ISS ‘gets back to normal’

PITTSBURGH – Hybrid events are increasingly more common, but the 38th International Seating Symposium will take place exclusively in-person on April 13-15 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. 

“We’re focusing on making this a really good in-person event,” said Mark Schmeler, PhD, OTR/L, ATP, associate professor and vice chair for educating and training in the Department of Rehabilitation Science & Technology at the University of Pittsburgh. “We’re not planning to do anything significant for remote attendance. Doing a remote conference at the same time as an in-person conference is like doing two conferences. At least for this year, the focus is in-person. There’s plenty of online education out there that people can get.” 

The last time ISS was in-person in the United States was in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

ISS will dedicate two days to a pre-symposium workshop (April 11-12) and three days to the main symposium (April 13-15), both offering CEU-based sessions on a wide variety of topics, Schmeler says. 

“There’s always going to be important topics that we’re always interested in, like the whole issue of credentialing and education in our field,” he said. “But we balance it out with a closing session related to gaming, which isn’t political or controversial, it’s just something cool to talk about.” 

ISS has also scheduled more than 11 hours for a 100,000-square-foot exhibit hall, with companies like Sunrise Medical, Rifton, Permobil and Quantum Rehab already signed up in November. 

“It’s 80% sold out,” Schmeler said. “A lot of companies are coming back.” 

Attendance was also tracking positively in November, with more than 100 sign ups soon after registration opened, Schmeler says. 

“People are just looking to get together,” he said. 

There’s no set theme for the upcoming ISS, Schmeler says, other than “getting back to normal.” 

“We want to get back to where were in 2019,” he said. “Nothing more at this point.”