trains do not run on Sunday. You may possibly find discounted regional airfares through the Ogden, Utah or Provo, Utah airports if you’re flying regionally.  Provo is 1 hour South of Farmington and Ogden is 20 minutes north of Farmington.

Arrival and Departures: Our conference will begin first thing Thursday morning, July 23rd. Each day will be full of activities, education opportunities, and social opportunities for families.  The conference will conclude with an activity on the night of Saturday, July 25th.  Regional breakout sessions will end at 5:00 pm Saturday at which time we’ll break for dinner. Saturday evening will include a program, slide show, and concluding party (more details to follow).  Most families will choose to depart on Sunday, July 26th. Please remember the trains do not run on Sunday.

Food: Breakfast is included with your hotel rate. Farmington Station is full of food options for lunch and dinner (which will be on your own). Harmons, a full grocery store with many gluten free and dairy free food options is also in the Farmington Station complex. Restaurants in Farmington Station include everything from coffee shops, fast food, fast casual, and sit down restaurants. A map of Farmington Station can be seen HERE.

Child Care: If you are bringing children and need assistance with child care, Jennie Dopp, Duplication Cares’ Emeritus Executive Director, can assist you. Jennie can connect you with local individuals who would be willing to privately contract with you.  She can discuss the level of care you require and try and pair you with an individual who meets your needs. You can negotiate your rate of pay, hours of care, etc. Jennie is well connected in the area and can work to help you find options. To contact Jennie, please email her at jendopp@hotmail.com.

Activities: During your down time and for those traveling with you but not attending the conference, there are several options for activities. Farmington Station is a large complex full of shopping (everything from H&M, to Nordstrom Rack to Ross). Cineplex Movie theaters has several movie screens on the property. The central gathering area has a dancing fountain, treat and drink shops, and a children’s play area.

From Farmington Station, you can take the FREE Trolley to Lagoon Amusement Park, one of the top-rated Amusement Parks in the west. Lagoon has an authentic Pioneer Village, a water park, thrill rides and several coasters, a Kiddie Land, rides for those who aren’t seeking thrills, lots of food options, and entertainment.

Cherry Hill is a family friendly water park located 10 minutes from Farmington Station. A quick Lyft ride will take you there. Enjoy a day of shade trees, a lazy river, cardiac canyon, tube slides, mini golf, maze, child bumper boats, and more.

For those who are interested in a day trip either before or after the conference, Utah is full of adventure. National Parks are available in every direction (Arches in Moab, Zions, Cedar Breaks, Yellowstone, the Uintah Mountains), the Great Salt Lake, the Salt Flats, and more. There are lakes and reservoirs within a 30 minute drive. Vegas is a quick 5-hour drive, and Disneyland in CA, is a 10-hour drive from SLC.  If you want to get a feel for the celebrity life, Park City, Utah is only 20 minutes away. In Park City you can shop the old mining town, visit the Winter Olympic Park where you can experience the down hill ski summer practices, bobsled, and luge runs. There is mountain biking, the Alpine Slide, ski lift rides, Deer Valley Summer Concert series, hiking, and so much more.  Just keep an eye out for deer and moose (seriously). After all, you are in the mountains.

Special Events: Please join us Thursday, July 23rd for our Family Activity Day. Your conference tickets include the group activities and train transportation (food will be on your own). We’ll catch the train in the Station Park complex to SLC. First stop will be the Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum. They have exhibits for all ages and stages. We are also working on an alternate activity in case the museum isn’t of interest to you. Stay tuned, more details to come. After the museum we’ll head to City Creek or one of the surrounding eateries for lunch. After a relaxing lunch, we’ll go across the street to the Conference Center for a private tour. It’s the largest auditorium of its kind in the world. From the roof of the Conference Center, you’ll have a bird’s eye view of the Temple and Temple Square

Following the short Conference Center presentation, you are free to venture out to explore the city. You can choose from visiting the Church History Museum and Beehive House to learn more about Utah’s Pioneer heritage, looking at your family’s genealogy in the world’s largest Family History Library, shop at City Creek and relax by the dancing fountain, or catch an Uber and visit This is the Place Heritage Park for an authentic Pioneer Village experience. You can also visit Hogle Zoo, or escape into the foothills for a small hike to Ensign Peak for a view of Salt Lake City. You also have access to City Creek Canyon, or for those wanting to explore the outdoors, you can use this link for the hiking trails.

If you want to get out of downtown, Park City, the old historic mining town, and the Olympic Training Facility are all just a short 20-minute Uber ride up another canyon. The possibilities for the day are endless.

Or, if you prefer, take the train back to the hotel and swim, catch a movie at Station Park, or even take a nap to prepare for the Conference’s evening activities. Anything is possible!

Thursday evening we’ll have a screening of the new film, Aging Out, which was produced by our own Melissa Collins-Porter. We’ll also have a parents panel and sharing session. While parents are engaged in these activities, Duplication Cares will host a movie night for all participating children and visiting family members or caregivers.

Talk about a jam-packed day of fun and more importantly, CONNECTION!

Chromosomes!!!!

Do you remember the day your child was diagnosed?  We do! We remember we had so many questions! What will the future look like? How will 7q Dup impact my child? What challenges might be ahead?

When our family received the news of 7q11.23 Duplication, we were one of about ELEVEN families in the world! We hardly had any information. Look how far we’ve come!!!

In July, Duplication Cares will bring the world’s top researchers and scientists to Salt Lake City. You will be in the same room with doctors who can answer those very questions for you. They’ve studied our children’s diagnosis and can help to guide you and answer your most pressing questions.

We’ll discuss:

• heart defects (Dr. Tom Collins)
• speech challenges (Dr. Shelley Velleman – U of Vermont and Dr. Myra Huffman)
• development (Dr. Carolyn Mervis)
• behavior (Dr. Allan Reiss)
• genetic neurodevlopment (Dr. Boaz Barak – Tel Aviv University)
• genetics (Dr. Colleen Morris – UNLV)
• psychology and autism (Dr. Bonnie Klein-Tasman – U of Wisconsin)
• special education, mindfulness, transitioning to adulthood,caring for the caregiver, marriage and sibling relationships (Utah Parent Center) and so much more
• In addition, participating families will get to meet others who are just like them. We are all walking this same road together. This will be an incredible opportunity! We hope you can join us! You won’t want to miss it and we would LOVE to see you there.

We have a full conference planned. A final agenda will be released prior to the conference. The current agenda is shown below. We will update this page as we have more information and confirmations.

 

Thursday, July 23rd:

• Breakfast
• Opening Session – Hyatt
• Depart for Salt Lake City Family Activity Day — Train ticket and entrance fee included. Details below.
• Lunch at City Creek (on your own)
• Salt Lake City Activity – more info to come. All SLC activities appropriate for children and adults.
• Return on train to Farmington Station
• Dinner on your own
• Parent Meeting, Transition Film – Aging Out, and Parent Panel
  • While parents meet, families members who are attending can enjoy a family movie night at the Hyatt. Child care not included unless you’ve contracted a sitter through Jennie.
• Q&A – We’ve walked in your shoes. Let’s share information
• Break for the night, Farmington Station entertainment, swimming, socializing, and movies

Friday, July 24th: (Utah State Holiday – Pioneer Day)

• Early Morning Yoga and Mindfulness – with our own Katlyn Peek (Dup Cares Social Media Specialist)
• Breakfast
• Opening Session
• Dr. Tom Collins (Stanford) Cardiac challenges associated with 7q11.23 Duplication
• Dr. Allan Reis (Stanford) Behavior and Mental Health
• Dr. Bonnie Klein-Tasman (Univ. of Wisconsin) Behavior and Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Dr. Colleen Morris (UNLV) Genetics and related medical challenges
• Sharing Session
• Evening, free time… Activities at Farmington Station, Movies, Front Runner to SLC, Fireworks in SLC (Pioneer Day)

Saturday, July 25th: — Possible Break Out Sessions… Choose your favorite class

• Dr. Carolyn Mervis (University of Louisville) Development – confirmed
• Dr. Shelley Velleman (University of Vermont) Speech – confirmed
• Dr. Myra Huffman (University of Louisville) Speech – confirmed
• Spotlight Autism Research Project
• Possibly Daniel Dilks (Emory University) – Research Project
• Possibly Dr. Boaz Barak (Tel Aviv University) Genetics
• My child is 14 or older – How can I prepare for “Transitioning to Adulthood” – confirmed
• Regional Break Out Networking – confirmed
• Marriage and Sibling Relationships
• Education Supports (IEP & 504 Accommodations, Resources, and IDEA Advocacy)
• Mindfulness and Mental Health
• Caring for the Caregiver
• Mindset an Executive Function and how Assistive Technology can help
• Maturation

2020 Conference Recordings and Private Meetings: At this time, conference recordings and live streaming will not be available.  We were able to receive grants to record the 2018 DC Conference, but at this time, grants for the SLC, UT conference have not been secured. We will let you know if a grant becomes available. Bids to have the conference professionally recorded are averaging $10,000. At this time, Duplication Cares is not able to fund that cost. We will however try to see if specialists are once again available for short, private consultations.

2020 Conference Pricing: Tickets are available below…. Please keep in mind, pricing for the 2018 conference was for 1.5 days. After taking into account the feedback Duplication Cares received from the 2018 conference participants and requests to include additional days and information, the 2020 conference is a 3 full days. Pricing reflects the increased conference time and associated venue costs. Duplication Cares is doing everything possible to reduce costs, seek outside funding sources, as well as grants and donations.  All Dup Cares staff are volunteers. Any donations and all Dup Cares fundraising efforts support the website and conference costs. We are saddened not all families will be able to participate. However, the conference moves location every 2 years in order to try and allow more families to participate regionally. While we hope all families can attend, the DC conference was geared to the east coast of the US and this conference is geared towards west coast families. If flying directly into Salt Lake City is too expensive, please note that SLC, UT is within a day’s drive from CA, the NW, SW, and some Mid-West States. We hope you can join us!

What are we missing? Is there a topic you would like to see covered that we haven’t addressed? What else would you like to see included in this conference? Or, are you willing to help? Would you like to contribute to our swag bags or help with an aspect of the conference? What are your talents? How can you help us make this conference a wonderful event?  Send Jennie all of your ideas at jendopp@hotmailcom.

 

We can’t wait to see you in July!!!

 

Purchase your tickets below: