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Our expo is the largest held outside the metropolitan area and will be of great interest to people with disability and people with age related disability, their families, carers and supporters as well as health professionals, disability and aged care mainstream service providers, university students, schools and government personnel.
Our Expos showcase a wide range of exhibitors displaying an extensive variety of products and services that support independence for people with disability.
What an event it was!
After a fairly quick lead time of 5 months IDEAS NSW convened a major disability expo in Queanbeyan last month which attracted over 1200 visitors.
The exhibition hall showcased over 40 major providers of disability equipment, services and support while the Queanbeyan Community Centre hosted a variety of workshops for people with disability and professionals working in the disability field.
The Expo itself was held at Queanbeyan Conference Centre on Thursday May 22nd through to Saturday May 24th. The NSW Minister for Disability and Ageing services, Ms Kristina Keneally opened the event after a welcome to the Nganbri Ngunnawal country by Ms Louise Brown. Minister Keneally spoke of the need for access to information about the supports that are available in the regional areas and highlighted the benefits of events such as the IDEAS Expo.
Most visitors to the expo were people with disability and their carers traveling from across the south eastern part of NSW, with some visitors traveling from as far away as Forster on the mid north NSW Coast and Frankston, Victoria.
On display were some interesting products including the Trekinetics Wheelchair - an all-terrain wheelchair and Inekards Flashcards—for children with autism.
Service Providers also supported the event traveling from rural areas into the regional centre of Queanbeyan to access workshops presented by a range of professionals working within the disability sector. Workshops included information on safe sex for people with disability, how to handle complaints and enduring guardianship.
The Altogether Drama Group from Recreation Illawarra certainly showed us what else can happen on a fishing trip…Their skit called “get your rod out” was enjoyed by all the audience and can be seen on the NSW Family Planning DVD, Love & Kisses.
The highlight of the expo has to be the demonstrations provided by Andrew Meddings, & Matty Brumby on their go karts & motorbikes. This network of people with disability are into extreme sports and in an extreme way. The crowd on hand thoroughly enjoyed the demonstrations provided on the day. Maybe the next expo for IDEAS will be an extreme sports expo!
In addition O’Carrollyns Eco Village offered a wonderful holiday prize of: 2 nights accommodation for 4 people in a family bungalow, which was won by Yvonne Charnock & will be enjoyed at some time in the future.
Held at the Mirambeena Centre in Lavington, Albury the IDEAS Expo Silver Jubilee 2006 was a wonderful way to celebrate International Day of People with Disability over two days.
The United Nations theme for 2006 International Day of People with a Disability was E-Accessibility. Many of the exhibitors at the expo provided products to assist in accessing technology. Two of the workshops focused on computer access for all.
The Family Planning NSW workshop was extremely well attended with much needed information provided to both families and service providers.
Over the two day period, 1,500 visitors had the opportunity to see a showcase of technology, equipment and services that are available to them. Wheelchair accessible vehicles and equipment to assist with modifications were on display, daily living aids, vision aids, sign language and much more.
The festive atmosphere was evident, with workshops running and wonderful entertainment by the local special schools. This made for a busy and entertaining couple of days.
Held in September 2004 in Dubbo and including eighty exhibitors - forty workshops - world-class entertainment - a large dinner - two and a half thousand visitors ... that only scratches the surface of the success that was IDEAS Expo 2004 "On Common Ground".
The 2004 Expo became known as "On Common Ground", reflecting its geographical location and the desire to ensure inclusion of indigenous and rural disability issues. The extensive IDEAS in-house produced TV, Radio and Print campaign, ensured that exhibitors and guests came from across the state, not only from the Central West, but as far a field as the North, South and Central coasts, the Riverina, Illawarra and the ACT.
As the theme for Expo 2004 was "On Common Ground" it was important to find the right mix of exhibitors to reflect the event's regional and rural focus. Eighty exhibitors from throughout NSW provided information on disability related products and services, as broad as disability itself: NSW Sport and Recreation, who gave demonstrations on accessible sport; Wheelies with Wings, a Cooma based organisation who provide accessible aircraft to teach individuals with a disability to fly; Andrew Medding with his accessible truck, showing that disability is no limitation to truck driving; plus the gamut of everyday aging and disability products.
Exhibitors also included Peak disability advocacy organisations, such as People with Disability Australia, Multicultural Disability Advocacy Association, the Intellectual Disability Rights Service and the Aged Care Rights Service - all there to inform and promote the services they provide to people across NSW.
Special guest performers at the expo included Australian entertainment legend Jimmy Little, Ame Barnebrook and the boys from Reclink.
Held in Albury, this expo was held over two days and showcased technology for the new millenium and equipment to visitors.Special guest speaker was paralympian skier Michael Milton, who spoke about his experiences. Michael was an inspiring speaker. The Hon Tim Fischer opend the expo for us, launching the new IDEAS website at the time. Over 2,000 people visted the expo and attended workshops.
Held in Albury over 3 days in May. Our honorary guest was paralympian Priya Cooper, who entertained us with her stories and medals.
Held in Albury alongside the Acquired Brain Injury Conference - A Rural Perspective.