This year, the Symposium Advisory Committee selected Dr. Roberta Golinkoff as keynote speaker. They chose her because of the breadth of knowledge she brings to the field of Listening and Spoken Language. I am delighted by the kind words and positive feedback we received from those who attended Dr. Golinkoff's presentation, "From Coo to Code: What's New in Language Development."  In it, she covered the latest and greatest in language development. Some of the topics she covered were the significance of vocalizations in babies, what babies know about language and when they learn it, and how they apply meaning to sounds, among other key areas. Thank you, Dr. Golinkoff, for putting together such an inspiring and informative presentation for us all! 

I would also like to thank the Oberkotter Foundation and Hearing First for their Extended Learning presentation, where Dr. Golinkoff shared her thoughts on Listening and Spoken Language, and attendees learned how to best share and learn among their professional communities. I was glad to see the many faces in attendance!

Of course I would be remiss if I didn't thank our 2017 Symposium Advisory Committee for putting together such an outstanding event. I want to extend a special thanks to our committee chair, Dr. Uma Soman, who demonstrated her talent and wealth of knowledge as a planner and presenter and also came up with the idea for us to provide attendees with an interactive opening session. To prepare for the Saturday General Session, Drs. Uma Soman and Mary Ellen Nevins, Dr. Joni Alberg, Gayla Guignard and I participated in a series of conference calls where we discussed important issues currently happening in the field of Listening and Spoken Language.

After many conversations, we developed this year's topics, which were hope, information, knowledge and community:

Dr. Joni Alberg detailed the role advocacy plays in AG Bell's work and also covered how each of us can be advocates when advancing Listening and Spoken Language. For our professional community, Drs. Soman and Nevins asked the crowd what it means for them to be proud, prepared professionals - which focuses on working together to advocate for Listening and Spoken Language and taking pride in the work you do each day.

I would also like to thank those who presented - Valeri LeBeau from Advanced Bionics, Judy Horvath from MED-EL Corporation and Stephanie Loccisano from the Starkey Corporation.

Each of them provided updates on their company's work and advancements in products and services in our field.  

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