You Need
Travelling! Three exhibitions; two companies; two
continents.
And two worlds on Interstate 80.
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On the move again this January. Oldham, the Special Needs Fringe and BETT 2002 in Kensington, ATIA in Florida, twice to Boonton, New Jersey and an hour west to another world in Pennsylvania.
The BETT 2002 conference looked impressive this year. It moved from Olympia's National Hall to the Grand Hall (above), but has now expanded back into the National Hall as well. Emap's Andrew Wilkinson, tells me that 22,000 teachers visited five hundred exhibiting companies. Andy calls BETT "a world beating event the whole education system and the UK can be proud of". He is right, although we have criticisms, which we expressed last month. And he is not yet totally delighted with what we are doing either.
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| Inclusive Advisory
Teacher, Melanie Jones |
exhibition area, comfy but busy | seminar from Bob
Black of the Downs Syndrome Association |
Next door, just under 1,500 attended the second "Special Needs Fringe" at the Olympia Hilton to enjoy a programme of eighteen special needs seminars and visit Inclusive Technology. Free coffee, tea and cakes in the comfort of a four star hotel made the Fringe an event with a different feel. Most special educators visited both shows and had an enjoyable day mixing the pzazz and sheer scale of BETT with the comfort, hospitality and focus of the Special Needs Fringe.
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| Friends mingle at the Champagne Reception | |
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| Rod Boyes' Cajun Aces | Iansyst win a case of champagne |
Fringe events included a Champagne Reception in the Hilton's Tower Ballroom where key figures in UK education mingled with BETT Special Needs exhibitors enquiring about exhibiting at the Special Needs Fringe exhibition next year. By the time the last bottle of fizz was drained all sixteen Fringe exhibition stands were fully booked and we had to open up the adjoining Battersea ballroom to increase the number of stands to twenty-eight. Specialist organizations and companies, including more from the United States, should increase what is available to visitors interested in low-incidence disabilities. I think both exhibitions (BETT and the Fringe) will benefit. I am discussing common registration with Emap so that visitors can attend both events but register only once. I hope they go for it.
| Next the Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference in Florida. ATIA was a busy event for us with seven hundred attendees from all over the United States staying for four days and visiting every booth. |  Everyone flies. Exhibition stands must be portable. |
 ATIA Board of Directors |
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| left to right …Paul Mitten, Compusult; Randy Marsden, Madentec; George Allen, Microsoft; Michael Takemura, Compaq; Arjan Khalsa, IntelliTools; Joan Cunningham, Kurzweil; Martin Littler, Inclusive Group; Larry Israel, Executive Director; Wilson Craig (retiring); Mark McCusker (retiring); Sharon Spencer, Freedom Sceintific. |
Together with Sharon Spencer of Freedom Scientific and Cheryl Kloss of Turning Point (not shown) I was drafted onto the ATIA Board. Mark McCusker of TextHelp was retiring after his two year stint and I replaced him as "Director - Europe". More of this soon.
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| It's a family affair! Brian Friedlander, Joanne Fattrosso, Paul Fattrosso, Rebecca Caine, Tom Caine, Janet DeSenzo and Dante DeSenzo celebrate Inclusive TLC's first Christmas in the USA. | |
Before and after ATIA I visited our offices in Boonton, New Jersey. We held our first board meeting there after our very first quarter's trading. Helen Carr, our Finance Director, reported that American sales were 286% above our business plan. More importantly still, I found that we have already built a real team around Tom Caine and Joanne Fattrosso our Office Manager. People really want British (and Swedish) resources, particularly the SwitchIt! programs they could not previously get, and anything from LaraMera. The 4talk4 and 4pic4 created as much interest at ATIA as those fantastic AMDi Tech communicators do in Britain. I have no doubt that our American company, Inclusive TLC, will prosper by serving students in the US, particularly switch users.
On the last Saturday in January, and a day off before I can fly back to Manchester, I set off west along Interstate 80. Just time to take in another State.
Boonton, NJ sits on the crosshairs of Interstate 287 (north to south) and Interstate 80 which extends 30 miles east to Manhattan and 3,000 miles west to San Francisco.
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I drove to Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania through fantastically beautiful north of New Jersey and across the Delaware Water Gap and into the Pocono Mountains. It is another world. Canfields's "Pet and Farm" does not take credit cards, not even for the massive bird feeder I am hoping to take back to the UK (its back). "I'll take a check," offers the owner, "take the feeder and drop the check in tomorrow". He has never seen me before. That didn't happen in Manhattan!
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Next door is a quiet graveyard where the settlement's founder, Col. Stroud (1735-1806) shares the soil with early settlers and other heroes of the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) when the US broke away from Britain. The graves of those who fought in that war boast a fresh Stars and Stripes in a cast bronze holder. This is a country that feels its history. Martin Littler 5th February 2002 |
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