Friday, July 10, 2015

It's Go Time!

Today was a huge day!

After four months of intense focus and massive action, I'm in Phoenix, Arizona for the American Speech Language Hearing Association's Healthcare Business Institute conference...ready to introduce Spontaneous Speech Therapy Tools to the world.

Watch out, here I come!

The morning was frantic and started with a game of  slip and slide in the shower. Then, it was last minute preparations with device charging, app loading, bag packing, spur of the moment problem solving and painstaking decision making. It was so stressful, at one point, my mom, who is also my travel partner and marketing constituent, commented, "You're killing me!"

I just laughed at her, and I'm pretty sure she rolled her eyes at me. There's no time for drama or dying, I thought. We've got to get over to the convention hall...quick, fast and in a hurry!

We got things situated at our booth just seconds before the doors opened- whew! People began pouring in. There were SLPs everywhere you looked- marvellous!

We slapped on a smile, grabbed flashcards, business cards, pencils and magnetic bookmarks and got to work.  We met people from Iowa, Oregon, California, Florida, Texas, Michigan, Massachusetts, Maryland and even Canada!

We met:
  • 2 university professors- one from Dallas, the other from Arizona
  • a university dean- I think she was from Michigan?
  • Joni, the director of speech and language product development from Attainment Company
  • Justin Goldstein- the ASHA sponsorship manager
  • The Speech Guy- I think his name was Jared
  • Sandra, THE expert in Orofacial Myology- OrofacialMyology.com
  • numerous rehab directors
  • SLPs working in hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, rehabs, outpatient clinics and schools
  • Eric- app developer
  • 5 of the SLP Bloggers:  Lauren at Busy Bee Speech, Jenn from Crazy Speech World, Danielle with Sublime Speech, Allison from Speech Peeps  and Jenna from Speech Room NewsSpeech Room News
  • several researchers
  • a couple of graduate students
  • a girl that presented a poster session on Evidence Based Practice using Constant Therapyapps
  • 2 women starting private practices
  • a couple that offers online speech therapy services- Reach Therapy (I want to try that!)
  • an awesome lady from Dripping Springs, Texas that let me use the hotspot on her cell phone to sell her an flashcards
And that was just day one...we get to do it all over again tomorrow! Yay!

I'll update you on the neat people we meet on day two. In the meantime, meet my colleagues by visiting the links above. Great people!

Thanks for reading...have a great week

We don't meet people by accident. They cross our paths for a reason.
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