Want to Improve Your Next Project? Start with These 3 Steps

Discover how you or your team can grow by reflecting on completed projects, using strategies from a caregivers’ event team

The Duke Caregiver Community Event
With informative presentations and opportunities to connect, the Duke Caregiver Community Event has become a lifeline for those taking care of loved ones. Photo courtesy of Nicole Clagett.

Since 2021, the Duke Caregiver Community Event has been a vital connection for those supporting older or ill loved ones. While its mission remains the same, nearly everything else about the event has evolved.

Launched online during the pandemic, the first event featured an interface resembling a virtual town, where participants could explore presentations on managing difficult conversations, current dementia research and money-saving resources.

In the years since, the annual event moved in-person, becoming a source of education and encouragement. Caregivers attend workshops on self-care, living wills and more; get health checks and flu shots from Duke clinicians; and enjoy live music, food and art. In 2025, it drew 1,235 caregivers, 113 exhibitors and 213 volunteers over two days.

The Duke Caregiver Community Event allows those who take care of elderly or ill loved ones an opportunity to connect and learn from one another. Photo courtesy of Nicole Clagett.

Last year, event organizers, drawn from across Duke, earned a Presidential Award, which is among Duke’s highest honors for staff and faculty.

“The Duke Caregiver Community Event is not just another event, it is a lifeline for caregivers,” Dr. Devdutta Sangvai, former Duke Regional Hospital President and current Secretary of North Carolina’s Department of Health & Human Services, wrote in the award nomination letter.

The Duke Caregiver Community Event didn’t evolve overnight. Its growth is driven by organizers’ commitment to evaluate and improve each edition.

“Reflection is essential because it transforms experience into insight,” said Duke HomeCare and Hospice’s Director of Community Development & Caregiver Support Nicole Clagett, who led the event’s team of organizers.

See how your team can grow by reflecting on completed projects, using strategies from the caregivers’ event team.

Act Fast

Organizers meet immediately after each event to share fresh insights. A month later, they reconvene to analyze attendee survey data and share key takeaways.

Quick debriefs often uncover issues that may be missed at later meetings, such as attendees struggling to navigate the sprawling parking lot, which lead to the addition of a shuttle service this year.

“Document reflections right away, because if you don’t, they’ll be gone,” Clagett said.

Seek Feedback

In addition to surveying caregivers after each event, organizers gather feedback from exhibitors, speakers and volunteers to better understand what worked and where it can improve.

In response to exhibitor feedback, organizers started sharing contact information to facilitate networking.

“It’s important to get a 360-degree view,” Clagett said. “As much as we’d like to think that we’re all-knowing or all-seeing, we’re not.”

Be Open to Change

While the event was successful from the start, it has evolved each year, adding on-demand videos  and expanding to two days.

As caregivers’ needs change, the event has adapted. This year, organizers added sessions on advance care directives and hosted a resource fair for case managers.

“You have to find ways to stay relevant,” Clagett said.

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