Hearing Loss Association of America Convention 2024 was my first convention that I ever attended outside of work or professional style trainings. As I planned for the event, I expected that there would be lots of information to learn and new technology to experience – and there was!

What I hadn’t realized was how incredibly powerful it would be to be immersed in the hearing loss culture. There was something almost magical about a gathering of people around a single specific topic, where everyone could fit in and find common ground. It’s an awesome thing to create intentional spaces for people who feel marginalized.

I’d never been in a setting where strangers were so comfortable striking up conversations with me – and I found myself emboldened to do the same! Whenever I ventured out of my comfort zone, I was welcomed; by the end of the weekend, I’d met many of the hearing loss celebrities on my wish list.

Everyone acted from a place of caring and helping. There were so many powerful moments of people feeling, “Yes! Me too! That’s my experience!” The atmosphere was warmed by caring, empathy, and problem solving. Everyone was so genuine and so excited to just be attending.

It was beyond amazing to go to a convention and not feel anxious about socializing. Seeing people who regularly struggle with communication be so fearless and comfortable was inspiring. Even vendors wanted to connect personally with the people in attendance, and were passionate about the hearing loss community; I saw many vendors actually attending the workshops, and had insightful conversations about hearing loss topics completely unrelated to their sales.

I talked with many people who, like me, have always felt that they didn’t quite fit in any typical category. A hearing person doesn’t fit. Deaf person isn’t me. I am single sided deaf, so my hearing is great in some situations and terrible in others and pretty much always somewhat fatiguing. I have always felt that I don’t quite fit anywhere. I can’t even fill out a survey regarding my hearing loss – do you call one perfect ear and one deaf ear normal hearing, mild hearing loss, moderate hearing loss, severe hearing loss, or profound hearing loss?

But at this event, I belonged. Everyone had different hearing, different assistive devices, and different lives, but we all felt unified. We all laughed at the same jokes and felt the struggles shared.

Going into this, I was eager to see how they solved the seemingly insurmountable problem of just how hard it is to hear at conferences! As is normal, this event took place in a convention center with high ceilings, hard surfaces, and corresponding terrible acoustics – so they had their work cut out for them.

In the workshops, every single room had a temporarily installed hearing loop that you could connect a hearing device to. They also provided captioning, as well as an ASL interpreter (on request). But what I found really made the most difference – especially for networking and the exhibit hall – was how everyone used excellent conversation hygiene. People faced each other, talked slowly, projected, and didn’t have a problem with the listener leaning in or being asked to repeat themselves. They told us right in the newcomer orientation, “Don’t apologize for not hearing.” I think that just knowing the person you are interacting with understood made it more comfortable.

I won’t dive deep into the information I learned or the technology I experienced here – I literally have pages and pages of notes, and I will be highlighting individual topics and exciting tech in different posts going forward. I had high expectations of both the workshops and exhibits, and the convention definitely exceeded my expectations. The classes were taught by high-profile people in the hearing loss community who were extremely knowledgeable.

There were sacrifices to attend this convention. It’s not easy to find the time and money, or to do the travel required. My family and coworkers took on extra to make this possible for me. I am thankful I can say any and all costs that went into my convention attendance were more than compensated by what I was able to get from the experience. 10/10 would recommend to a friend.