I was wondering what percentage of the people in the blogosphere have decided that they are going to NAD? I remember many of the bloggers went last year in Palm Springs and probably will go to New Orleans.
Should someone host a Blog/Vlog only gathering at NAD which will be only the people who contribute to the blogosphere, not family members, spouses or pets. My wife has a blog/vlog here. My cousin-in-law also has a blog/vlog site and he has been around forever blog-wise here. Ironically, Patty and Grant worked together to create Deafnetwork.com while I babysat Grant’s daughter.
I would love to see NAD find a sponsor to have many computers set up (50?) so people can check emails, create blogs/vlogs, and read them especially during NAD. Deafread.com should have their own booth and should go to WFD this summer to promote the website internationally.
I know there’s a wild mix of personalities and beliefs but this would be an excellent place to announce the deafread awards and promote the internet savvy folks to come to the NAD convention, come a day early or something.
Is there anyone in Texas willing to do a similar thing for the TAD conference in June, have a gathering of vloggers/bloggers? TAD conference info
NAD needs a major overhaul if they were to become a credible group.
CAD finally got their ducks straightened out and were going to be at their conference this summer.
Richard
Comment by Richard Roehm — May 10, 2007 @ 8:05 pm
I was one of several bloggers who went to NAD Conference in Palm Desert, California — the experience that I sustained was simply wonderful.
NAD is quite supportive of bloggers in general.
I urge many to attend NAD in New Orleans. But keep your videos away from Bourbon Street, please.
R-
Comment by The One and Only Ridor — May 10, 2007 @ 8:14 pm
It is a must for you to go to New Orleans. I always love there, especially Hurricane and Black Vodoooo!
I love Cajun foods and alligator. I can’t wait to brEATHE in humid New Orleans air.
See you with my handing a Hurricane next year.
Comment by deafster — May 10, 2007 @ 8:38 pm
Richard…
Rich, NAD needs to do what to be credible? Your generalities is not helping anything. If you think NAD needs an overhaul, what are you doing about it? What are the credibility issues you think they have? I didn’t see any except that the most powerful special interests groups usually has a lot of benefits to offer once you become a member. I think NAD has a health insurance plan or something like that which is a good start as a special interests groups to offer benefits to members. The most powerful ones have a lot of benefits to offer, you would be shocked, which is why so many people sign up.
Ridor, yes NAD was supportive of bloggers but only had 2 people as official “bloggers” if I am correct. The tricky thing is that these official bloggers had to take the company line. Controversy creates interest, no? I remember the attempt to denounce the Miss Deaf USA pageant and it got folks talking.
NAD should have a website where people can vlog/blog and leave their comments, impressions or whatever, instead of having people videotape stuff then edit things later on. This will become an instant virtual scrapbook available to whoever is tuning in the NAD convention, complete with live webstreaming of the various presentations. Not everyone is going to have a laptop and not everyone is going to have a pager to blog about things.
Comment by deafphilosophy — May 10, 2007 @ 8:48 pm
R,
Why should we keep our videos away from Bourbon Street?
Comment by Lisa C. — May 10, 2007 @ 8:49 pm
Bourbon street is what I guess people would consider the red light district of New Orleans. During Mardi Gras, it’s where all of the uhmm excitement occurs.
I personally don’t think it is any different from 6th street in Austin, Deep Ellum in Dallas or all those famous bar/night life scenes.
At NAD, the majority of the people seemed to stay in the hotel and did not bother going anywhere except to eat. (Ok, a lot of people went swimming at the pool, but that’s still on hotel grounds!) There were a few parties thrown outside of the hotel, but NAD will go by so fast that you wouldn’t even want to hit the casino in downtown New Orleans or go to Bourbon street nearby. Ok, maybe I am different since I’ve been to New Orleans before but what’s the big deal about a big bar scene and gambling nearby when you have the NAD convention going on?
Comment by deafphilosophy — May 10, 2007 @ 8:59 pm
Will definitely be at NAD and hope to see all of you there!
Sure, NAD–as with any other organization–has its weak points. However, if you stop and think about it…who is the NAD? The answer is…YOU and ME! The NAD is what WE make of it. Its perfectly ok to criticize NAD as long as its done constructively and with an eye towards continued involvement in making it better.
Comment by Roger Kraft — May 10, 2007 @ 10:20 pm
Maybe I will go. Maybe not.
Depends on the NAD’s schedule. Worth my money?
Past several conventions, I had enjoyed until high prices stopped me going!
Let’s see.
Comment by Anonymoous — May 11, 2007 @ 4:49 am
Lisa: Keep videos away from Bourbon — well, I was joking about it. Bourbon is infamous place where you get to party and sometimes flashes your boobs and genitals at times — so I probably will do the “fun” things when I’m in New Orleans and I rather to keep things remain in New Orleans, especially with my naughty side.
DP: You’re right about NAD shying away from controversy. That’s why I did not bother to work for NAD’s blogs. Jared and Shane Feldman can do that. I rather real meats. I rather to deal with issues up front including denouncing the Miss Deaf America (not USA). I personally do not like MDAP but I also acknowledged that they are huge moneymakers.
R-
Comment by The One and Only Ridor — May 11, 2007 @ 11:31 am
I will definitely go to New Orleans for NAD conference. It will be on July 7 to 11 2008. It is a great place for all of us to get together and to discuss what we expect from NAD. We can bring the resources to back to our home and improve our state community. I hope many and many of you will go to NAD. We are the key pushers at NAD. At night time, we can party and social.
Comment by Aidan Mack — May 11, 2007 @ 12:47 pm
More likely I will go to New Orleans for the conference– after all, it will only take me 8 hours of driving from my new residence (am I right, D.C. folks? for the hours it takes to travel?)… That is not bad in my opinion– 8 hours and you get to hit all different states along the way?! COOL!
For me, 8 hours from my home in California just get you to another city that is STILL in California or at least ONE different state, that is it!!
So I am not used to the fact that 8 hours in east coast takes you through many states!!
Comment by gnarlydorkette — May 11, 2007 @ 3:24 pm
Aidan, it’s a non-stop party and social event during NAD. Ever try the exhibition booths, it’d take 2-3 hours just to finish 1 row if you like to socialize with every booth along the way to get full information. All the workshops go by so fast and you won’t have any time to process information. There should be a workshop all day from 9 am to 9 pm or something, just to have more Q and A sessions or something. Maybe I should create a sign “The Philosopher’s Corner” and set it somewhere in the hallways and talk about anything with anyone. Hmm, I should find people who can talk about anything and have a group just sit around and wait for people to bring up a conversation and we’ll all talk about anything heh. Maybe those people will do this for beer only, the more beer, the better the context is and sometimes the better their ASL skillls are too.
GnarlyDorkette, that can’t be right, 8 hours from DC to New Orleans?? You can drive 12-13 hours and still be in Texas only. Ok, my bad, I wasn’t using my philosophy cap, yes it is possible to get to N.O from DC in 8 hours, it just depends on how fast you drive, if you want to drive 100 mph, then the time is shorter. Montana used to have no speed limit on the main highways back in ohh..1996? 300 miles in 3 1/2 hours. It really took 3 hours but we stopped for gas, food and potty break so that was 30 minutes. Crossing the state line, it was shocking how slow the 65 mph speed limit was..it was almost like going 10 mph so that was very disturbing.
I hope we get the largest amount of people going to NAD, and what’s the record anyways? Time to start saving up money, only a year and 2 months left.
I play softball so it’s hard going to the regional softball tournament, then NAD then NSAD all in the same summer but it was worth it last year, going to Palm Springs for NAD then L.A. for NSAD. Maybe one of these days NAD, NSAD and perhaps a bowling tournament will all take in the same place for a super week/weekend fest. Don’t underestimate Deaf sporting events!
Comment by deafphilosophy — May 11, 2007 @ 3:42 pm
No 12.
My friend said it took her 12 hours to arrive to Georgia so I would imagine that it takes more than 8 hours, you can check mapquest.com to find out.
Bourbon Street is very fascinating!! One time, when we were walking there, had two young children, one woman bared her breasts, I had to cover my son’s eyes, oh boy! And then they have “live” statues where people stand still for a couple of hours, you put money in there. Some of them paint themselves gold or silver paint. You can also get interesting bead necklaces. It is never a dull moment on Bourbon Street. Also we booked a hotel in Bourbon Street so we could sit outside on the iron gate patio and watch everyone walk by at night.
I don’t think we will go to NAD convention, maybe at another time when the opportunity presents itself.
Comment by michele — May 11, 2007 @ 6:25 pm
Hi DP, I’m not sure what you try to imply. I may misunderstand you but I go ahead and say it.
)
I went to NAD last summer. I worked out every morning. I attended many great workshops. Without these workshops, I wouldn’t be here at where I am today. I didn’t have time to look at booths. I only went there about 30 to 40 seconds. I partied and socialized with my old and new friends at nights. Perfect for me. Yes, I had also seen some flaws at NAD. I was in shock several times when I seen some flaws.
People behind the booths did talk to their friends more and unintended ignored customers. I felt it was very rude for employee to talk to his or her friend and make a customer wait. Use common sense. If there is no customer waiting, then go ahead and talk to her or his friends.
At Banquet Gala, most of people even NAD people wore in their casual clothes. The visual technology was behind but after I experienced through my vlogs, I can understand why NAD kept the visual at minimum as possible. (Forgive me, I may be too hearing sometimes. I went to the events in Hollywood and NYC. Their visual technology whoa!! And their energy was really amazed). When I couldn’t find a seat, one of committees told me that it wasn’t their problem and I had to wait until after they finished dinner. I spent $150 or something on the ticket in advanced time. The attitudes were not really friendly when we asked for assistance. They treated us like we were nothing. And the issue with the pageant that I felt strongly disagreed how NAD handled with Miss Deaf New Jersey.
My point is that NAD needs us to push it and expect it to do their best next time. It is perfect time for us to share with NAD what we want for NAD Conference of 2008. I hope to see more of Deafhood, of course a bigger room please, our right of use American Sign Language, education, and how to make our language more powerful and protection, vlog/blog, film/video, Deaf children rights, CODA/KODA, Legal/medical, NAD, Written English to ASL, and ASL to Written English, Many more workshops…
I suggest NAD to set up the e-mail address so we can submit our ideas to NAD for conference in summer of 2008.
Now I close to my blahhhhhing.. Thank you for your patience!
) Aidan
Comment by Aidan Mack — May 12, 2007 @ 7:20 am
Aidan, I think a lot of the little stuff was handled by the host organization. I think it was CAD, so there were a lot of volunteers trying to run things, not just “NAD.” My experience was positive at NAD, but I can understand if people get frustrated or flustered, such as running out of space to eat which is very unfortunate but that shows that there were more people expected. I hope all of these little stuff will be passed on to the Louisiana host. I didn’t like it when a huge chunk of the middle section was reserved for the pageant contestants during the ASL celebration performance. I forgot what the official term was, forgive me, but 3/4th of the way, all these contestants got up and left. These people should be sitting in the back of the room if they have a curfew. It was very unfortunate about NJ, so we will see if things improve for next time which is what organizations should do always and I am sure NAD is mindful of that, as long as someone says something about it.
Comment by deafphilosophy — May 12, 2007 @ 8:57 am
Hey there!
I will attend both NAD and TAD…
I don’t know how many blogger/vlogger will attend TAD conference this year. If there’s enough people, we can do it at lobby at one point. Then we can expand/plan it next time.
Smile!
gwlj
Comment by Grant W Laird Jr — May 12, 2007 @ 7:15 pm
Cousin Grant, there’s you, me, Patty…that’s 3 people for sure. Maybe next time there will be a panel about the impact of the internet on Deaf folks as opposed to having a separate gathering outside of conference time. I hope NAD will have a workshop on this, much like the Deafhood workshops that was a huge hit.
Are you going to have a booth at TAD (NAD?), or just come without a “hat”?
Comment by deafphilosophy — May 12, 2007 @ 7:36 pm
I plan to be there. I certainly hope no one will throw rotten tomatoes at me for all the stuff I wrote in my blog
What’s a TAD? I know about the WFD event in Spain though
Comment by Kevin — May 18, 2007 @ 10:06 am
Kevin,
TAD is the Texas Association of the Deaf. Most states have one, and I hope all have a conference.
What do you think people will complain about on your blog?
Comment by deafphilosophy — May 19, 2007 @ 3:33 pm