ADHA Conference, Day 2

10 am: Crystal and I arrived just as the exposition hall opened on the second day.

From the several ADHA representatives that stopped by the booth we got information on attendance this year: There were approximately 1300 attendees this year—the highest figure they’ve ever had—with 300 of those being students—up from about 100 last year.

The response we received was amazing. It may have been the increase in attendance, the spike in the number of students, or the fact this was our second time exhibiting, but people were very enthusiastic about our presence there.

(It’s also worth noting that, with the huge booths from Colgate, Johnson and Johnson [makers of Listerine], Tom’s of Maine, etc and dozens of other manufacturers selling everything from medical instruments to office lighting, we were the only booth not selling anything—not anything besides information.)

The encouraging part of the day wasn’t talking to new people—to people that hadn’t heard of us—but to people who already had. Repeatedly people would come up and talk about how they had done a presentation on the topic of piercing for their school, for other students, at a local health conference, for the local health board; how they had been involved in education on some level and how invaluable our material was to them.

4 pm: Angela helped me break down the booth and pack up for the next leg of the trip—Tucson.