For this two-day conference, about 400 persons were expected to attend, from about fifty different countries. Here the delegates gather to talk and renew acquaintances after registering.
Five or six exhibits were set up to display ideas and products of interest for those attending the conference. Most of the exhibits focused on technology and how it could be used with deaf people, for instance in helping to develop better language skills prior to vocational training.
Delegates were young and old and from far and wide. They represented the best and brightest of the leadership of Deaf culture, and the gathering itself was a training ground for the new, younger deaf leaders.
The Foreign Minister of Finland addressed the group, first talking about the globalization of disabilities and then speaking of Finland's efforts to be a leader both in democracy and in assistance to disadvantaged groups, including people with disabilities. Our program manager noted that he came and went without a group of bodyguards such as the foreign minister would have in Cambodia!
This evening the City of Helsinki invited the delegates to a reception at City Hall on the waterfront. There are so many old beautiful buildings, and this was another of them. The mayor welcomed us and then the president of the Finnish Association of the Deaf presented her with a copy of the newly printed 100-year history of the FAD.