Disability Expos and NAIDEX 2024

Christine H

Are you coming to NAIDEX 2024?

Open Inclusion will be at NAIDEX, the Disability Community Expo at the NEC, Birmingham held on 20th and 21st March 2024.

Will you be there? If so please come and say hello to our team.

We will be at Stand BP8 in the Business Without Barriers area of the Expo and would love to meet you in person if we have not yet had the pleasure, and see you again if we have.

On Wednesday 20th March you can meet @Edward Richards, Community Leader Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community, @Dana Dzamic Senior Inclusive Research Manager, @Josh Wintersgill Head of Innovation (who is also showcasing his innovations in air transport with Ablemove) and Christine Hemphill Managing Director of Open

If you are coming on Thursday 21st March you can meet @Joanne Kibbey Community Leader, Chronic Health Needs, Karen Cutts, Inclusive Research Manager, Christine and Josh (who will be there both days)

Come say hi to us. We'd love to meet you.

We will have some fun branded Open treats as giveaways. We are all set up and ready to meet many current and new community members.

Open's booth at NAIDEX, Birmingham 2024

4 chairs in a semi-circle around a table which is covered in goodies. There is a welcome sign with a plant in it and a banner describing what we do. No one is in sight as it is the day before the event.

Are disability expos helpful?

Have you been to NAIDEX, Disability Expo or other similar events in the past where many disability-specific solutions are showcased and speakers present on disability-specific topics and their personal experiences?

If so, how useful are they? Which of the elements of the expo have you found enjoyable and useful (if any) and what did you get out of the event? These may include,

• learning about new or not-so-new disability-specific products and services
• learning about new or established mainstream products and services that are specifically considerate to, and designed for (and hopefully with), disabled consumers
• hear great speakers with disabilities share experiences
• hear speakers discuss issues, events or brand experiences that are disability-specific
• meet with others in the disability community (and your relevant sub-identity community such as wheelchair users or those with sight loss)
• go out with friends from the community for a day together
• have a day out where disability is completely normalised and non-disabled people are the minority
• anything else you specifically like when attending Disability Expos and Events

We are stepping into this space respectfully.

We would love to make sure our presence is helpful and useful to the community. It is a chance to meet many of you and have a chat outside of a research project. It is also a chance to meet more people across the community who may not be aware of Open and may like to be invited to research projects or other offerings like awards programmes.

What makes engagement with vendors or service providers at an expo more enjoyable (or less, so we can avoid this)?

We love meeting with you all. From our side it is such a wonderful opportunity to connect face-to-face with people in the community we haven't yet met, say hi to those we know, and to engage with other friends and collaborators from across the sector such as the lovely folk from Patchwork Hub, Motability and Evenbreak.

We also come bearing chocolate! 🍫

We have some tasty treats and branded items like stickers, notebooks and other small giveaways for little thank yous to people for current community members for their commitment and work helping us understand disability or age-informed perspectives to help clients progress their solutions and non-community members to entice them to join our merry band of change enablers!

I hope we will see many UK community members at NAIDEX over the next few days.

For US-based community members - do you have a favourite event? Our team has gone to many events in the US in the past. What is your favourite one?

Christine Spooner

I am at naidex tomorrow

Tom Richer

How was the event @Christine Spooner :D?