Savannah, GA, January 30, 2008 – Outgoing NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers (S&D) Committee Chair Jenny Showalter kicked off Wednesday’s Opening General Session by reflecting on 19 years of NBAA’s Annual S&D Conference, saying, “When I stood in that 570 person exhibit hall in Nashville in 1996, I never dreamed in a million years I’d be standing here in front of all 2,500 of you today. But this isn’t really about how far I’ve come, it’s about how far we’ve come.

When we join forces annually at this Conference,” she continued, “our attitude generates enough excitement, camaraderie and yearning for knowledge to carry us through the rest of the year and beyond, to new altitudes that 19 years ago were no more than a dream.”

If anyone knows about having a dream – and that “attitude determines your altitude,” the theme of this year’s Conference – it’s undoubtedly NBAA’s extraordinary keynote speaker Tom Whittaker, renowned mountaineer, author and documentary film producer, who challenged schedulers and dispatchers to dream big and make the profession even better.

On a Thanksgiving night in 1979 at the age of 31, a celebratory Whittaker was en route to a new job in Idaho, after having recently obtained his master’s degree from Idaho State University. On a snowy and desolate road, he had a premonition of being hit by an approaching vehicle, so he slowed down. Luckily, he was only driving 8 miles per hour when his premonition came true, and he was hit by a drunk driver. The near-fatal accident crushed his knees, severed one of his feet, and fractured 16 bones.

Nearly 20 years later on May 27, 1998, Whittaker became the first person who is disabled to summit 29,035-foot Mount Everest, confounding conventional wisdom and redefining what is possible. Author of the book Higher Purpose, and founder of the Cooperative Wilderness Handicapped Outdoor Group, he recently made the Queen of England’s “Honors List” for his service to mountaineering and disability.

“You know, this is what America’s about. It’s about dreams. It’s about enabling other people,” Whittaker said. “You are enablers. You take these guys and you stick wings on them, and you do it again and again and again, and you do it for no thanks, and you’re total heroes. “But you do have to carve yourself out a piece,” he added. “You do have to define it. You do have to say to yourself, ‘hey, what do I need to change today to make this job into the kind of job that I want to be doing 15 years from now?’”

To view additional photos of the Opening General Session and other Wednesday highlights, visit NBAA’s Online S&D News Bureau at www.nbaa.org/sdc/2008.

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