Our Global Village Is Calling — Will You Show Up?

How long have you been a member of 99nicu? A year? Five years? Longer than some of your colleagues have been qualified? You might be surprised how far back this community goes.

Our 99nicu community has more than 7,000 members from 76 countries. We have been around longer than Facebook has been in Europe, and almost as long as Twitter has existed at all — and despite being "old school", we have persevered. Many predicted that forums would disappear once social media took over. But looking at where the world is going, it feels more and more like we need spaces we can rely on — grassroots, independent, and not subject to the whims of algorithms or platform owners.

And honestly? Sometimes we all just need a place that isn't endless doom scrolling. Yes, you can justify it with "but there's educational content there too" — but what is your actual retention of something you had less than three seconds to grasp before the next thing came along?

We love meeting you in person — whether at 99nicu meetups or other conferences. It matters, putting faces to usernames. Over the years we have had the chance to meet many of you, whether wearing our academic, clinical, or entrepreneurial hats. Later this year we will meet some of you in France, where we are partnering with the CEPAS conference — and we are genuinely looking forward to what we have planned there.

But our global village is much bigger than whoever can make it to a conference. We span continents, and not everyone can travel all the time — after all, somebody has to stay on call. So this year, we want to connect more.

As part of our 20th anniversary, we want to organize a few informal online meetings. We want to hear from you — your thoughts on where 99nicu should go, projects we could take on together, and how you can get involved.

The first meeting is on May 7th. Details are available in our Community Calendar. Save the date!

- Kat from 99nicu