A pproximately a year and a half ago, a man named Joel Barish realized that companies from the world needed to acknowledge that Deaf people are a vital portion of their customer base and Barish had one idea to accomplish that. He wanted Deaf people across the world to gather to- gether and reach great numbers.
The Deaf Nation World Expo was a brilliant way of getting Deaf people from all over the world to come and come to- gether under one roof. The DNWE was established in the Sands Expo Center, and most sponsor-hosted events were hosted at the Treasure Island Resort from July 18 to July 23. His dream quickly became reality as over 23,400 visitors from 73 countries reg- istered and came to Las Vegas for the expo, all due to the hard work put in by Barish and his committee.
The World Expo was organized by DeafNation, Inc, co-founded in 2003 by Joel Barish along with his brother, Jed Barish. DeafNation is a social me-
dia company that serves the international Deaf community at large, documenting stories regarding Deaf people around the world. DeafNation also boasts a vast array of expos hosted across the United States, counting up to 15 annual expos, which includes the Deaf Nation World Expo.
DeafNation worked with different international organizations, including the media partner for the Deaflympics. DeafNation has its own website, located at Deafnation.com, which provides resources for the Deaf community, expanding access to news or blogs that include updates on the Deaf community and its members.
Joel is the host of “No Barriers with Joel Barish”, a “documentary-style show” feature within the DeafNation website, in which Joel pursues interesting stories from Deaf people globally. This feature is done to, “prove that there are no barriers preventing Deaf people from enjoying fulfilled lives”. Eventually, he went one step further by bringing all the Deaf people together to the Deaf Nation World Expo.
The week kicked off on Sunday, July 17 at the Fremont Street Experience. A great number of Deaf people arrived on Sunday and registered for the week. The official expo opened on Monday, where more Deaf people arrived and got in line to enter. The lines were long, and the lines were rumored to go up to an hour or two!
The first night of the Deaf Expo, Signmark hosted the Treasure Island Pool event. Tuesday came around with the same primary schedule as Monday, but the MDI swimwear compe- tition was held at the Treasure Island pool! Wednesday came around, and Purple hosted the Treasure Island Pool event. However, they limited the numbers by establishing a system with purple wristbands. Attendees were overly eager for the wristbands as Don Lee Hanaumi, a Purple representative claims, “This morning, when doors opened at 9 am, people literally ran straight to the Purple booth for the wristbands to our party tonight. More than one person fell down”.
Aside from the pool event, there was a masquerade hosted on the same day. The World Recreation Association of the Deaf hosted a masquerade ball on Wednesday night. There were mixed reactions to the ball, as some attendees felt that the ball was disorganized due to several reasons, “too many people, long lines, tables were confusing, not organized to its best potential. After the meal was complete, the wait was too long for the entertainment. When the entertainment finally began, most of the audience had already lost their patience and got distracted by the Siren’s Cove,” claims Juha Leppanen from Finland.
“With Anthony’s [Natales] precise planning, it should have been flawless, but from what I saw it was the hotel staff that did not follow the schedule Anthony had perfectly planned for us all. The hotel was not communicating with us, so there shouldn’t have been an interference with Sirens nor food running out and all the other issues,” said Lana LaVau who performed at the ball.
Some attendees had different reactions as Bev Jean Charles points out, “I was surprised and impressed at the large amount of attendees who really dressed to the theme. The spirit is high here”. Thursday came around, and more events came on the schedule seeing as it neared the climax of the week!
Sorenson held the Treasure Island Pool event torch now, and Jet hosted the Deaf Professional Happy Hour, also known as DPHH. The National Asian Deaf Congress held a NADC Pan Asian Fundraising Buffet on Thursday as well, in order to fundraise for the 6th Asian Deaf Conference. Friday came, and people packed up the booths and had begun returning home.
Aside from sloppy organizing from some sponsors, DeafNation exceeded expectations and held a very profitable Expo in which most booths and the Deaf community as a whole benefited. According to an interview with Joel Barish, the background of the organization of the whole Deaf Nation World Expo was described as a barrier the Deaf community has to overcome.
The reason behind this is because the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority organization did not contribute any help organizing the World Expo, believing this convention would not draw enough people to claim any profit. However, they also spent 60 million dollars within their budget that month to fund different conventions. On the contrary, the Deaf Nation World Expo gained at least 15 million dollars in tax revenue, and it was the best return of investment Barish and his committee could imagine.
According to Barish, the booths also appreciated the results, because this expo was 20 times bigger than an usual expo, so they received much more attention toward their organizations. The Expo provided several different booth options including, but are not limited to: Signmark, Matt Hamill, Sorenson, an autograph from Marlee Matlin, and much more!
One issue was the coincidental timing of the Expo, forcing some attendees to choose between the NAD Conference, hosted earlier in the summer, or the Deaf Nation World Expo. Barish claims that hadn’t occurred to DeafNation because they were focused primarily on world timing, and the summertime was the best time possible for Deaf people internationally to come to Las Vegas.
Approximately a year and a half ago, a man named Joel Barish decided to open up the eyes of the world and show them the Deaf Community at large. His plan was a success, as he proved the LVCVA wrong, and gathered 23,400 Deaf people globally. His rea- son for free admission to the Expo was genuine, as he points out that the Deaf economy would improve if more people came to the expo and gave the booths of Deaf organizations an opportunity to grab their attention.
All in all, the Deaf Nation World Expo was formed with a dream of proving that Deaf peo- ple can live fulfilled lives. This proved to be true, as Deaf people from all over the world came, mingled,
and sinned a bit in Sin City.
Photo credit: Leila Hanaumi
