Initiative Description
This was a 3-day conference featuring 2 general sessions (opening and closing speakers), 24 breakout sessions, 15 exhibitor spotlights, and 2 different times for virtual exhibitor booths. Fifteen of the sessions were specifically focused on AT products, services and ICT accessibility, while the other 9 were focused on advocacy and disability topics more generally. All presentations were delivered live via zoom. Collaborating partners were Arizona Department of Education (primary funder), Rehabilitation Services Administration (content/credentialing collaborator), and our parent organization IHD at NAU (technical support/marketing). The conference attracted 319 participants broken out as follows: 43 exhibit hall only, 43 RSA, 47 presenters, 28 exhibitors and 158 other full conference participants. Average attendance in each breakout session was 53.
Lessons Learned/Replication
Forty four of the attendees responded to the post-conference survey, giving the conference an overall satisfaction score of 3.66 out of 4.00. This was a successful model and we are expecting to repeat a conference in 2022 with the same collaborators. Annually, this is a very popular event for us but has been dramatically effected by COIVD in the last two years. Going forward we are going to maintain the same collaborative relationships but make every effort to return to a full in person conference while maintaining some virtual components. This will allow us to have a vendor hall where conference participants can have hands on experiences with the AT devices and vendors. Funding increased for our conference in 2022.