It's been nearly a week now, and with the dust finally settling I bring to you the 2021 conference report…

After embracing the online conference world last year, with Karin, our Conference Director, intrepidly leading us through the treacherous waters of novelty and innovation, we were committed to once again bringing you conference virtually as it became obvious very early on that a face-to-face conference might not yet be possible as our world continued to shift and evolve around us. With our theme ‘Critical Care Nursing across the World: Breaking down barriers’ we truly embraced what it means to work in a globalized world. From household names like Professor Calvin Moorley and Eamonn Sullivan, to our peers that joined us from across the globe, Peter Nydhal and Dr Dale Needham we embraced technology to the fullest. The Humanising Critical Care stream alongside the Research Symposium could not have made us prouder, with Kate Tantam (#rehablegend) and Dr Suzanne Bench as the intrepid leaders and driving force behind those streams.

This year, the BACCN officially welcomed a very special group of nurses – the veterinary critical care nurses to the family. We are looking forward to their own unique contribution to the world of critical care nursing and how we can learn from each other given the significant amount of cross-over between the world of human and animal critical care practices.

We've all had our highs and lows over these difficult 18 months, and this was so vividly reflected in both Katie Dutton's ‘In at the deep end… Being a newly qualified intensive care nurse during the CoVID-19 pandemic’ talk, and Petro Bekker's photographic exhibition ‘Behind Closed Doors’ visually telling the stories that all of us lived through. We felt that P!NK's anthem ‘That's what I know so far’ perfectly captured these present times, where we are not quite ourselves yet and we are trying to navigate and muddle through this ‘New Normal’.

Continuing with the breaking down barriers theme, we will also see for the first time all the conference abstracts presented during #BACCNConf2021 published in a special supplemental edition of the Nursing in Critical Care Journal. The NICC journal changed over to an online-only publication towards the end of 2020. This was just one of the many changes that the BACCN has made towards our commitment of being a much more environmentally friendly and overall sustainable organization. Here's a big shout out to our journal editors Lyvonne Tume and Josef Trapani for finally making this possible!

Our thanks go to Linet UK, our main Conference Partner, alongside so many other sponsors and exhibitors for their contribution in making our conference such a great success. A very special THANK YOU to the whole team at ECHO Events (our Conference Events Team) and CPS (our AV & technical support team) for walking with us in this connected world and facilitating the delivery of the high standard conference our delegates deserve.

I am thrilled to share with you that this year the various awards made a return to the conference, and they were awarded as follows: BACCN Best Abstract Winner - Angela Teece, University of Leeds BACCN ICU Course Poster Presentation Winner – Rafael dos Santos Jesus, University of West London BACCN 2021 Dragon's Den Winner - Lisa McIlmurray, Queen's University Belfast BACCN 2021 Ethnic Minority Award Winner - Jasminara Ali, University Hospital of Wales Emergency and Critical Care Veterinary Poster Competition – Katie Gray, Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Royal Veterinary College ASPiH Poster Presentation winner 1st Place - Jennifer Hughes, NHS Blood, and Transplant, 2nd Place - Kirsty Harris, University of Portsmouth ‘In it to win it’ BACCN 2022 Conference place winner – Michele Jackson, Southampton General Hospital

It is with a feeling of pride and accomplishment that we now sign off our virtual conference. I'm sure this experience will make #BACCNConf2022 in Belfast that much more remarkable as we finally go back to a face-to-face format! For 2022, our conference title remains ‘Critical Care Nursing Across the World: Breaking down barriers’, trust me, this is not an oversight, this is a commitment. As someone said, a mind that opens to a new idea cannot return to its previous size, and as we join the Irish Association of Critical Care Nurses for our first joint conference, we are committed to continue breaking down barriers, bringing chairs to various tables, and making sure that the Critical Care Nurses voice continues to be heard loud and clear!