Submitted by Phyllis Fatzinger McShane, MS, RD, LDN 

Is there a relationship between these four terms? Actually there may be. University of Maryland College Park Dietetic Interns recently attended the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ 2012 Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE) in Philadelphia, because FNCE was held in a local location. To learn more about our profession and network, many dietetic interns worked Saturday in various capacities at the conference.

Dietetic Interns were required to attend at least one technology (social media or more traditional informatics) session. One intern stated that the program needs to do a better job of providing background information/informatics training before attending these types of sessions, because she got a bit lost in one of the informatics session—lesson learned.

Interns then wrote blogs about the session they attended, which not only provide data, but also serve to demonstrate what is relevant to mostly 20-something dietetic interns who are about to enter our field. Please take the time to read their short blogs, which are imbedded in their names below the FNCE session that they attended.

Appetite for Technology: Food, Nutrition and Cooking in the Digital Age:

(use of smartphone apps in shopping):

·   Wendy Baier

·   Bethany Beaver

Calling All Food Bloggers: Stay in the Game:

·   Jennifer Vargas

·   Melissa Grindle

·   Melissa Ciampo

·   Mavis Ren

·   Amy Bortnick

Time to Socialize: The Ins and Outs of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook:

·   Maria Winebrenner Tadic

·   Margery Swan

·   Nicole Bolduc

Overall, attending FNCE is a wonderful way for new interns to learn about managing nutrition, communication, and information management (nutrition informatics).