TDI Conference, Looking Back

By Cheryl Heppner

Editor: Here's Cheryl's second report from the TDI Conference. It's sort of a "who's who" of some of the folks in attendance.

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It's Saturday evening and the final presentations of the TDI conference are behind me. Since I arrived, I've only sent one update, written just before the opening ceremonies! I had all these plans to keep you abreast of the excitement here in San Mateo but the hotel's $9.95 a day Internet access was an exercise in frustration. I have spent my time trying to get it to work instead of typing up conference reports to send to you.

Last night I got really stubborn and a hotel tech guy was with me until almost midnight. He spent his last 30-40 minutes on the phone with the grand pooh bah of tech support. It seems to have worked. I learned this morning from other conference attendees that I am not the only one with this Internet access problem.

Before I get into the meat of the conference, please indulge me as I share some of the "local color" stories.

- The Marriott lost some crucial parts of the FM listening system that were shipped here, but in the nick of time they were located and receivers distributed not long after the opening ceremony began.

- The brilliant and hilarious Bummy Burstein has been here since day one, when he arrived in a bright, deep pink polo shirt. I'm sure my face lit up when I saw him. Some old timers may remember the two workshops in parliamentary procedure that Bummy did for NVRC back in our early years. He was the nation's first deaf parliamentarian. Does anyone remember how he got the name "Bummy"? I have successfully met my goal to get a hug from him every day.

- Several people have had unexpected adventures upon arriving at the San Francisco airport because there are three Marriott hotels in the area.

- My mojo hasn't been too good with the hotel's restaurant, though the food is delicious. Yesterday's Telecommunications and Media Professionals luncheon had a pretty dessert that NVRC member Laurie Dowling told me was creme brulee, the best she'd ever had. It truly was a killer, but I think I'd still rate it behind the one at the Reston McCormick & Schmick that I learned about from interpreter Donna Matz. Twelve zillion calories, and every one of them you're thinking it's got to be worth the jello on your hips.

- Speaking of Laurie, she's with her husband, Tom, who is an NVRC Board member. I just love having Tom here to soak up all the great information. He is charged with excitement and enthusiasm. At the NVRC Board meeting this past Monday, he was asking me about the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology, of which NVRC is a member. Here he was able to attend an entire presentation about what it is and what its goals are.

- Who really stands out at this conference: HOVRS (Hands On Video Relay Service) employees. What clever marketing to have them all wearing purple shirts! I discovered that Paul Singleton, formerly of the federal government's CAP program, has now joined HOVRS.

- Stunning, unexpected attendee: John McCelland, a former member of the old Self Help for Hard of Hearing People - Nova One chapter that met at NVRC. He was visiting in the area from his retirement home in New Zealand and thought he'd stop by. After just a couple of presentations at this conference, he exclaimed, "I don't know why I never discovered TDI before!" He always thought the conferences would be too technical and over his head. Yesterday he was on tech overload at the end of the day, but he recovered after a trip to the baseball game. I asked him today at the close of the conference if he was still enthusiastic, and he told me he was already planning to attend the next one in 2009.

- Ed Bosson of Texas is the Father of Video Relay Service and one of the people for whom I have the deepest admiration. Yesterday at lunch he asked if I'd tell the wait person that he wanted green tea with lemon and honey. It was an electric moment. I love green tea and honey! I asked for two orders of it. Today I discovered he was already seated at my luncheon table and he (clairvoyant?) had already ordered an extra tea bag, lemon, and honey, which he kindly shared. I had a sudden, profound attack of the warm fuzzies.

- Phil Bravin, once of IBM, later of National Captioning Institute, then of Communication Service for the Deaf ,and all kinds of things in between, was here. Now that I've seen him, I can report that retirement absolutely, positively agrees with him. He was bragging today that his place in Vermont is miles from any red lights. How fair is it that, regardless of all the dirt roads he drives, he has broadband access? Next time you see him, ask how many frequent flyer miles he has accumulated. Be sure to mention all the possible airlines and bring a calculator.

- At the Thursday night end-of-day Presidents Reception, I discovered over hors d'oeuvres that four other former presidents of the international Association of Late-Deafened Adults were in attendance -- Roy Miller, Ken Arcia, Mary Clark and Marylyn Howe and me. What were the odds? I asked if we had a quorum to do any business but retirement from office totally fuzzes the brain.

- I am going to hit the time crunch wall tomorrow when I return home. My body is on East Coast time in the morning but West Coast time in the evening. There just aren't enough hours in between. Each morning I walk Galaxy and then go to the fitness room to get my exercise. The fitness room is, thankfully, open 24 hours. At 5-6 pm -- San Mateo, California time -- it's us East Coast people who take it over. I thought I'd be opening the joint this morning, but the aforementioned Ed Bosson was there ahead of me on the elliptical machine. I turned on the TV and pulled up captions from the menu before stepping on the treadmill alongside him. Then I nearly collapsed in giggles when the first broadcast I saw was a captioned ad for Botox. Was Big Brother watching me and taking a look at those early morning wrinkles? The previous day there was mention of the slight when companies did not captioning their ads. Payback is a beast.

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