CSUN Innovation Track

Mark Miller (00:00)
Hey, welcome to the Inclusion Impact Accessibility Podcast. I’m Mark Miller. I am here with Justin Stockton and Julia Santiago. welcome both of you. Julia is our guest today. And why don’t you tell people a little bit about where you’re you’re from, Julia? I could do it, but you’re probably gonna do a much better job than me.

Julia Santiago (00:26)
No, I’m always curious to hear what other people think I do. But no No, I I’m happy that

Mark Miller (00:30)
Well, so if you want me to tell you what you do, you work at CSUN and you’re like the entire

force from my perspective behind the CSUN conference that Justin and I have been going to. I’ve been going to it for like 13 years. I think I’ve missed maybe two in the past 13 years.

Julia Santiago (00:48)
Thanks.

Mark Miller (00:49)
And you’re just a wonderful constant, and we know that you’re the person behind a lot of it.

And which is and I’m gonna I’m gonna have you do this too, right? But which is why we’re really excited to talk to you today because there’s some new stuff

Julia Santiago (01:04)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (01:05)
going on at CSUN that we very specifically wanted to talk to you about. So we’ll leave that as a teaser. But if you can do

Julia Santiago (01:11)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (01:12)
a better job of outlining what you do with with CSUN, that would be great.

Julia Santiago (01:17)
Yes, so you are correct. I am from CSUN. I’m the managing director for the CSUN Center on Disabilities to be specific, and we are the ones that host the annual CSUN Assistive Technology Conference. I have a couple more o on you, Mark. I it’d be this t twenty twenty-seven conf the upcoming conference will be my fifteenth.

So I have been around for for a minute. not always in this role. I’ve been in this roles now I think this will be my fifth conference in this role. but yeah, you know, we

but even though it’d be my fifteenth and my fifth in this role, it will be our forty second annual conference. in twenty twenty seven yeah. No, it is.

Mark Miller (02:04)
That’s unbelievable. It really is. And I know

that I’ve been to past Seesaw’s and I’m not gonna remember names. You probably have the names, Julia, but just OG CSUN people that are like, I was here from the start and now this might be my last one, right? And then they show up again the next year, right? They’re always like, This is my last one. And you see them the f the following year. But it’s

Julia Santiago (02:24)
Well can’t quit us.

Mark Miller (02:28)
absolutely amazing.

I was at not to bring up another conference, but we were at M-Enabling and Mike Placiella was there who is

Julia Santiago (02:34)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Miller (02:36)
a a staple at CSUN as well. And one of the things that we talked about is or that he talked yeah, well, don’t believe him especially.

Julia Santiago (02:41)
He always claims it’s gonna be his last. I don’t.

Justin Stockton (02:45)
We o y’all gave him the

the the retirement honorable retirement award years ago, so why does he need to come back?

Mark Miller (02:50)
Right. Yeah. Okay, here’s the retirement award. I’ll see you next year.

Julia Santiago (02:51)
Yeah, I know.

Mark Miller (02:56)
but one of the things that he highlighted is sort of important. This was a question in a session, was the passing on the legacy. And Mike has two kids, two children that are also in digital accessibility.

Julia Santiago (03:12)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Miller (03:13)
and so

Not just being an OG person that helped form this industry. I mean, he was doing this back in the eighties before digital accessibility was a thing, and then really laid out the framework and led us to where we are today with it, and is left a couple of just incredible children, right? His legacies to

Julia Santiago (03:34)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (03:35)
carry that on. And it’s people like that that have been at CSUN year after year after year and forty-five.

Years into it, Julia. We’re I feel like the legacy was left to me with overlap. And now

Julia Santiago (03:50)
Well I Yeah.

Mark Miller (03:53)
the three of us are probably thinking about what does that next generation of accessibility people

Julia Santiago (03:58)
Yeah, you know.

Mark Miller (03:59)
look like? And what does the next generation of conferences look like? And that leads me to exactly why we’re here today. So why don’t you tell us why we’re here? Go ahead, go for it.

Julia Santiago (04:05)
segue. Yeah. You know Yeah. You know,

it’s interesting. You talk about like the next generation, but I in I always take my inspiration from actually the past.

Mark Miller (04:20)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (04:20)
You know, it’s how it grounds me and and helps me at least determine w how we wanna shape the future. we you you can’t ignore the past ’cause there’s been so many successes.

but really where I look at our role in this industry really isn’t isn’t to shape the industry, isn’t to dictate where the industry is supposed to be at or where we’re where we go. really I look at us as the connector. We are the we just

Mark Miller (04:51)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (04:52)
provide this forum, this for and and it’s the community that decides where we’re

Mark Miller (04:57)
Yeah.

Julia Santiago (04:57)
going. what our role is is just to bring this community together.

and it’s really where we’ve been successful, I think. You know, we’re we’re you know, what I think r our marker for success is if we’ve brought everyone together in a way, that they have left wanting, you know, not only smarter, but like they’ve left because they’ve met other people that they o otherwise wouldn’t have. And I think that’s what makes our, you know, successes and what has really

push this industry forward. It’s coming together with not only people l doing the same work as you, but I think we’re one of the few opportunities where you get to come and really engage with people you normally don’t in your everyday work life or professional life or just your personal life really.

Mark Miller (05:52)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (05:53)
and so it’s been a really great opportunity, I think, you know, for those who attend year over year to kind of

provide a different perspective and that they get to bring

Mark Miller (06:02)
Yeah.

Julia Santiago (06:02)
back to their own communities. and so with that said, you know, we’ve what we’ve seen from the beginning is really, you know, the intention for and the purpose from this first conference or the first few conferences really was because there wasn’t much there at the time. This industry really took shape over these last 42 years. and now there’s so much in the industry, I mean we’re not

completely there yet, but we’re leagues and bounds ahead from

Mark Miller (06:31)
We’re trying.

Julia Santiago (06:32)
where we started back in 1985 or yeah, 85.

Mark Miller (06:37)
Yeah.

Julia Santiago (06:38)
And but so in this idea of what we’re bringing new this coming year, which is the innovation track,

Mark Miller (06:48)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (06:49)
and really it’s been kind of bringing us back to that those early days of what

What were we doing? We were really trying to spur innovation in this area. Back in nineteen eighty-five, computers were new, people were trying to utilize that and really it was how can we if from the disability community serve serve the disability community really with computers and what does that look like and how do we innovate from there? And so now that all these innovations have come to life and are

lot of them are mainstream or out in the market. It was this idea of, okay, well, what’s new? What can how can we push even further now with

Mark Miller (07:33)
Mm.

Julia Santiago (07:33)
new ideas? And so this came now has come this birth of this new innovation track that we’re doing. hopefully starting and we’ll have year over year down the road. but we’re really excited, really, really excited about this innovation track.

but really the idea around it is for those who are starting out and it can be anywhere on the spectrum of of where you might be on this you know, whatever new ideas that you might have.

Mark Miller (08:07)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (08:08)
so it could be this very conceptual stage, you’ve done some research around that, or you’re have a prototype and you’re kind of in the beginning stages looking at how to do a startup.

and so it could be anywhere on that spectrum, but really we want people to come with their ideas and concepts and really, you know, bring those to the community and hopefully can get some feedback and where to go from from this where wherever stage you’re at to to kind of carry you to the next

next stages. so

Mark Miller (08:42)
Yeah. I completely

I completely agree with you. Like CSUN to me has always sort of provided the space for the magic to happen. Right. And you know, Justin and I, our first accessibility breakdown podcast actually was on CSUN because we had just returned from twenty twenty-six CSUN. And one of the big points that seemed to resonate with everybody that we made is like the real magic of CSUN happens.

in the hallways and at the bar and at the restaurant. And we tell a whole story about me meeting somebody by the trash can and that leading to this whole incredible innovation, right? And I think that you know you said that you look backwards for inspiration, which I agree with, right? And I think a lot of people do. And that this inlate innovation lab is sort of bringing some of that past spirit

the future. Well, I also look to the I look to the future. I think we all do for inspiration. Like sometimes I say my kids are smarter than me, because they are, but they’re they look at what we achieved and they start thinking beyond it, like much better than we do. And I think this innovation lab sits right in between those two phenomenons, right? Where Justin and I as like been around for what we all talked about this like 15 years, 13 years. You know what I

Like we’re sort of stuck in our ways. Our minds are shaped already. But I can remember what you’re getting old too, Justin. Don’t you pretend. Don’t you pretend. But I was I’m gonna I’ll tell a quick story. I was sorry I ran the booth a long time for what’s now Vespero was TPGI for years inside of your inside of the yeah, you know, right? I was there and

Julia Santiago (10:33)
No.

Mark Miller (10:37)
one day

This kid.

Wearing a backpack, just I think he was just about to graduate from Harvard. Walks up to me at the booth and he says, Can I ask you a question? And he asks me the most off-the-wall question. And it was something to the effect of like, why why is why aren’t accessibility and I’m gonna butcher this? Sorry, Mike, I’m gonna butcher this, but

Why aren’t accessibility issues sort of automated inside of these lenters or something rather like that? And he talked about AI, and I gave him this answer that was from a guy that’s been around accessibility for a while. And he kind of went, hmm, interesting answer, which I take to this day as a compliment, right? I think it gave him a different answer than everybody else. And I won’t bore you all with what that answer is. Two years later, this kid that had walked up to me with his backpack.

And his off the wall question is running test party. He’s got funding. He’s

Julia Santiago (11:41)
Believe it. Yeah.

Mark Miller (11:43)
got and Mike what’s Mike’s last name, Justin? Mike

Justin Stockton (11:47)
I’m

Mark Miller (11:48)
Because I’m on the spot, I’m not going to think about it. I’ll figure it out. But, anyways, I and I love I love Mike. And he’s unbelievably innovative. But when I think about this innovation lab, I think about formalizing that kind of phenomenon that already kind of happens organically at CSUN, giving it a formal place and

Julia Santiago (12:11)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Miller (12:12)
sort of opening up a new space for that specific activity to occur.

Julia Santiago (12:17)
Absolutely. And I think you’re right. I mean, y y you were correct. We are looking forward, you know, because we all yes, we are all of a certain age, and we’ve been doing this for a very long time, and we get comfortable in our own sort of spaces, to be honest. And so things become repetitive, to be honest. At least for me, that I have to be repetitive or else I’ll forget everything. but but it is what’s really exciting

is that

i in even just seeing we we we did a call for submissions for the innovation track and just seeing all these submissions from people new quite frankly people that are maybe not have been have attended the conference or have never presented

Mark Miller (13:04)
Yeah.

Julia Santiago (13:05)
at the conference. Maybe they just attended to learn or they’re new to the industry or whatever it might be. But this definitely opens the door for very you know, new people

growing the community and bringing in new ideas and perspectives that quite frankly as old people kind of may have lost our touch around.

Mark Miller (13:22)
Did we Yeah? Yeah. No, a hundred percent. And

it’s Breville is is Mike’s last name, which is what I wanted to spit out of my mouth, but I was not confident

Julia Santiago (13:32)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (13:32)
with it. so but I wanted to give make sure that he got proper proper credit for that and his

Julia Santiago (13:38)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (13:38)
company test party if is probably one of the most innovative and disruptive things to step into the industry. Right. So more of that, please, right?

Julia Santiago (13:44)
Yeah. And this is Yeah. Yes,

yes. I mean exactly. This is why I I fully honest, I’m really excited and you know, once we roll this out, at least, you know, with the call for submissions and just kind of describing and sharing like what this in this track will will entail, which I’ll call also explain. But it’s being so well received. It’s just it’s what’s

Mark Miller (14:10)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (14:11)
proven to me at least is

how hungry people are for this kind of inov th these ideas and being are excited to come and and engage with engage with the ideas, learn about them and hopefully provide some really good feedback. That way these these innovators can take that and you know, improve on their concepts or change them or whatever they wanna do. so I think this is actually a good kind of lead in to kind of

explain what this track will really entail. We’re going to host an actual what we’re calling innovation pavilion, which will be kind of like an exhibition space, but just for those that are accepted into the track. And this will be an opportunity for them to just share their ideas and all conference attendees or participants will be able to go around and engage with everyone.

All of them will have an opportunity to to gather feedback from the community in this space. It will be for a few hours. And this will be, like I said, just an opportunity to really kind of get to know the different ideas and concepts and innovations that people have to share. All of those in the track will also get to present those ideas in a session as part of the session schedule as well.

And those in the innovation track will also have the opportunity to participate in what we’re calling the innovation challenge. And that will be their pitch opportunity to a panel of leaders. And there will be an a winner of that challenge that will receive a five thousand dollar

found they the

Mark Miller (16:05)
brilliant.

Julia Santiago (16:06)
found founders award and this will be intended to be to serve as a grant to be able to to take those ideas to the next level.

Mark Miller (16:14)
That’s brilliant. And if I have this right in my head, this is sort of like high school science fair vibe meets reality show, right? Because you have this exhibition

Julia Santiago (16:26)
Correct. Yes.

Mark Miller (16:27)
hall. And the way I have the, you know, I kind of have this Yeah. Right meek Chartank. There you go. I have this this vision of, you know, like volcanoes and and trifold like panels with explanations on it, like a science fair. I’m sure it will be more sophisticated than that, but that’s

Julia Santiago (16:29)
Meets shark tank, yes. Yes. Yes. Hopefully. I I

maybe not. We

I you know it doesn’t need to be. Exactly, exactly.

Mark Miller (16:45)
Maybe not. It doesn’t need to be as long as the idea is conveyed. And then they

pitch, but then they also there’s this competitive aspect where that is so Julia, how much fun? Like so set aside the fact that this is a really cool, new, innovative, like let’s let’s bring the innovation together at Seesawn, but it’s also a really fun new vibe for the rest of us to

Julia Santiago (17:10)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mark Miller (17:11)
to be able to participate. I mean

Not in any way. Like I look forward to CSUN every year. It has never gotten feeling stale for me at all. But this just adds like an element of excitement to it. And I think

Julia Santiago (17:23)
I think so.

Mark Miller (17:25)
going back to nineteen eighty four when I

Julia Santiago (17:27)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Miller (17:27)
was trying to perfect my breakdancing.

Julia Santiago (17:30)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (17:32)
And you all had CSUN had the idea of how do we use this new technology, this new thing

called a computer to help

Julia Santiago (17:39)
Goodbye.

Mark Miller (17:40)
people with disabilities. We were we’re at that same kind of juncture right now with AI. It’s just the timing’s perfect. And I’m gonna shut up here because

Julia Santiago (17:49)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (17:51)
Justin probably has smarter technical questions than I do, but I just want to express sort of

How exciting it is, aside from everything else. It’s just a very, very cool shift. It’s the timing on it is perfect. And I think that it’s gonna inject sort of a new I’ll say youthful and creative energy into what’s already a s a stellar and and a conference that people just look forward to in our industry.

Julia Santiago (18:22)
And this is exactly the response we’re getting. So it’s may it’s even fueling us. We’re getting excited. So

Mark Miller (18:28)
Yeah.

Julia Santiago (18:28)
I I’m looking

Mark Miller (18:29)
Yeah. Get get the old man fired up. Right.

Julia Santiago (18:31)
Yeah.

Justin Stockton (18:32)
Yeah.

Yeah, is the like when when when he when the f I think when the announcement first came out, I saw it and I sent it over to Mark for our for the podcast for us to talk about. He was like, This seems like kind of like a marketing email. And I was like, no, no, there’s meat here. Like this is gonna be some cool stuff. And I was like, There as far as I know, it’s really the only kind of f accessibility focused incubator kind of you know, project

Julia Santiago (19:03)
Yeah.

Justin Stockton (19:04)
that’s out there.

which is really, really cool. I just it’s I mean, honestly, it’s about time that we see something like this.

Julia Santiago (19:13)
Yeah,

you know, I’ll be honest, this is some this is something that like I’ve always wanted to find a way to kind of bring new ideas into the community and then, you know, I f I’ll be honest, for a while I couldn’t figure out the best mechanism for that at the conference. And then

Justin Stockton (19:31)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (19:32)
as we’ve kind of flushed out more and more of the the the idea, this took shape and then I was like, okay, this is actually exactly what I had hoped.

wanted for the conference for a really long time. but this feels it feels right and it feels like the right

time as well. you know, we’ve been through different things over the last five years, six years, and now is it’s I’m excited to be able to get to a place where we can now bring in these kind of new ideas because I think we’re in a good place to do that.

Mark Miller (20:06)
You know when

Justin Stockton (20:06)
So I

Mark Miller (20:07)
I th Go ahead, Justin. I’ve I’ve got a thought but

Justin Stockton (20:10)
I was I was just curious.

I can’t remember if if submissions are still open right now.

Julia Santiago (20:15)
No,

submissions cl we no, those closed in September. we are currently in the review phase.

Justin Stockton (20:24)
Did you get a good response? Like a

Julia Santiago (20:27)
we did, we did, we did. So I’m really excited. Yeah,

Mark Miller (20:28)
Talk about that a little bit, Julia.

Justin Stockton (20:29)
Yeah.

Julia Santiago (20:30)
no, we did that’s why it’s like I said, when I say w we’re it the the feedback and the response has been well receiv like well like everyone seems to be very positive around that. And yeah, submission wise

We did really well. I don’t know I can’t I don’t know exactly how many we’ll land We’ll have to wait for obviously once we’re done with the review, acceptances and everything will be at the end of this month. and so we’ll know by then. and then the full schedule and agenda will be publicly available

right before the holidays s usually. So and we should be on track for that. So probably mid to late December. you’ll be able to see more specifically what will be part of not only just the the conference in as a whole, but s also the innovation track. but I’ll just say I was hoping we would get, you know, first year out, I don’t know, a few dozen and we

doubled what I my expectations so in terms of

Justin Stockton (21:43)
Fantastic.

Julia Santiago (21:44)
what we got in terms of just submissions. And quite frankly, you know, going through so so many of them, as I said, from from new, you know, people that aren’t normal, you know, are are the usals, I should I will call them. you know, it’s a really

Mark Miller (22:02)
Us.

Julia Santiago (22:03)
exciting. It’s exciting. And there is a lot of youthfulness to it all. I mean

to the point literally we have college and high school students have who have submitted ideas. So it’s just it’s it’s nice to s just feel that see that kind of engagement from, like I said, from from people that normally aren’t engaged at in the in this capacity with us.

Mark Miller (22:34)
And that’s what I was gonna bring up before is like, you know, again, I I ran in the exhibition hall the TPGI, we were one of the largest vendors. And when you go through that ex exhibition hall, it’s really a fantastic collection of all the vendors and stuff that are that are doing accessibility in the industry. But it is just that, right? It’s these established businesses, it’s it’s things of

People to offer and it’s what’s needed and it’s wonderful.

Julia Santiago (23:03)
Second. Yeah.

Mark Miller (23:04)
This feels like just grassroots again. You know,

Julia Santiago (23:07)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (23:08)
down to let’s let’s let’s take the polish off of this and let’s just get down in the dirt with each other and figure out what’s next. And

Julia Santiago (23:19)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (23:19)
I and and I think that that’s where that excitement’s coming from, Julia. It just sounds

Julia Santiago (23:23)
It is.

Mark Miller (23:23)
like

It’s the reason why it’s the reason in the way that we all sort of stepped into this in the first place. And both things are very, very necessary. But it’s great that you guys are providing that space for both of those things now. I think it’s brilliant.

Julia Santiago (23:37)
Yeah. And I you know, I’ve heard time and time every year I I I get the questions like, is there how can you know, we’re presenting, we’re sharing, even with like in the e exhibit hall, yes, most all everything for the most part in there are existing products and services and that they’re just showcasing. But there’s still a desire to be able to provide feedback as well as receive feedback from, you know, the product developers as well as the users.

and so we kind of led with that also in term as we designed the Innovation Track,

Mark Miller (24:12)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (24:13)
really wanting some a good feedback mechanism so that where there is that synergistic kind of engagement where there is, you know, not just let me just show you what my ideas are, but please share with me your ideas and how we can, you know, improve. And I think it also provides an opportunity for users

to provide feedback and impact the products and services that will hopefully become available that way, you know, to to be what they want i in the you know, available on the market or in the industry. So see, see.

Justin Stockton (24:51)
Yeah. In the past you

you would occasionally get like one of those kind of you there would be a presentation, you’d be like, I’m gonna go to that. That sounds kind of interesting. And then it would be someone who’s kind of doing this grassroot innovative thing. And then you’d h you’d have to hope to get a chance to talk to them, hope to see them in the hallway somewhere. And like so now it’s like actually gonna be able to provide a forum for these folks. And that’s where you’re actually gonna be able to sp spend some time, some dedicated time.

kicking the tires on what it is on their ideas, which is

Julia Santiago (25:24)
Yeah.

Justin Stockton (25:24)
cool.

Julia Santiago (25:25)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (25:25)
And I

think you bring up a real good point, Julia, about people with disabilities. Like one of the really brilliant things too about CSUN is the fact that, you know, half the attendees are people with disabilities. And you know, I’ve talked to Steven Co Coachins from C Vent, who they provide a a lot of the technology for for it and the accessibility of that technology and then the accessibility

Talk to Andrew about the accessibility of the hotel itself and the partnership between venue and and conference, you know, you all that leads

Julia Santiago (26:02)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (26:03)
to this experience. So it’s really a cutting-edge area of accessibility that includes people with disabilities. And that is

Julia Santiago (26:11)
Yes.

Mark Miller (26:12)
one of the really powerful things in general about the conference. So to have this innovation going on in the innovation pavilion and having that.

Audience, nothing about us without us, there to be a strong part of that feedback in this in all of that piece of it, Julia. You guys just have because you’ve built this over the years. So to come in with that, the the innovation pavilion and have it immediately be able to take advantage of all that is really strong too. Because I think that when we think about innovating for accessibility.

Particularly if it’s assistive technologies, right, which is in the name of the conference. That’s one of the big things that happen is that sometimes these things are developed in a silo and then they get out there in the world w and people with disabilities start using it, and that’s where you understand the shortcomings. And the opposite happens too, by the way, where we invent something that is not

Julia Santiago (27:07)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mark Miller (27:11)
for intended for people with disabilities and it gets out there in the wild. And I’m thinking of like smart glasses and stuff like that. And then all of a sudden people with disabilities raise their hand and go, Hey, wait a minute.

This could be really useful to us if you make a few tweaks. So it’s just it’s just the perfect spot. It really, really is.

Julia Santiago (27:25)
Yeah, and

this is where going back to like honing in on w what our role is and it’s really been to provide this forum. Can you hear that? Sorry. No. I should have I know. It is. This this is my exact

Mark Miller (27:38)
Yeah, somebody’s getting p pinged. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m like, Is that me? That’s what it’s a live it’s a live podcast. This is real. This is real in grassroots, just like the Innovation Pavilion, Julia. So we gotta roll with these things.

Justin Stockton (27:44)
I know, I already muted.

The real world.

Julia Santiago (27:54)
But what I was saying is this is where like like I say, I where I try to ground, you know, us as this team that’s hosts and and plans this conference is we’re providing a forum. So let’s provide what the what is necessary for the forum to be successful for not

Mark Miller (28:13)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (28:14)
for us and not necessarily for the conference, but for the participants at the conference. ‘Cause that’s

Mark Miller (28:19)
Hundred percent.

Julia Santiago (28:20)
really why they’re why

There there and what’s I I truly believe is what is been the successes of our conference is truly just that. It’s it’s that connector,

Mark Miller (28:30)
And

Julia Santiago (28:30)
that g eng the that engagement.

Mark Miller (28:33)
As participants of the conference, is that what you said? Attendees, attendees, participants of the conference. Justin and I would like to

Julia Santiago (28:38)
Mm-hmm. Participants, attendees, presenters.

Mark Miller (28:42)
thank you for making sure that you have us in mind and continue to entertain us appropriately every year when we show up.

Julia Santiago (28:50)
Well that

means then then what you need to show up to is karaoke night. Good. Well so do I. I know. Well that’s where you need to show up.

Mark Miller (28:55)
Come on, I show up to karaoke night. I’d I d you don’t catch me on stage, karaoke night. In and t until karaoke

night is a podcast. You don’t want me You don’t want you don’t want me you don’t want me up there. I do dance though. I have danced during

Julia Santiago (29:09)
It’s just fun. It is just a it’s a good time. And then we

Mark Miller (29:15)
kara

Julia Santiago (29:15)
we do really have space for dancing, so all all of the above.

Mark Miller (29:18)
Yep, you do. That’ll that’ll do. But

Justin’ll sing for you. Right, Justin? Yeah.

Julia Santiago (29:24)
Good. I have you down. We’ll put you number

one later.

Justin Stockton (29:28)
are there is there an open bar with it?

Julia Santiago (29:34)
It’s

Mark Miller (29:32)
There’s a ca it’s a cash bar. You gotta

Julia Santiago (29:34)
it depends on i

Justin Stockton (29:35)
Maybe, maybe.

Julia Santiago (29:37)
if there’s a sponsor for it or not.

Mark Miller (29:39)
Yeah, well I’ll tell

Justin Stockton (29:40)
I definitely

Mark Miller (29:40)
you what, Julia

Justin Stockton (29:40)
walked by it. It was much easier to get

to like when it was in San Diego because it was kind of always upstairs in that open area.

Mark Miller (29:48)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (29:48)
Yes.

Justin Stockton (29:49)
And so it was you’re like you couldn’t miss it. It was kind of like

Julia Santiago (29:51)
You kinda yeah, exactly.

You kind of encounter it.

Mark Miller (29:52)
Well, and that’s when it had a sponsor.

shout out to DQ. They were the ones who sponsored that. Yep.

Julia Santiago (29:57)
We did ha in yes, in San

Diego that was done with by the sponsor, yes. At

Mark Miller (30:04)
But Julie and

I will make a deal with you, Justin, that we’ll buy your drinks for the night if it means you’re gonna get up there and sing. So you don’t have to worry about it. Julie is like, we are making that deal. I don’t remember being a part of that. Yeah.

Justin Stockton (30:13)
feeling a lot of feeling a lot of pressure right now. But okay.

Julia Santiago (30:19)
Uh-huh.

Mark Miller (30:21)
so and that’s a really good point too. Like, you know, we’re joking about accessible karaoke, but I think that the conference overall does a really good job of blending that sort of business side with that.

fun side with the social side. And I know that that’s thanks to you all, Julia, thinking about those things, but also the sponsors that step up and sponsor a lot of these events and

Julia Santiago (30:48)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (30:49)
these after hours things and all of that. And that really, no matter how many innovation pavilions you put together, no matter how many talks you have, no matter how what the exhibition hall looks like, it is

all of those people being in the same place, being able to go to something like the Innovation Pavilion and then sit down with somebody in the lobby with a a a a drink or or coffee or whatever and have that opportunity as a community to really talk deeply about these things that we love, you know.

Julia Santiago (31:22)
Yeah. And

then sing together. So you know, there’s

Justin Stockton (31:26)
And then say

Julia Santiago (31:26)
there’s there’s something for everybody.

Mark Miller (31:28)
Mm.

Julia Santiago (31:30)
But yeah, no, it’s

Justin Stockton (31:30)
Bring the accessibility

through the power of song.

Julia Santiago (31:33)
You know, it it’s brings people together in a way that it it I’ve always like been blown away, to be honest. You know, like y you said in San Diego it was a sponsor that hosted

Mark Miller (31:45)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (31:48)
karaoke night and then it was just so fun and it’s so engaging and people really enjoyed it that we took it on, regardless if we got

Mark Miller (31:55)
Yeah, to keep it going. Yeah.

Julia Santiago (31:56)
a sponsor or not for it.

And you know, so that’s why some years we’ll have an open bar, sometimes we won’t. It just depends. But but the at the very least it’s it’s a fun night and we try to at least make it available and we were we’ve been committed to something.

Mark Miller (32:14)
Open

open bar and karaoke does seem like the perfect

Julia Santiago (32:17)
I know.

Justin Stockton (32:18)
And

that maybe Mark, that’s what we need. We need to be successful enough that we can sponsor

karaoke at Seesun One Year. That’s a that’s a goal.

Julia Santiago (32:26)
That’s

Mark Miller (32:26)
so that’s a that’s our that’s our

that’s the inclusion impact accessibility marketing plug for this.

Julia Santiago (32:29)
that’s gonna be actually.

Mark Miller (32:32)
Do business with us so we can so we can make sure

Justin Stockton (32:32)
Okay.

Mark Miller (32:35)
people get up there and sing. Whatever. Anyways, with or without the bar. Yeah, with or without the bar.

Julia Santiago (32:37)
Yes. We’re gonna get up there and sing with or without the bar, so we’ll we’ll

Mark Miller (32:46)
is there anything else? you know, we really came here to talk about this innovation

Julia Santiago (32:51)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (32:51)
pavilion. go ahead, Justin. You I just saw you thought of something, so

Justin Stockton (32:54)
Well

I was gonna say w can you tell us a little bit more about like the judging aspect of it? Have y’all decided who the panel is going to like who’s the shark in the shark tank gonna be?

Julia Santiago (33:03)
Yeah, yeah.

Mark Miller (33:04)
And that’s when you don’t want the b open bar mixed with it because people get too judgy, right?

Justin Stockton (33:07)
Yeah.

Julia Santiago (33:07)
No. So I will say the

challenge, it will not pr at least for this first girl round, we’ll see how it goes, it will not be open to everyone to to view. it will actually take place prior to the full c to the pavilion. and but and we’ll we’ll we will pro give the award actually during the keynote program. so we will we

Mark Miller (33:33)
that’s a good idea.

Julia Santiago (33:34)
will know who

is a recipient of that chal the award from the challenge. but it will be it is a panel of pretty much our specific industry leaders who pretty much comp comprise excuse me of our advisory board and yes yeah

Mark Miller (33:58)
Is that is that panel built and set at this point? Or is that something it has to it is? Great.

Julia Santiago (34:04)
yeah

Mark Miller (34:05)
I just want to be in to be like the

Julia Santiago (34:05)
So with yeah.

Mark Miller (34:06)
the host of all of it. You know what I mean? Like with that mic that’s thin and long, jacket on. You’ll think about that. Yeah. Take take it under advisement.

Julia Santiago (34:08)
You know, I know. Well, you know. Down the line we we’ll see how we’ll we’ll we’ll consider you for for for the future. you know

in this first year, a lot of it, you know, and I are we know we’re not gonna get this right the first year out out the out the gate, but and we’re really also just as the planners looking at this as also our learning experience

of

Mark Miller (34:33)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (34:34)
What what what’s what went well, what needs to to do differently. And so we’ll see, we’ll see down the road. but when we do require a host, w we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll come for you, Mark.

Mark Miller (34:48)
And win out over

Julia Santiago (34:53)
Sure, yeah.

Mark Miller (34:54)
me from here’s Dustin. Come on, Dustin, let me Dustin, if you’re listening to the podcast, please let me have this one. You get all the

Julia Santiago (34:56)
yeah.

Mark Miller (35:01)
other ones. Let me have this one. but you bring up a good point. Like this is the first one.

And I wouldn’t say like you’re gonna get it wrong. I think you’re probably gonna get a lot right, but I do like that you’re stepping in with that attitude that you’re gonna learn from this first one and you’re fully prepared to adjust and probably year after year improve it. Is there a formalized

Julia Santiago (35:21)
Yeah. I mean I’ll be on yeah. I okay.

Mark Miller (35:24)
feedback mechanism for for that or

Julia Santiago (35:28)
People want to

provide feedback, they they know how to f they will they will find us and they always do, I’ll tell you. sure. It’s

Mark Miller (35:33)
It’s it’s your do you wanna share your do you wanna share your cell phone, Julia? On the pike on the pike your personal cell phone?

Julia Santiago (35:40)
what was it, eight six seven, five, three, nine?

Mark Miller (35:43)
Yeah, that’s yeah. I thought it was Juliet’s Jenny? Jenny’s your name? The the

Justin Stockton (35:43)
Ha ha ha.

Will there be any I just cares if we

Mark Miller (35:52)
but that’s a really

good that’s go ahead, Justin, sorry.

Justin Stockton (35:55)
No, I was just gonna say it just made me that just made me think about the the little C vent app that y’all have now.

Julia Santiago (36:00)
Mm, mm.

Justin Stockton (36:01)
Like that seems like a really kind of a a good way to

Mark Miller (36:02)
I yeah, that’s true. That actually has that.

Justin Stockton (36:04)
get the feedback, but also maybe like there’s a specific innovation track or something in there that you you could call out and know who’s gonna be what or

Julia Santiago (36:14)
maybe wait and find out

Mark Miller (36:14)
The C Ven app actually I do think it

Julia Santiago (36:16)
and you once you get to the conference and see the app because yeah, no, we’ll i there will be

Mark Miller (36:20)
It’ll have a feedback.

Julia Santiago (36:21)
there will be yeah, and that’s and then we always have if you I don’t know if you ever noticed it, but there is an area to provide us feedback

Justin Stockton (36:29)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (36:30)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (36:30)
within the app. But we are hoping not hoping we’re planning on having that built in for the innovation pavilion to be

Mark Miller (36:40)
Beautiful.

Julia Santiago (36:40)
able to provide that feedback within that that

capacity.

Mark Miller (36:45)
So to provide feedback, please see your C Ven app or dial eight six seven five three nine.

Julia Santiago (36:52)
Yeah,

yeah. Perfect.

Justin Stockton (36:54)
That’s Jenny.

Mark Miller (36:55)
Or you know what? We’ll probably see you at the at the

at the restaurant in the lobby too, Julia. That’s usually where. Yeah. So the last,

Julia Santiago (37:00)
I yeah, I’m always somewhere around, for sure.

Mark Miller (37:04)
I think it was the last last year CSUN, I was I was with David Sloan,

Julia Santiago (37:11)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Miller (37:12)
who’s the the chief accessibility officer of Asparo now at the it was TPGI, and we were like, let’s go off and talk. And as we walked off, you spun around and you’re like, hey!

Julia Santiago (37:26)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (37:23)
And just we got a whole group of us sucked

in and just had it was really fun. We had a a great time. You interviewed introduced us to a few people. so not only you’re putting that conference together, but you’re living the truth of just people getting together and talking. It’s really

Julia Santiago (37:39)
Yeah. It’s my

but like it’s that’s what I look forward to the conference every year.

Mark Miller (37:46)
Yeah.

Julia Santiago (37:46)
I mean I I n it’s it’s it’s in being able to engage with people, meeting people

Mark Miller (37:51)
Mm.

Julia Santiago (37:52)
and it’s I I that’s my favorite part. Yeah. Yeah.

Mark Miller (37:55)
It’s like catching up with old old friends and meeting

new people. And that if you go back to the episode one of this, the trash can story really is it’s it’s another story about a student who came in with an idea and just ended up down this gauntlet of of talking to accessibility professional professionals from different angles, just from this one like, hey, you know,

Julia Santiago (38:19)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mark Miller (38:22)
We’re all throwing our lunch away at this trash can. I heard you

Julia Santiago (38:24)
Yes.

Mark Miller (38:24)
talking. Can I ask you a question, you know? And and we’re gonna see I wish I could remember her name, but I think it’s in episode one, but she’s gonna be we’re gonna see her on

Justin Stockton (38:34)
Yeah.

Mark Miller (38:34)
T V. She’s gonna be in in driving some political accessibility thing or or something, just really brilliant human being that did this. It’s just it’s fantastic. And now we’ve got a formalized forum for this kind

of activity, Julia. Thank you.

Julia Santiago (38:48)
Yeah, yeah. And the bar is

always the best a great forum too, so

Mark Miller (38:53)
Yeah. And I tried to find the other episode where we actually talked about

Julia Santiago (38:55)
Yeah, which is

Mark Miller (38:56)
I don’t know if you know what it is, Justin, but we a few episodes back on the accessibility breakdown, I was saying that we that’s where we first mentioned the the innovation pavilion. I’ll be darned if I can find it in real time. but we’ll we’ll try and find that and publish that along with this episode. So if people want to kinda deep dive, is there any

Anything else? and we’ll put the link you you have it on the CSAN website. You at least you had the call for for I’m gonna say call for speakers, but you know what I mean.

Julia Santiago (39:30)
Yeah. Yeah. We have our

we had the information on the innovation track for the under the for when we did the call for presentations or submissions. but there is a page devoted just to the innovation track

Mark Miller (39:45)
Okay.

Julia Santiago (39:45)
since it’s new so people can learn specifically about it. But you know just season conference dot org if

Mark Miller (39:55)
Mm.

Julia Santiago (39:55)
you go there. That’s just the the our current

conference website and that’s where all the information is in obviously including the innovation track but everything else as well so

Mark Miller (40:08)
Do you n do you remember roughly how many attendees you had last year?

Julia Santiago (40:12)
yeah, we were c I think we landed around forty five hundred ish across the board, coming through the event. So it’s was really great. really great attendance. and we had a lot of sessions and so we’re trying now it’s dry balance with n adding a new track

Mark Miller (40:34)
Mm-hmm.

Julia Santiago (40:34)
and ensuring that we can fit everything.

Mark Miller (40:38)
I’m wondering if we can accre increase your attendance this year by about a thousand given this new track. What do you think? Let’s do it. Let’s do it. That’s a challenge. That’s a challenge for everybody out there.

Julia Santiago (40:44)
Let’s see. Let’s see. I don’t know. Let’s let’s do it, please. Yeah. Yeah. I hope so.

I mean, I’m excited. I’ll be there, so

Mark Miller (40:57)
There’s three. We got one, two, three.

Julia Santiago (40:58)
I know.

Mark Miller (41:00)
So now we only need nine hundred

Julia Santiago (41:02)
I don’t know if I count though.

Mark Miller (41:03)
and ninety-seven more new well, we’re we’re old. We’ve been around. We’ve been around. it yeah, I was like, Why why did I just volunteer to do math live on

Julia Santiago (41:06)
Yes. Perfect. Yeah. And th I can demand that’s for the

Mark Miller (41:16)
the podcast? It’s a really bad idea. Particularly

Julia Santiago (41:18)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Miller (41:19)
me with my dyslexia and dysgraphia. It’s just super bad. Justin, is there anything else

that

I know you were really excited about this when you first found it. And and

Justin Stockton (41:28)
No, I’m super excited about this. I can’t I can’t wait to oop

Mark Miller (41:34)
Hi Keith. Hey, we’re

Keith Casebonne (41:35)
Hey, how you all doing?

Mark Miller (41:36)
we’re wrapping up a previous podcast. So if you can give us a minute. No, hey, you’re all good.

Keith Casebonne (41:42)
sorry.

Mark Miller (41:43)
This is don’t you apologize?

Julia Santiago (41:43)
Hello.

Keith Casebonne (41:45)
Bye there.

Mark Miller (41:45)
It’s time. You’re supposed to be here. You showed up on time. This is Julia, and we’re talking about the innovation track at CSUN. So,

Keith Casebonne (41:54)
cool. Okay.

Mark Miller (41:56)
So you can either come back or you can hang with us. We’re we’re just wrapping up. and the anything else, Julia, that you want us to know about

Julia Santiago (42:07)
Dumb. We’re looking forward. You know, everyone c should come out March eighth through the twelfth. Anahim Marriott.

Mark Miller (42:15)
Yeah. We’ll get Keith there.

Julia Santiago (42:17)
Yeah, I would love it.

Mark Miller (42:19)
Keith’s gonna come to

see some this year, I just I just declared.

Julia Santiago (42:23)
So now

Keith Casebonne (42:22)
Wow. All right.

Julia Santiago (42:24)
we have take one less from the the Yes.

Mark Miller (42:27)
That’s right. Now we need nine hundred and ninety nine more new people. We declared we wanted to increase CSUN by a thousand people, Keith.

Keith Casebonne (42:35)
wow, okay cool.

Mark Miller (42:36)
All right. Well,

thank you, Julia. We really appreciate it. Keith Casabone from Disability Rights Florida, everyone. we’re gonna be cutting a podcast with him in a second as well. So if you’re just wrapping up and listening to this, make sure you catch that one. But most of all, I want to thank you, Julia, for coming on and talking to us. We are really excited. I think this is a great kind of milestone and

Just new exciting thing for the conference. And we’re super glad you had time to come talk to us and be excited with us about it.

Julia Santiago (43:11)
Yeah. I’m

so excited and thank you for having me. It’s been great chatting with you and I look forward to seeing you guys in March.

Mark Miller (43:19)
Including Keith.

Justin Stockton (43:19)
Read.

Julia Santiago (43:20)
Yes, including Keith.

Keith Casebonne (43:22)
I’ll do my best.

Julia Santiago (43:26)
All right. Take care. Bye.

Mark Miller (43:24)
All right. Thank you so much, Julia. We’ll talk to you. Bye bye.

Okay. And that has been the IAEP podcast. I think that’s what I called it at the beginning of this. Keith Gasabone is coming up on the accessibility breakdown. You can see him right here. We’re going to start recording that soon. So please find that if you’re just finishing this up. and also we’ll put all the information and everything about the the innovation pavilion this year, twenty twenty-seven CSUN. Brand new, super exciting. Can’t wait. Thank you.