I had the opportunity of attending the NATI Conference in Orlando earlier this month, and wished to share my thoughts about what I did and saw. As this was my first conference attended as a member of the 911 Cell Phone Bank team, I really had no idea what to expect. What I saw was a group of highly motivated people gathered to do a job which we must wish didn’t actually NEED to be done, but yet HAS to be done. I only wish there could have been a larger attendance, because those that came certainly must have departed feeling that they got their money’s worth. I got to finally put some faces to the voices I hear on the phone and to give them my personal welcome to Florida. It was also my pleasure to try and answer questions concerning the program to those attendees who were not totally familiar with our program or were exploring the expansion of their programs. Interacting with some of the other vendors displaying goods and services was also a great experience. The conference began on Monday afternoon with the opening of the vendor display area. This area was to be open at any time there were not going to be other specific events taking place, such as the workshops or luncheons.

As for what I did, first of all, the Monday evening speaker, Mr. David Williams, gave an absolutely fascinating talk about his career with the FBI. His talk lasted nearly 2 hours, but I could have listened to that much more. I left with a new-found respect for the forensics involved in case-solving, CSI and NCIS not withstanding.

Tuesday was the “official” opening of the conference and the opening ceremonies were quite impressive. After they had been concluded, we were free to attend any of the workshops we wished to attend. Since I am an “elder” I attended the workshops which related to the subject of elder abuse, how to spot it, how to investigate it, and the special training involved in dealing with it. Both sessions were highly informative and I walked out of them with a real appreciation of the efforts of law enforcement and senior services agencies in dealing with the various issues associated with abuse of the elderly.
I was not able to attend Wednesday or Thursday because other team members were attending, but I look forward to attending the next conference as well.