Page 10 - Mobility Management, May 2017

mm beat
needs on either side.”
More changes are coming to future American editions
of the ISS, including a change of venue. When the University of Pittsburgh next hosts the event in 2019, it will do so in its own backyard.
“We are psyched to show off our hometown,” Wander said. “While most of the folks on the \[Rehabilitation Science & Technology Continuing Education\] team are not originally from Pittsburgh, we have come to love
it as if it was our own. Pittsburgh is no longer the hazy mill town of days past, but instead a city that has gone through significant changes in the past decades. Its numerous travel and business accolades are slowly turning this location into something special.”
As for the 2017 edition of ISS, Schmeler said, “I think the theme was accomplished, where people left the symposium feeling a little more empowered. There are several factors to this that came across in every session. Large data and fostering a culture of innovation are just a couple of examples at the forefront of what we do and will take us to the next stage of growth.
“ISS has a lot of stakeholders, and our goal is to listen to our customers and meet everyone’s needs as best as possible. So we try different things each year after careful thought and feedback.” m
— Photos & story by Laurie Watanabe
Permobil launched the mid- wheel-drive M5, seen here at Permobil’s Lebanon, Tenn., headquarters, at ISS.
Thomashilfen introduced the EASyS Advantage, boasting easily adjusted seating.
Inspired by Drive’s colorful Nessie positioning system turned heads.
Hotel Headache: Gaylord Shuts Out Some ISS Attendees
When is a hotel reservation not truly a reservation?
Some would-be guests of the Gaylord Opryland Resort
& Convention Center discovered that answer the hard way, when they arrived for the International Seating Symposium with hotel reservations in hand, only to be told the Gaylord had no room for them.
The trouble started as early as the afternoon of Tuesday, Feb. 28, when some guests arriving to check in were informed that the Gaylord had significantly over- booked. Over the next few nights, the hotel repeatedly turned customers away.
Meghan Wander, the ISS conference manager, said of the situation, “Unfortunately, hotel bookings and reser- vations are now resembling airlines in that many nights are overbooked to help negate monetary losses from no-show guests. This is a policy that we neither endorse nor can prevent due to contractual stipulations. This
is never something we want to see at our conference, but the Gaylord did have to \[redirect\] guests from other
competing confer- ences as well.”
The situation for ISS attendees was exacer- bated by the fact that some guests who were turned away required accessible hotel rooms.
“Despite increasing
our room block by
25 percent for this
year’s symposium, the
block actually sold out in January,” Wander said. “We recommended guests to stay at two nearby hotels and provided transportation to the Gaylord to help as much as we could. This is the first year that either of these situa- tions — guests being moved and room block selling out by January — have occurred. We are working diligently to ensure this does not happen in Pittsburgh.” m
10 MAY2017|MOBILITYMANAGEMENT MobilityMgmt.com