DPHH exhaustion

Man, throwing a party can be brutal. Back in April, I was approached by some representatives of a VRS company to host "Deaf Professional Happy Hour" or DPHH, in Kansas City. I'm all "why me?!" Apparently someone volunteered me... I'm gonna have to find out who it was and really really reallllly thank them... ;-)

In any case, good naturedly, I figured it'd be easy to pull off. Man, it was not! It was kind of funny being the guy who doesn't do bar hopping but having to figure out what are the good bars to host this event. After a couple of false starts, I was able to settle on Tanner's Bar and Grill on 87th St in Kansas. Nice space, wouldn't be too crowded, not too expensive for the drinking crowd, free parking, and an early start!

For what little advertising was done, it was a pretty darn good turnout - 25 people, including myself. Now I need to figure out who took pics because I neglected to use my camera for like the first 5 hours... the event was only supposed to last 4 hours! I've got a couple on my camera that I'll post up after I get back from my Roller Derby event tonight. Yeaahhhhh... that's gonna be relaxing :-D

What impressed me the most was the cross-section of those who came out. We had:

1) Deaf/signers

2) Hearing impaired/no sign or little sign

3) CI wearers

4) Interpreters

5) Hearing friends who were curious as heck

From a networking perspective, we had:

1) Deaf professionals

2) College students

3) Owner of an interpreter agency

4) Director of a government post

5) Grant-seekers/fundraisers

6) Out of work people looking for jobs

So I'm really glad it was a diverse group!

Now I've got a group of interested people who want to make the next one happen, planning the location and date, and get the word out. So now it'll be herding cats instead of me chasing down leads. Whoo! Go Rusty, Stormi and Cheyann!