This is a talk Andy has wanted to give for some time. The idea had been germinating in his head, waiting for the right moment to grow. DFTB17 was it. Since our conference he was lucky enough to be invited to speak on the topic at the ANZICS Combined SIG meeting and was touched, but not surprised, by the number of people who came up to him to tell him their stories.

It is up to all of us to normalize talking about our own mental health, not stigmatize it.

Fiona Reilly is an emergency physician (sometimes) and a lover of world food (always). A sea change helped her realise a lifelong passion for writing. In this talk Fiona shares some of her journey, from the first faltering steps to her giant leaps into the world of publishing.

Chantal McGrath is an emergency doctor working in regional Australia.  With amazingly short notice she responded to our call for help and produced this fantastic talk on the dangers of ingested foreign bodies. Kids have an uncanny knack for putting things where they shouldn’t. Getting things out of noses and ears is (relatively) easy, but if they have swallowed something they shouldn’t have.

Kat Evans is an emergency physician working in Mitchell Plains in South Africa. She is one of the founders of BadEM (Brave African Discussions in EM) a FOAMed blog that is not just for those working in Africa but provides great lessons for the rest of us as well.

Arguably the best dressed man on Twitter, Eric Levi is a otorhinolaryngologist with a special interest in looking after children. You can read a little more about the man on his website, ericlevi.com.

At the time we began planning #DFTB17, Henry was eager to speak on the concept of failure. He had just failed yet another college examination and was keen to describe his personal experiences. But along the way, he discovered that failure is for everyone.

Josh is a paediatric infectious disease specialist from Darwin in the Northern Territory. His work is focussed on Indigenous and global health with regular visits to Timor-Leste. You can hear more about this in his closing keynote address.

But before we let Josh tell us how we can change the world we asked him to speak on a topic that he is equally passionate about – rheumatic heart disease. The majority of us have never seen acute rheumatic fever but it is an ongoing part of daily work in the Northern Territory and Timor-Leste.

Melanie Thompson is a paediatrician working in the Kimberley, WA. She has a special interest in indigenous health and she dares you to listen to her talk without itching. Scabies is one of the top 50 infectious diseases in the world and we thought it deserved the chance to shine.

Associate Professor Diana Egerton-Warburton is an emergency physician in Melbourne and chair of the Public Health committee of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine. Rather than focus on treating one patient at a time though she has made it her mission to advocate for change.

In this talk she shares the story of how one patient, Abbie, helped her understand the true long lasting effects of alcohol consumption in youth. The knock effects of this have led to her campaigning for stricter licensing laws. With one in eight patients attending the emergency department as a result of alcohol  we can truly make a difference.

Ian Summers examines both how we learn and how we teach communication with kids. With the assistance of Callum, the talk includes a beautifully constructed live patient simulation as demonstrated by the enthusiastic (and occasionally silly) Andy Tagg.