Category Archives: Conferences & Exhibitions

Rompa attend all the major disability trade shows and conferences, we like to share our experiences and talk about the people we meet.

Emergency Services Event

About the Rompa Team, Autism, Conferences & Exhibitions, In the community

Children Enjoying the Sensory Bus

Our friends at Sparkle Sheffield invited us along to their Emergency Services Event at the Lifewise Centre  on Sunday and we had a brilliant time!

What was the Emergency Services Event?

For people with autism, the emergency services can be scary and resemble bad experiences. This could lead to them not approaching  police officers or fireman for help which could lead to dangerous situations . The Emergency Services event was organised by Sparkle to build bridges between the emergency services and people who have autism. We’re pleased to say it was a massive success! The children were dressing up as police officers, being shown around a police car and fire engine (and trying out the sirens!), exploring the fantastic set of the Lifewise centre and of course enjoying the sensory bus!

Who are Sparkle Sheffield?

Started by parents of autistic children, Sparkle Sheffield exists to help families with autistic children meet the challenges they face, feel less isolated, less frightened and more empowered. Autism affects families in different ways but only the parent of an autistic child can truly understand what life is like for us.

Find out More on their website: http://www.sparklesheffield.co.uk

 

Dan & Kate’s Recent Trip To ASHA in Orlando!

Conferences & Exhibitions, International

It was with great heartache that Marketing Manager Dan and Product Manager Kate left the cold drizzly grey UK and flew out to Orlando in November to go to the ASHA Convention. ASHA – The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association get together on a massive scale with hundreds of seminars over 5 days and an exhibition area.

Dan & Kate took this opportunity to meet with existing suppliers and also to look at new products that are available across the pond that we can bring to Rompa and to Winslow to develop the speech and language product range! (As well as an opportunity to soak up a bit of winter Sun and enjoy the local surroundings!)

We met a lot of fantastic people and saw a lot of great products so keep a look out for them in 2015!

COT Annual Conference in Brighton

Conferences & Exhibitions,

Well, a couple of weeks have passed by but I thought I’d reflect on the Occupational Therapy Conference at Brighton. It was my first time there and I was really excited to meet other OT’s and ROMPA said I could attend some of the talks too.

Before the event, our Business Development Team kindly asked me what products I’d like to showcase. I had a good think and wanted OT’s to realise that ROMPA and Winslow compliment each other and that our resources are versatile. I picked a variety of items for rehab, older adults, sensory and mental health practice.

COT Annual Conference in Brighton

COT Annual Conference in Brighton

Sven, Mark and I soon had the stand set up. The guys left the layout of the products to me –I felt like a child in a chocolate shop. The event opened with free drinks and the stand was overwhelmed with Occupational Therapists from all walks of life. They shared their thoughts on the products showcased, ideas for new ones, some wanted advice on products, others picked up brochures and some lovely people just stopped by for a chat.

Days two and three were frankly a blur of activity. I manned the stand, found new potential products from other exhibitors, saw happy familiar faces from Coventry and Derby Universities and met new people from the COT.

COT Annual Conference in Brighton

Products for the COT Annual Conference

I attended the plenary by Candice (Kings Fund) which gave me food for thought about where our profession was going and contributed in a small way to the SI debate that ROMPA sponsored which was held with Lesley Collier (University of Southampton), Gemma Cartwright (Sensory Integration Network) & Dido Green (Oxford Brooks University), Sharon Tuppeny (Freelance OT). The posters served to showcase current occupational therapy needs, issues, ideas and studies from across the globe (sponsored by ROMPA) and I was surprised at the breadth of topics included – go OT’s go!

Hope I get picked to go next year…

Kidz in the Middle

Conferences & Exhibitions,

It’s hard to believe that it’s already a couple of weeks since we were at Kidz in the Middle in Coventry.  Now that the dust has settled, and everyone is back into their usual routines and activities, please take a moment to look again at our ROMPA catalogue if you collected a copy from our stand, or at our website.  If you didn’t get a catalogue, we can gladly post one to you.  Click here to order your free copy today.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to talk to us – you were a very friendly bunch!  Thank you also to Rob from Tobii for inviting visitors to our stand to try eye tracking control and eye gaze technology for themselves.  We look forward to a long and successful partnership with Tobii – please excuse the pun!

BETT and Spring Fair Trade Shows

Conferences & Exhibitions, , ,

A new year and two new trade shows to visit. For the first time ever I went to BETT and to Toy Fair, starting with BETT. BETT was huge and with the best will in the world we didn’t get to see every stand there. However, what we did see was informative – and strangely reassuring. For example, Interactive Floors that we have sold for some years are now more widely available and we saw several variations of these at the show.

BETT Trade Show

BETT Trade Show

It’s exciting to think that we are already one step ahead by developing the integration of such products with other remote control systems so that we continue to offer fully integrated immersive environments and not just disparate products that don’t work in sync. That’s why we are delighted to be working on making our Snoezelen® environments even more accessible, engaging and interactive using eye gaze technology. It’s also reassuring that our Sensory Magic and CARE systems are also continually evolving – not just in their scope of visuals and sounds, but also in terms of their value, meaning, applications and the measures of these.

The visit to BETT was useful to help us learn what technology is available. It’s also useful as it highlights changes to our marketplace that we’ve noticed increasingly over the last few years. Quite a few software development companies and lighting specialists have appeared over the last few years, which are now marketing themselves as sensory solutions providers. Such companies often have impressive looking stands and glossy brochures, but I wonder how many have a true understanding of our marketplace, and how many have the global experience and proven research behind them to know the real value of a multi-sensory Snoezelen® environment. I think we know the answer to that at ROMPA – I hope our customers do too.

I digress… A short trip across London and we were at the Toy Fair. It was great to catch up with quite a few of our existing customers, as well as meeting new ones. I found at least a dozen products worthy of space in our 2015 catalogues and I’m looking forward to getting samples, testing them out and showing these to colleagues. We’re always looking for new products and it’s great to have found some great ideas already!

Autism Networks Conference 2014

Conferences & Exhibitions

It was with great pleasure that I attended the Autism Winter Conference  last week!

We transformed a cloak room into a ‘quiet room’ to provide a space for relaxing for people who were attending the conference.

I enjoyed the day out and speaking with a lot of different people who were on the spectrum and finding out their coping mechanisms.

We are soon going to be providing Autism Networks with their own sensory environment very soon and talking to the people at the event it will certainly get some use!

Looking forward to the next show at Kidz in the Middle on the 27th March.

The Rompa Roadshow – Where you will find us in 2014!

Conferences & Exhibitions

We will be exhibiting at a range of exhibitions this year – make sure you don’t miss us! You can find out where here: http://www.rompa.com/the-rompa-roadshow

Exhibition Start Date End Date Venue Location
Early Childhood Services – Centres – Barnsley 15/01/2014 15/01/2014 Priory Campus  Barnsley
Early Childhood Services – Childminders – Barnsley 22/01/2014 22/01/2014 Priory Campus  Barnsley
Autism Networks 12/02/2014 12/02/2014 Crewe FC Crewe
Florence Nightingale Trust 04/03/2014 04/03/2014 Florence Nightingale Trust London
Kidz in The Middle 27/03/2014 27/03/2014 Ricoh Arena Coventry
Scottish Caring & Dementia Congress 02/04/2014 02/04/2014 Murrayfield Stadium Edinburgh
Choice Unlimited 09/04/2014 09/04/2014 Leicester Tigers Leicester
Autism Expo 24/04/2014 24/04/2014 Cardiff Stadium Cardiff
Naidex Birmingham 29/04/2014 01/05/2014 NEC Birmingham
Coventry University 21/05/2014 21/05/2014 Coventry University Coventry
NASEN Live 21/05/2014 22/05/2014 Reebok Arena Bolton
Transition Event 22/05/2014 22/05/2014 Motorcycle museum Birmingham
COT Annual Conference 03/06/2014 05/06/2014 Brighton Centre Brighton
The Autism Show 14/06/2014 15/06/2014 ExCel London
The Autism Show – North 28/06/2014 29/06/2014 Event City Manchester
TES – SEN London 11/10/2014 12/10/2014 Business Design Centre London
Autism Central 14/10/2014 14/10/2014 The Clarendon Suites Birmingham
Care England (ECCA) 03/11/2014  03/11/2014 London
9th UK Dementia Congress 10/11/2014 12/11/2014 Hilton Metropole Brighton
The OT Show 2014 26/11/2014 27/11/2014 NEC Birmingham
Kidz Up North 20/11/2014 20/11/2014 Event City Manchester

 

From Russia wi’ Love…

Conferences & Exhibitions, International,

Jason Fletcher

Jason Fletcher

Rompa travelled to Russia to support our long standing and valued partners Rehab and Medical through a week of public events. We met people from all sectors of health care from students in colleges, to Ministers of social services and health care.

The Conference Room

The Conference Room

We travelled from Kazan to Moscow, to spread the word of Snoezelen with evidence based research and practices, which was kindly provided through the work of Dr Lesley Collier. We also explained innovative technologies and environmental control for caring and preventative measures delivered by yours truly.

Jason, Lesley and the Rehab Medical Team

Jason & Lesley and the Rehab and Medical Team

“I never ceased to be amazed by the commitment and effort that is obvious within health care providers. In Russia, the passion to respond to worldwide recognised challenges is very much present and active.”

We presented lectures at a Technical college in Kazan to talk with students who are learning about sensory environments, and who are still striving to find their specific professional area of interest.

Finally we delivered seminars to existing Rehab and Medical customers who are either in need of re-vamping existing equipment, or who wished to further understand the current state of equipment and updated research available.

“I personally feel honoured to have been a part of this exciting venture through Russia, and I feel privileged to have worked with professionals within Russia’s care sectors performing at the highest level.”

“I must have drunk my own body weight in vodka. It would have been rude not to though…..”

Rompa at Naidex Scotland 2013

Conferences & Exhibitions,

Naidex Scotland is a leading independent living event in Scotland, the Rompa product team were in Glasgow and here are their thoughts on the event.

Kate Hays

Kate Hays

Rompa at Naidex Scotland 2013

Rompa at Naidex Scotland 2013

“Visitors to our stand were so friendly and it was a real pleasure talking to everyone.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to come and see us (especially for persisting through car park and traffic troubles) – your time and kindness was much appreciated.  During the conversations had about our high standards of customer service, our products, our installation service, you said so many positive things.  It’s really good to know that our efforts are so worthwhile.  Looking forward to 2015 – I hope I get to go to the next Naidex Scotland!”

Tania Hodgson

Tania Hodgson

“NAIDEX was so exciting for me. I have recently finished my Occupational Therapy Training from Derby University and joined the ROMPA family in late July so it was my first time being involved as an exhibitor!”

“I was so scared but my nerves soon dissipated. We were blessed – one by one truly wonderful people came to our stand, everyone with golden hearts, wanting to improve the quality of life for the people that they care about, either professionally or personally.”

You can see our stand in the video below at 1:52.

Friends, relatives, children, healthcare professionals all came to chat. It was great to be able to explain what we do, listen to ideas and suggestions for new products, get feedback on ideas we have for future product development, and talk directly to people who use ROMPA and Winslow resources.

All I can say is a great big “thank you” to the organisers of the event, the people who came and the great company I am part of for making this such a fulfilling experience!