On Saturday, I attended a big autism conference in my state, with the hope of meeting some parents of kids with special needs to talk about my books and this site. To the surprise of everybody I talked to there, the conference was not heavily attended, and most of the people milling around on Saturday were teachers and therapists. Where were the parents? With autism now allegedy more prevalent than ever, shouldn't there have been more parents storming the aisles than ever? Where was that one family out of every 91?
Maybe it was a bad weekend, maybe it was a bad time of year, maybe the sessions were insufficiently appealing. But one theory I heard was that parents no longer need to go to big, expensive, babysitting-requiring conferences to get their information these days. It's as close as the computer. Online stores bring materials right to you, online support groups help parents compare notes, organizations post research and information of all sorts. Who needs a hard chair and a boxed lunch to get that vital stuff anymore?
I remember attending conferences years ago, and how they had so much information I'd never seen before that they almost made my head explode. There was no Googling for this stuff back then, and coming together in big groups was where it was at in terms of getting answers to questions you didn't even know how to start asking. Now? Not so much. Helpful for professionals seeking credits, but for parents they may have outlived their usefulness. And, maybe, good riddance.
Or not? Do you still go to big conferences to get information about your child's disabilities? Do you find them useful for access to big names, fellowship with parents, freebies at exhibitor booths? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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I’m on the board of the local autism society, and we organize seminars, etc. We are definitely struggling to get people to attend. We also have support groups, and attendance varies widely despite people saying they need someone to talk to.
People are busy, and as you said, they get their information elsewhere. I myself prioritize seminars and other autism-related activities if they are conveniently located. The threshold for attending is pretty high if I don’t know the place or any other people attending. Word of mouth works well to inform people about the seminar and to lower that threshhold — “I’m going, you wanna go too?”
Although I am big on the internet and seeking out my information, I love conferences. I attended my first FAAN conference this year and can not wait to attend in 2010. I got so much out of it. And those I know who also went got a lot out of it. Tomorrow I will attend a conference on coping with special needs. I hope the conferences keep on coming.