Post 2: AOTA Conference Keynote speaker and Posters

Start here first:

Going to AOTA Conference Post 1 out of A Bazillion to Come (updated to have a few pictures)

Post 2: I’d like to warn you all that I have no true concept of time, all days run together and I couldn’t tell you what I did two days ago let alone weeks ago (hence the whole journaling thing, except that it only works if you keep on top of it, oops), so there may be some chronological inaccuracies…oh well. You get the point.

Thursday April 10th was a big day at AOTA. The first thing I did that day was screw up. I had signed up to volunteer within the Senior Member Salon as a note-taker, and I forgot/slept right through my appointed session. I felt really bad!

That day, I primarily wandered around the convention center, watching all the OT-related people with interest. I kind of wanted to just throw myself at all of them and sing Koom bah yah mah lord, it felt all nice and fuzzy.

I also wandered through a poster session…again mostly people watching and skimming poster titles. I think the project that seemed most interesting to me was about people with multiple sclerosis who tend to hoard, and how OTs can help them get over that issue.

Keynote Speaker:

Warren McDonald is a man who had a horrible accident involving a giant boulder and his legs. And now he is a bilateral above-knee amputee. He gets around in a lightweight wheelchair (a Quickie?) and is quite nimble. He has climbed massive mountains with his prosthetics and does motivational speaking. He has a book, “A Test of Will” that details his journey.

He was a WONDERFUL speaker and discussed how we create the reality of other people and “HOW” you see is what you get. Great points, very inspiring.

Apr 23, 2008 | Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none