Naidex 45 Review: So, what’s it like?

Naidex was made even more amazing by the people who attended it. The chance to meet so many people in person for the first time was unbelievable! These were mainly people who I have ether become friends with on Twitter or people I have worked with over email. Going round a corner and being faced by some pretty amazing people is not an everyday experience. For this to be a regular occurrence for two days just made it even better.

Aside from that, people in general were so lovely. There was no judgment whatsoever. You’re a part-time wheelchair user who needs to stretch your legs, no problem! You use both a stick and a cane and need to swap, go for it! I think we are unfortunately expecting odd looks or comments from the general public, so to not experience this at all is actually an odd concept. It was a mutual understanding for whatever you’re going through that made it such an inclusive environment. There was one point where I sat on the floor during Warwick Davis’ talk (it was that busy and my legs would have probably given way with it nearing the end of the day) and the woman next to me instantly offered to help me up off the floor at the end. There was no awkward interaction, just help and support when it was needed! The one thing I would say, is that the seminar stands should have been bigger, only because they were in high demand. Apart from that, the event was incredible!

It was far too difficult to choose which pictures to include in this post because of how many people I had the pleasure of meeting. So, please enjoy this video of various aspects of my two days at Naidex.

Talks and panels

I can only comment on the talks I managed to see, and to be honest I had anticipated on seeing more. I had a list of all the ones I knew I’d find interesting but the networking and seeing friends appeared to take up most of my time! I was really happy with the ones I did attend and found them all incredibly informative, even if that was just the notion of not being alone. It was meant to be one blog post, but then it hit 3000 words! For this reason I will be releasing a second post which discusses the panels and talks in more detail. When the blog post is live it can be found here. In the meantime, I have introduced all the speakers that I will be discussing!

Employment Panel 

This panel was the first talk I attended. It comprised of Tom Jamison (Editor of Able Magazine), Guy Chaudoir (Employment Team Manager at Scope), Micheal Vermeersch (Digital Inclusion Lead at Microsoft) and a representative from Crossbow Education. The panel was led by Martyn Sibley who I had the pleasure of meeting before the panel had started. As someone who has only briefly stepped into the world of employment, but know it is just around the corner, I knew it would be a panel debate that interested me.

Our story of Disability Inclusion 

This talk was given by Micheal Vermeersch who is the Digital Inclusion Lead at Microsoft. His PowerPoint slides had live closed captions which instantly showed the capabilities of Microsoft software and how little changes could make the talk easily accessible to more people.

Mindset and Habits That Change the World

This talk was given by Martyn Sibley. When trying to encompass what Martyn does for the world of disability (and the world for that matter) I thought it might be best just to go with his own bio: “World Changing Blogger, Author, Coach, Speaker & Podcaster. Captain of Inclusion at DHorizons. Government, Business & Charity Adviser. Adventurer. Smiler!”.

Accessible Travel: Tips, Tricks and Tech

This talk was given my Carrie-Ann Lightley who is an award-winning travel blogger. She is also the Marketing Manager at AccessAble which is app that enables disabled people to find out about the access at 10,000’s of places around the UK. All reviews are written by disabled people who have visited those places.

Always Looking Up

To go to Naidex was definitely the right decision! With my dissertation being due in less than a month (wow) I nearly turned down the chance to be an Ambassador and not attend the event at all. Yes, working on my dissertation might have been a bit more productive, yet I am so glad I went. It was the perfect opportunity to catch up with friends, see amazing talks and be surrounded by likeminded people. It’s reminded me why I write and campaign, and possibly will lead to some new exciting opportunities. I’m already looking forward to Naidex next year! However, I should probably go and rest so I can finish my dissertation…

I look forward to sharing the panels and talks with you soon!