Fly high into Denver next May for the 2010 HAPS Annual Conference. The conference will be held at the Denver Hyatt Regency hotel which is right next to the Colorado Convention Center and downtown Denver’s premier shopping and entertainment district. We are very excited to invite you to our beautiful city and are looking forward to a great conference.

Discovery of gold at the base of the Rocky Mountains In the 1850’s started a veritable stampede into Colorado.Even though very little of the precious metal was actually found, this influx began a settlement that would eventually become the city of Denver. With over 300 days of sunshine a year, the "Mile High City" has a backdrop of the Rockies, a pedestrian-friendly downtown, thriving cultural and art scene and world class university system. The city is nicknamed the "Mile-High City" because its official elevation is exactly one mile, or 5280 feet, above sea level. Denver is located in the Front Range Urban Corridor between the Rocky Mountains to the west and the High Plains to the east. Denver has a semi-arid climate with four distinct seasons. While Denver is located on the Great Plains, the weather of the city and surrounding area is heavily influenced by the proximity of the Rocky Mountains to the west. The climate is considered a high-desert climate. While generally mild compared to the mountains to the west and the plains further east, it can be very unpredictable. Denver International Airport, commonly known as DIA, serves as the primary airport for Denver and the surrounding area. The airport is located 18.6 miles east-northeast of the Colorado State Capital and is the 10th busiest airport in the world and ranks fourth in the United States. DIA serves as a major hub for United Airlines and is the headquarters for Frontier Airlines.

The Denver Hyatt Regency hotel (directions) can be reached by airport shuttle, rental car, or the Regional Transportation District Skyride. The hotel is 23 miles away from the airport and a short walking distance to the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall. Built in 1982, the mall is a tree-lined, pedestrian promenade of red-and-gray granite that runs through the center of downtown. Lined with outdoor cafes, renovated historic office buildings, sparkling glass-walled skyscrapers, shops, restaurants and department stores, there is something for everyone. Numerous fountains and plazas offer a variety of daily special events and entertainers. Free "green" shuttle buses cruise the mile-long Mall every 90 seconds. If the Colorado Rockies baseball team is in town, you can take the shuttle to one end of the mall within walking distance to the stadium. And not only is the Mile High City home to the world's largest single brewery, but Colorado brews more than any other state.

Denver is home to many outstanding colleges and universities including the world-renowned National Jewish Medical and Research Center. National Jewish specializes in respiratory, immune and allergic research and treatment. Anshultz Medical Campus in Aurora which is the world’s only completely new educational, research and patient care facility and is the largest academic health center between Chicago, Texas and the West Coast. Researchers from these universities and other institutions will present update seminars on Sunday and Monday for our conference theme: "Rocky Mountain Inspiration."

Arapahoe Community College (ACC) will host two days of workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday. Founded in 1965, Arapahoe Community College was the first community college to open in the Denver area. What began as Arapahoe Junior College with 550 students has grown into a bustling community college serving over 20,000 credit and non-credit students annually. Our campus is accessible by Light Rail from the Hotel and is located in Littleton, Colorado.

Events lined up for the conference include Sunday night dinner at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The museum has a new permanent exhibition, Expedition Health that makes you a part of the exhibit by analyzing your overall health as you go through the many highly-interactive and highly personal activities. We will have the opportunity to view this exhibit and grab something to eat and drink as we take in one of the best views in Denver of the city skyline and Rocky Mountains. Our daylong excursion on Thursday will be a bus ride through the Rocky Mountains. We will stop in Estes Park where you will have a choice of visiting the enchanting Stanley Hotel, famous for the movie "The Shining", or taking a horseback ride up in to the mountains to take in some of the spectacular scenery found in this mountain town. After the visit or ride, you will have the opportunity to wander Main Street to take in lunch, ice cream or the many candy stores and unique shops that line this creek-lined street. A visit to Estes Park would not be complete however without seeing one of our nation’s greatest national assets – Rocky Mountain National Park. This natural wonder offers vistas of breathtaking beauty leading up to the visitors’ center at 11,000+ feet, weather permitting, along the nation’s highest paved road on the Peak-to-Peak highway that will take us back to Denver.

On behalf of the HAPS 2010 Annual Conference Committee and Linda Comeaux, Dean of Health, Sciences and Engineering at ACC, we welcome you to the city of Denver and our Littleton campus and hope that you will enjoy our hospitality as much as we will enjoy your company

Photos courtesy of Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau