Richard's Blog

 Archive for the ‘Side-by-Side Technology Conference’ Category

We will be holding the next Side by Side technology conference with the College of Direct Support May 3-5 in St. Louis, Missouri.

This will be a good opportunity to learn about various Therap Services modules as well as information about CDS modules and their application. Linda Petrini and Web Footed Friends will be there to speak about Talintel.

There will be general Therap sessions of interest to agencies throughout the United States. There will also be Missouri  and Illinois specific sessions or user group discussions.

As with recent Side-by-Side Conferences – there will be an optional package included for a local dinner and site of interest.

We will be posting information to help make choices about the different conferences which are offered. We continue to recommend that provider administrators attend the national provider administration conference in Fishkill, NY in February.

I will be attending the Side-by-Side conference in Minnesota October19-21. It should be a really interesting conference. In addition to College of Direct Support,  Rest Assured and Web Footed Friends, we will have sessions with CARF. 

In addition you will be able to meet and talk with the authors of the CDS curriculum
from the University of Minnesota. The Institute on Community
Integration (ICI) at the university, led by Dr. Charlie Lakin, produces
and authors all CDS courses.  Those who may attend are Amy Hewitt,
Kristin Dean, Nancy McCulloh, Susan O’Nell, Derek Nord, Lori Sedlezky,
and Matt Bogenshutz.  You can look at the conference session schedule to
see when each will be presenting.

The evening activity will include visiting the Mall of America in Minneapolis. 

We also have two regional conferences coming soon. One in Maine October 25-26 and one in Oregon November 15-16. Both of those conference are more geared to existing users. 

It’s not too late to start thinking about our national provider administrator conference in Fishkill, NY February 8-10, 2011. 

Finally, we will be hosting some Therap Information Sessions around New York State for OPWDD agencies in November. These will be in Elmira, Syracuse and Buffalo. These are more geared for potential users to learn about Therap.

I am not trying to go through the alphabet in choosing conference locations – its just that this year all the Side by Side Conferences are being held in states starting with an M.

This week was the first Side by Side Conference that I wasn’t at. Jeff Case, Justin Brockie, Jim Kelly and other Therap support team members were there. Also Bill Tapp and the College of Direct Support team, as well as Dustin Wright from Rest Assured and Linda Petrini of Web Footed Friends. We also were pleased to have Margaret McHenry of the CARF Employment and Community Services.

Our next 2 side by side technology conferences will be July 27-29 in Baltimore and October 19-21 in Minnesota.

We are having a bit of a challenge in communicating the various Therap conferences, user groups and Therap Information Sessions.

I received an email today from an agency in Fargo, North Dakota asking if our conference for June 2-3, 2010 in Fargo was still on.  Which it is – but it was hard to find on the website.

Our front banner listed our next Side-by-Side Technology in Kansas City, Missouri with College of Direct Support, Rest Assured and joined with participation by CARF and Web Footed Friends.

We have the North Dakota conference listed but you need a few clicks to get there.

Also Montana -

And coming soon Side by Side Technology VI in Baltimore, MD July 27-29, 2010.

Remember there are basically 3 types of conferences Therap runs.

Our national provider administrator conference which is a national conference next held in February 2011 in Fishkill, NY. This conference will have over 10 simultaneous sessions with over 200 total sessions with topics for beginning, intermediate and advanced Therap users. Topics cover everything from using individual modules to agency policies to system development issues.

The Side-by-Side Technology Conferences (such as the upcoming Kansas City, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland conferences) are run jointly with College of Direct Support with Rest Assured as a sponsor and participants including CARF and Web Footed Friends. These conferences have introductory and intermediate sessions for Therap and College of Direct Support users. They also have introductory sessions for non-users of all participants at the session. There are also state specific sessions based on geographical location (for example a session on Electronic Signatures in Missouri).  These conferences are particularly appropriate for potential users and newer customers.

Our regional conferences are training conferences geared to a range of users at agencies. There are state specific sessions often in conjunction with state agencies – such as in Montana. There are typically 3 or 4 simultaneous sessions covering a range of modules.

User group meetings – can be either in person or via the telephone. Typically user groups can range from a couple of hours to most of a day depending on location. Telephone user groups generally cover a state while in person user groups are often a region (Western Missouri, Central Missouri, Western New York, New York City, Hudson Valley, Southeast Connecticut, etc).

Therap Information Sessions are designed for Therap Customers to invite friends to hear about Therap.

We look forward to seeing you at an appropriate event.

What a hectic couple of weeks of ideas and discussions and conferences this has been.

We had our best conference ever. (I am already talking with the hotel about the 2011 provider administrator conference – and we have our next side-by-side technology conference with College of Direct Support in Kansas City, Missouri in May).

We had discussions on major issues which Justin summarized quite nicely in his blog including Access Simplification, Multi-Access Provider System, and Cross Organization Information Sharing.

Lots of discussions on Electronic Signatures.  A lot of information on OMRDD requirements for electronic signatures in New York. I am looking forward to the Missouri conference and having equally intense conversations about electronic signatures with Therap users in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas and other states.

It was also our one time each year that the whole Therap team gets together in one place.  It was also nice to have had discussions and spend time with people like Bonnie, Bryan, Bill, Vanessa and so many others. And Cheryl and Terry who may have been the only people who remember Therap from before 5.0.  We missed Renee- and hope she feels better for next years conference. It wasn’t the same without you.

In terms of next year – we look forward to even more sessions and discussions. Although now that we put together a schedule with sesssions running through lunch- i will add that 15 minutes back to at least get the food to bring to the sessions. And Justin has even agreed to discuss my planning evening sessions.

People often ask which Therap conference makes the most sense to attend. There are really three type of conferences we currently run (I might change that to 4 types if I can call user groups mini-conferences).

1) Therap Regional Conferences like the 2 day conference being held today in Salem, Oregon. These conference are designed for a concentrated local set of Therap users. Most of the sessions are module specific.

For 2010 we are expecting to hold conferences again in Maine and Oregon. Plus new regional conferences in North Dakota, Montana and other states as we have more Therap users.

2) Side by Side Technology Conferences with College of Direct Support. These confernces are held throughout the country and are designed for agencies to get a broad exposure to a number of technology companies working in the developmental disability community. There are sessions on many aspects of use of Therap and College Direct Support, plus general discussions on issues with past participants including Deyta, Rest Assured and Web Footed Friends. The first 2010 conference will be in Kansas City Missouri.

3) Therap National Provider Administrator Conference. Our 2010 conference will be held in Fishkill, NY February 2-4, 2010. There will be 9 simultaneous sessions for 3 days. Everything from beginning how-to sessions to brainstorming discussions and more. It is designed for Advanced Therap Provider Administrators as well as serving as a regional conference for the New York/mid-Atlantic region. It is also a good confernce for new agencies just starting up to attend.

4) Our user groups are almost “mini-conferences” so I thought I would list them here. Tomorrow there is one in New York City. We have had them both in person and over the phone/internet. They are both regionally based by state or topic based.

If you have questions on which type of conference is best for you or your agency – just ask.

The next Side-by-Side Technology Conference will be in Kansas City, Missouri May 4-6, 2010 at the Holiday Inn.

Once again the conference will be with The College of Direct Support and Bill, Annie and Donna will be there.

In addition, we expect to have Rest Assured and Web Footed Friends. As well as Deyta talking about Ancor’s Performance Excellence.

Registration information about conference sessions will be posted on the website.