NAIDEX 2019

So, this year I managed to make it to the first day of Naidex, having last visited over a decade ago!

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Naidex is Europe’s biggest trade, professional and public exhibition for all things disability and independent living.

Fortunately for me, it is hosted fairly locally at the Birmingham NEC, which is around an hour’s drive from where I live.

First thing’s first, I was pleasantly surprised to find that disabled parking was free – winner, winner! For all other events attended at the NEC, the parking charge is a hefty £10.

I’ll be honest, my main reason for visiting Naidex 45 was to meetup with a few friends, including fellow #MDBloggersCrew member, Fi Anderson.

Fi Anderson outside the Changing Places facility, at Birmingham’s NEC
Happy to see a Changing Places facility at Birmingham’s NEC!

Together we did a few laps of the place, trying our best not to bump into people. In fact, within the first 10 minutes of arrival, some bloke cleverly decided to walk backwards and very nearly fell on top of me. Thankfully he was young and not unattractive, so I didn’t mind so much.

It was a challenge to navigate the crowds, making it difficult to approach people and stop to chat. I spotted a few familiar faces but was only able to talk to a few, unfortunately. I did manage to briefly catch up with Mr twodoughnuts, though he wasn’t overly impressed with his first experience of Naidex. I have to say, I agree with his assessment!

For those of you planning to attend Naidex in the future, I would advise pre-planning your route as it’s tricky to locate specific stalls amongst the crowds and chaos!

As disorganised as it was, I was gutted that I couldn’t be there for the second and final day, purely because my mate SimplyEmma was judging on the Changing Lives Award panel!

SimplyEmma (far right) judging on the Changing Lives Award panel at Naidex 45

Would I go again?

Honestly, it depends who’s going! It’s a good excuse to meetup with friends and fellow disability bloggers from all over the UK. And, it would be nice to represent the #MDBloggersCrew (properly) at some point. But otherwise, it wasn’t really my cuppa.

Just a few magazines, leaflets and flyers collected at Naidex 45

If you attended Naidex 45, let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!