Access Anything Schedule of Events, Spring 2008

Our travel season has begun, and we're excited to share some events and websites with you where we'll be speaking, sharing our wares, and both meeting new faces and seeing old ones in this wonderfully tight-knit community of disability-focused businesses and travel experts!

Sign up for our monthly newsletter to be updated regularly on our events, travel tips, destination highlights and more!

March: Abilities Expo NY, April: Airline Advisory Board, Spinal Cord Research Fundraiser, Scenic Byways Convention; May: Abilities Expo CA; June: Travel Conference PA; July: WCD PA

March 27-31 Abilities Expo, Edison, NJ
Dubbed the largest expo in the country for anything-disability related, the New Jersey installment of this Abilities series of expos sees nearly 12,000 visitors and has hundreds of booths spread out over a dozen aisles of fun. Last year at this event we were inundated with questions, and at each of Craig's talks the room was filled to capacity and overflowing into the hallway. Needless to say we're very excited to be attending this expo once again.

April 1-2 Northwest Airlines' annual Accessibility Advisory Board, Detroit, MI
We will be attending this meeting with Continental Airlines this year, and are excited to inform you that we have recently been signed on as members of Continental's Access Advisory Board to help improve access on planes and treatment of equipment and persons with disabilities. We'll update you as often as we can on the improvements to this airline that we choose over all others for a reason!

April 5th, Scott Remington's Fundraiser for Spinal Cord Research, Brant Lake, NY
This annual fundraiser for the Christopher Reeve Foundation is now in its 8th year, and raised over $40,000 last year alone. The Remington's dedication to this important cause is apparent at the size of this fundraiser, which we attended in 2006; the room is full of prizes for auction from homemade dolls and quilts to atvs and chainsaws. This is a truly memorable experience and we're thrilled to be a part of it once again! If you would like to donate to the Chris and Dana Reeve Foundation for spinal cord research, please visit Scott's site above, or contact us directly.

April 10-11, National Scenic Byways Convention, Denver, CO
In 2006 we spent several months during the summer working for Colorado Scenic Byways, assessing five byways in the state for their accessibility, and developing a rating system for them. The time has finally come to present this rating system on a national level and we're very excited to be given this opportunity to do so!

May 30-June 1, Abilities Expo, Anaheim, CA
The second installment of this expo series occurs annually in Anaheim in June, and is second in size to the NJ expo. There are two other Abilities expos, which float in location, throughout the year, and have been in Houston, Northern CA, Wisconsin, to name a few. The June CA show usually sees about 6,000 participants, and although a little slower than it's NJ partner, is still quite an amazing 3-day event for us.

June 20-21, Travel and Tourism Conference: Go For Green!, Pittsburgh, PA
This will be our first year in attendance at this "green" conference, and we'll be speaking on marketing to travelers with disabilities. Sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America and the Society of American Travel Writers Associates Council, this will be a wonderful opportunity for this group to learn more about the overlooked yet growing niche of travelers with disabilities. We are very excited to be presenting to the non-disability-focused part of the industry once again.

July 11-12, World Congress on Disabilities, Philadelphia PA
WCD as it's better known, has been an annual event for several years, and this year is splitting its expo into two segments, Philly in July, and Jacksonville, FL in November. We are working with WCD this year on bringing more adventurous activities to these events, such as a climbing wall, scuba tank, or cycling course. We will also be speaking on marketing to travelers with disabilities, as we did at the WCD Expo in DC this past November. We look forward to working with the staff at WCD to make this event bigger and better!




If you have any questions about events or our schedule, or would like Access Anything to appear at your event, please email us at ask@accessanything.net!

Steamboat Update

Honestly, there's nothing better than a day on the hill where the snow continues to get better with every lift you take. We had 6 inches reported at 5am and 14 new by noon when we finally got up there to ski and ride. Check out this video from one of our favorite tree runs for a better visual of what it means to be "up to our necks" in it!

Without travel plans until April, you may be seeing a few more pictures of Steamboat in place of our travel blog!

2008 Steamboat All Mountain Ski Camp

Powder Powder Everywhere!

Faceshots and jumping abound, our 3rd annual Steamboat All Mountain Ski Camp is sadly behind us! Put on in conjunction with Adaptive Adventures and sponsored by the Steamboat Ski Area, Steamboat Powdercats, and the Wounded Warrior Project, the Steamboat camp sets itself above the rest in the All Mountain series of ski camps by always promising fresh powder for the attendees to play in!

We had about 25 participants, 10 friends and family, 15 coaches, and 35 volunteers make this camp the best we've had so far! Of course, the daily snow dumping didn't hurt either! Despite cold temps and blowing snow advisories, our troops spent 3 days on the ski hill and the last day in the depths of Buffalo Pass' backcountry skiing. We've got one word for all that, SWEET!

12 monoskiers, 5 three trackers, 2 blind skiers, 2 snowboarders and one brain injury came from around the country, including 7 recently wounded vets from Iraq and one from the British Army.

Our favorite event of the year, we couldn't do this without all the huge support we get from Steamboat's lodging, restaurant, ski area, and private business donations.

THANK YOU STEAMBOAT! We'll see you all this time next year!

If you have trouble viewing this video below, check out this one and more on our You Tube page.

SATH World Congress

January 5-9, Orlando FL

This past week we were fortunate to attend the 12th annual SATH World Congress put on by the Society for Accessible Travel and Hospitality, the ancestral roots of access on the road. SATH has been around since the 1970s and has played a major part in advocating for travelers with disabilities.

The World Congress is quite a different experience that all other disability-related expositions we attend; it is the only one that is completely travel focused for starters. Accessibility liassons attend from major companies all over the world; airlines and cruiselines, travel bureaus and chamber associations, hotels and resorts, tour companies and travel agents, all facets of the travel industry are represented.

Speakers panels and group sessions make up the bulk of this event, a 1/2-day trade show thrown in for networking and information-sharing is but a mere blink on a four-day event that is truly more of a congress than an expo. Although the 350-attendee number sounds low, this is a tight group that spends the week together; breakfast, lunch, dinner and evening activities surround the informative talks and industry panels, making the event more of a family reunion than a continual 10-minute commercial that all other disability expos equate to.

A focus on improving the travels of people with disabilies, the SATH World Congress is more about advocacy and change than anything else. Suggestions, improvements and ideas are brought to the table for improving access among airline, cruiseline, and individual travel aspects of the industry. We're always impressed when we attend this event; the work that goes into bringing experts from all corners of the earth together is inspiring.

Focused until recently on "the mature," our mission at this Congress was to bring Adventure Travel to the table. Our speakers panel and adventure activity side trips was just an introduction to this group, and we hope to continue to work with SATH to include adventure travel as a viable niche to explore, and not to be overlooked.

If you're a travel agent, a traveler, or an industry professional, SATH is a wonderful resource for all, as experts with four decades of experience under their belts.

This Week: the Hartford Ski Spectacular, Breckenridge CO

Tomorrow we head down to Breckenridge, thankfully under clear skies for now, to the 20th Annual Hartford Ski Spectacular. Presented by DSUSA (Disabled Sports USA), this week-long event enables adaptive skiing for all levels, including racing events and instruction, and showcases ski equipment, new techniques and more.

In addition to the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center (BOEC), most instructors will come from Colorado locations: Adaptive Adventures (Evergreen, CO) Challenge Aspen, National Sports Center for the Disabled (Winter Park, CO), Steamboat Adaptive and Vail Adaptive. But instructors will come from as far east as the New England Resorts and as far north as Challenge Alaska!

This event is a very fun and interactive week of skiing, socializing and snacking- the parking lot is always full of activity and chapters of DSUSA and the Wounded Warrior Project making chili and other tasty and warming things for the participants to eat.

We're exciting to attend a couple days of this event again this year, thanks to Action Magazine (United Spinal). Look for our article on the event in one of the upcoming issues (TBA) for photos and stories from this year's participants.

For more information on DSUSA and the Ski Spectacular, visit http://www.dsusa.org/programs-winter-hartford.html.