ASA National Conference a Big Success!
Friday, July 20, 2007
By: Marguerite Kirst Colston

Over 1800 attend largest conference and expo in Phoenix last week.

Approximately 1,800 people attended the ASA 2007 National Conference on Autism Spectrum Disorders in Scottsdale, Arizona. We want to especially thank the nine national organizations that were represented at the conference and recognize the 113 companies that participated in this year's ASA Exposition. We hope that everyone who attended enjoyed themselves and learned a lot.

ASA thanks the 2007 ASA national conference sponsors, including:

• MetDesk
• Easter Seals Disability Services
• CVS/All Kids Can
• Alan B. Slifka Foundation-Ritvo Research for ASD 
• The Eden Family of Services
• Act Today!
• Autism Spectrum Quarterly
• Brookes Publishing Co.
• Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD)
• Convio
• Elsevier
• Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
• Greenberg Traurig
• Mayer-Johnson LLC and DynaVox Technologies
• New England Center
• Oconomowoc Residential Programs Inc
• Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP
• COMTRAN

A special thanks also goes to The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa for their outstanding service and care for all conference attendees.

At the conference, ASA announced new partnerships with Easter Seals to improve services to those on the spectrum and with the Autism Research Institute to look into biomedical treatments and causes of autism. ASA also launched a major initiative the Treatment-Guided Research Initiative (TGRI) led by Harvard University neurologist Martha Herbert, M.D., Ph.D. TGRI will bring together top medical researchers and doctors to determine the causes of chronic illnesses and find better treatments to improve the lives of individuals with autism.

Opening keynote speaker, Edward Carr, Ph.D., of SUNY-Stony Brook, called on professionals and researchers to include families in treatment plans for children with autism. Keynoter Michelle Garcia Winner stressed the importance of appropriate social skills tactics for teenagers with autism and encouraged the audience to treat teens with autism as normal teenagers. Closing keynote speakers, Dr. Harland Winter, MassGeneral Hospital and Harvard University, and Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Thoughtful House, discussed their findings on chronic gastrointestinal illnesses in children with autism and called upon professionals in the field to look into gastrointestinal treatments for these patients. Dr. Winter was the winner of ASA’s 2007 Treatment-Guided Research Excellence Award.

Also convening at the conference were the Network of Autism Training and Technical Assistance Programs (NATTAP) and National Association of Residential Providers for Adults with Autism (NARPA), and the first meeting of the Arizona Coalition on Autism. In addition, over 75 adults with autism held a town meeting to share experiences and develop strategies for self-advocacy in their communities. Over 50 percent of attendees were families who networked and attended professional and family support sessions.

Special attendees included Kerry Magro and William Brunetti, winners of the CVS All Kids Can Scholarships, and Brian Parent, winner of the ASA Individual of the Year Award. Their presence inspired families to strive for success with their own children.

For those of you who attended, it is not too late to give us feedback on your conference experience at www.autism-society.org/conference. We welcome the input to help us provide an even better conference for all attendees in 2008. For those of you unable to join us this year, think about participating in 2008!

We still have a few copies of the 2007 ASA National Conference Proceedings Book. These are available for $20 per copy (All the sessions at the conference are not included in this hard copy). Please contact the ASA National Office to order your copy at 301.657.0881 ext. 101 or conference@autism-society.org.

Also, audio recordings (with PowerPoint presentations) will be available for most of the educational sessions at the national conference. The order form will be available two weeks following the conference online at www.autism-society.org/conference.  (Single session & full conference recordings will be available for purchase.)