03.19.06

HDI Conference begins!

Posted in Mobile Posts at 10:58 pm by divinity

The HDI Conference has officially started! Although we’ve been here in
Nashville since Friday taking some certification courses. I took my
test today, so the rest of the time here is stress free. Just gotta run
around attending the different sessions, visiting the different booths,
and collecting free random stuff. The first general session and opening
session was this afternoon. We walked into the enourmous room, and sat
down while a country band was playing a few songs. Before we knew it,
Reba McIntyre was on stage performing! I’m not a big country music fan,
but it was quite a surprise. After some introductory stuff, Chad Hymas
came out and talked to the crowd. Chad is a 32 yr old guy who became a
quadriplegic 5 years ago when a 1ton bale of hay landed on him. He
talked about his life and how he’s had to overcome the challenges and
adapt to a completely new way of life. He told quite a few stories and
touched on how he set a world record by wheeling himself 500 miles from
Utah to Las Vegas. He also plays full contact quad rugby! Quite an
impressive guy.
When Chad was done talking the opening session ended and the tech booths
opened downstairs. We hit quite a few in the hour and a half we spent
there, coming away with a backpack full of freebies from the different
companies here. My favorites have got to be the keychain etch-a-sketch,
the sticky dart men, and the blue LED pen. The Opryland hotel has been
incredible, and I highly recommend it to anyone traveling around this
area, or even for a weekend trip. It has just about everything. I’ve
literally only been outside 3 times since I got here, but hardly even
notice with all the indoor gardens around here. But now it’s late, and
my feet are sore from all the walking, so I’m heded to bed, so I can get
up and walk all over again tomorrow!

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