Carrie Johnson
Director of Communications
Hearing Loss Association of America

HLAA Virtual Convention 2021

By Carrie Johnson

I attended my first HLAA Virtual Convention June 24-26, 2021. I joined nearly 700-registrants to learn the latest developments in hearing health, and how to live well with hearing loss. I learned through the “Hear Well. Stay Vital.” campaign that, “Of the 48 million individuals who have hearing loss in the U.S., it’s common to presume that the vast majority are old. That is not the truth. For those troubled with hearing loss in the U.S., approximately 62 percent are younger than 65. In fact, 1 in 6 baby boomers (ages 55-73), 1 in 14 Generation Xers (35-54), 1.4 million children (18 or younger), and 2-3 out of 1,000 infants have some form of hearing loss.^”

The three-day event included fun (Happy Hour!) and educational opportunities to learn more about accessibility, hearing health, Bluetooth and more. For those who registered for the Virtual Convention and want to go back and replay the Virtual Convention recordings, you may do so on the Showcare Platform from July 1-26. In two weeks, HLAA’s Research Symposium will be available online indefinitely for anyone who comes to our website.

Another highlight for me was visiting the Virtual Exhibit Hall. What fun to see the questions in the chat – and the live demos were amazing! Exhibitors had documents to download, too. I shared some of the documents with my dad, who has mild to moderate hearing loss. Many thanks to all our HLAA Virtual Convention 2021 sponsors and exhibitors.

I look forward to seeing everyone next year (in person!) at HLAA’s Convention in Tampa, June 23-25, 2022. We will launch #HLAA2022 registration in late November 2021. We will open the Call for Papers for workshop presentations in early fall 2021.

Learn more about the HLAA Convention. Questions? Email Amanda Watson.

Carrie Johnson is the director of communications of the Hearing Loss Association of America. She can be reached at cjohnson@hearingloss.org.