As we have for 10 years, we sponsored a session at the International Association of Venue Managers VenueConnect conference. This year we suggested a presentation by our friends at Axis Dance about their Access Guide. The first one to call out "BINGO" for accommodations at their venue was the Kauffman Center in Kansas City.

Thank you for coming. A little bit about The Shalleck Collaborative: From offices generally in Berkeley CA and Portland OR we are planners and designers of venues on the brick and mortar side.

A few things that have been trending: as you know music was the first performance type that came roaring back, and we’re working on them at all scales. We’ve got things going from 10,000 to 240, as well as evolving music schools, and I’d say the vibrance in our education work bodes well for having future audiences.

We have been dedicated sponsors of VenueConnect and its performing arts sector predecessor for 10 years, on 16 occasions between national and regional.

We do this because as people in the gathering business it’s important to gather, and as a designer of your facilities, your interests are our interests; our success is measured by your success, and we take this particular topic as a natural endeavor.

I had known Axis for years and met Nadia and Danae on the runway of a former military base we’re hoping becomes a spot for a performance venue and plaza. The planes are gone but that meeting I was standing with jet engines making forward propulsion, defying gravity.

The guide makes the topic of accessibility accessible. It is beautiful in its poetry in making the points, instructively provocative in its questions, and it’s a framework that stiches together the resources of a comprehensive bibliography. The thoughts are widely applicable.

Is there one definitive answer? Nope. I’ve recognized that it’s a journey to be progressed together. Might that be awkward? Yes. But as in projects I council people to attend to what you know least about first and I find, as a man that looks and walks as I do, I am welcomed by those I hear.

So thank you to Axis for bringing this to us, and to the three who put this session together who are indeed true champions.