The Amputee Coalition is pleased to announce the 2023 National Conference will be held at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld®, August 2 -5, 2023. This year’s conference theme, “Elevate Together Towards Tomorrow,” will highlight ways to expand our community in every way. The Amputee Coalition celebrates its diverse community and aims to fully engage all people living with limb loss and limb difference to build a collective voice on critical issues impacting the community and to elevate the organization’s mission. Conference offerings will have a special focus on health equity, diversity, equity and inclusion, and youth engagement.
As the premier event for the limb loss and limb difference community, the Amputee Coalition’s national conference is the only patient- and consumer-focused event that creates the opportunity for our community members to interact with a breadth of solutions on the market. During our conference, attendees can engage with vendors, touch and feel the latest prosthesis on the market, and leverage that experience to make informed decisions about their care and needed support. National Conference is also the Amputee Coalition’s largest activity designed to “reach” the community en masse based on our founding principles, including the importance of peer support and elevating expertise only gained through lived experience. The event spotlights education and engagement across all four of the organization’s program areas: education, support, prevention, and advocacy.
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*Renewal Rate Applicable to 2022 Exhibitors
Opening Keynote - Mike Schultz
Paralympic Snowboarding – GOLD & SILVER
X GAMES Powersports– 10x GOLD medalist
BIODAPT CEO – Engineer
Mike Schultz will be the opening keynote at the Amputee Coalition’s 2023 National Conference. Known in the racing community as “Monster” Mike, from St. Cloud, MN has transformed the world of adaptive action sports in more ways than one. In 2008, Mike suffered a terrible knee injury during a professional snowmobile competition resulting in the amputation of his left leg above the knee. Shortly after his accident, Mike engineered a high-performance prosthetic knee to get him back in action.
Within seven months, Mike was again competing on the national stage at the ESPN X Games, receiving a silver medal in Adaptive Motocross. In 2010, Mike founded BioDapt, Inc. after realizing the need for advancements in high-impact adaptive sports prosthetics. Ten years and ten X Games gold medals later, Mike added one of his biggest accomplishments to his list of honors, bringing home gold and silver in snowboarding from the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang. Another equally great honor, Mike was voted as the U.S. flag bearer for the Paralympic Opening Ceremonies. Mike provided prosthetic equipment to 15 athletes from six different countries during the 2018 Games. There was a total of 11 medals won by athletes wearing his BioDapt prosthetic equipment!
Closing Keynote - Amy Purdy
At 19, Amy was rushed to the hospital in a state of septic shock. En route, she experienced respiratory and multiple organ failure, which caused her to lose circulation to her extremities. She was given less than a 2% chance of survival, put on life support, and placed into a medically induced coma. After multiple blood transfusions and the removal of her ruptured spleen, doctors diagnosed Amy with meningococcal meningitis. Due to septic shock, doctors had to amputate her legs below the knee. Just three months after her kidney transplant, she entered the USASA National Snowboarding Championship, where she won medals in three different events. Today, she is a pioneer of the U.S. Paralympic Snowboarding Team and a three-time Paralympic medalist.
Amy’s creativity and her never-give-up attitude have opened doors to countless other opportunities, including being featured in a Madonna music video, being the lead actress in an award-winning independent film, competing on “The Amazing Race,” and nearly winning season 18 of “Dancing with the Stars” with her partner Derek Hough. Amy has evolved into a powerful, motivational keynote speaker who has been seen by millions and invited to speak to audiences around the world. She has toured sharing her remarkable story alongside Oprah Winfrey, as part of Oprah’s The Life You Want Tour. Her autobiography, On My Own Two Feet, quickly became a New York Times Best Seller. Amy and her husband founded Adaptive Action Sports, which trains athletes with disabilities in action sports. Their organization is top in the U.S. for developing Paralympic snowboarders.
