Relay Resources Announces 2026 Signature Events: 75th Anniversary Celebration and the Second Annual DisabilityNext™ Summit

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 8, 2025--

Relay Resources, the leading social enterprise nonprofit in the Pacific Northwest advancing disability inclusion in the workplace, has announced the dates and details of its two signature 2026 events. The Relay 75th Anniversary Celebration, bringing together the community for a night of celebrating our past, dreaming about our future, and supporting our present strategic goals, will take place April 15. The DisabilityNext™ Summit —Relay’s second-annual conference creating and implementing the future of disability inclusion in the workplace—will be October 6-7. Both events will happen at the Hyatt Regency in Portland, OR.

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Relay 75th Anniversary Celebration

Relay Resources is hosting the 75th Anniversary Celebration in honor of its diamond anniversary, following the organization’s founding in 1951 as the Portland Children’s Center, which became Oregon’s leading institution in educational programs for children with intellectual disabilities.

The event will celebrate both Relay’s legacy and its exciting future transforming workplaces and communities where all disabled people belong. The evening will include:

A 75th Anniversary Celebration Committee comprised of prominent Portland community and business leaders is forming under the leadership of Suhail Khan, Relay Resources board member and Senior Vice President at Marsh. The committee will engage leading regional organizations and individual philanthropists to support Relay Resources, Oregon’s largest employer of disabled people.

“For almost 75 years, Relay has been a pillar in the community, providing education and jobs for disabled people,” says Dr. Jennifer Camota Luebke, CEO, Chief Disability Inclusion Officer, and President of Relay Resources. “The 75 th Anniversary Celebration is our inflection point where we honor the people who have blazed the trail in our past, and where we are poised to lead the way into the future by transforming workplaces and communities to become places where all disabled people belong.”

The event, taking place in the Hyatt Regency’s Hotel Ballroom Space, will offer numerous accessibility features for attendees (see below for more details). People interested in attending the celebration can find more information and tickets here.

DisabilityNext™ Summit

In fall 2026, Relay Resources will present the second-annual DisabilityNext™ Summit. The event will coincide with National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), which takes place each October to promote inclusive employment practices and highlight the contributions of disabled employees.

For the 2026 Summit, leaders, futurists, and innovators from across the country will gather to:

The 2026 Summit will build on the success of the inaugural event last April, which gathered hundreds of attendees for an event centered on disabled voices and featured keynote presentations from disability rights and inclusion advocate Imani Barbarin and other distinguished speakers.

“The DisabilityNext™ Summit was a powerful and energizing event, and it's only the beginning of a long-term approach for Relay Resources,” said Catarina Rivera, founder of Blindish Latina, a platform dedicated to challenging disability stigma through storytelling, advocacy, and training. “I appreciate getting to connect with so many amazing disabled changemakers.”

Discounted Early Bird tickets for the 2026 DisabilityNext™ Summit are on sale now. To receive updates on tickets and more, sign up for Relay Resources’ email list here.

Accessibility features and sponsorship opportunities

In keeping with Relay’s mission of disability inclusion, both the 75th Anniversary Celebration and the 2026 DisabilityNext™ Summit will offer numerous accessibility features for attendees, including:

Sponsorship opportunities for both events are also available at Relay Resources’ website.

About Relay Resources

Relay Resources is the leading disability social enterprise nonprofit in the Pacific Northwest, with a mission to transform workplaces and communities by championing disability inclusion. The organization employs over 900 team members in four lines of business: Building Solutions, which includes janitorial, landscaping, and floor care services; Document Solutions; Supply Chain Solutions; and Disability Inclusion and Accessibility Consulting Services. Additionally, Relay operates three programs: Competitive Integrated Employment, which places and supports disabled people in competitive jobs in the community; abilIT, a cybersecurity and technology training and job placement program; and Affordable Housing, which manages 760 units for 1,500 residents, 27% of whom have a household member with a disability. Learn more at www.RelayResources.org.

Relay Resources will celebrate 75 years in 2026 with two signature events.

New York (AP) — Much has been made about the global touring economy in the last few years. Take, for example, that tours grossing over a billion dollars is a new phenomenon in the 2020s — a benchmark first crossed by Taylor Swift in 2023 with her landmark Eras Tour and an accomplishment recently reached by The Weeknd. But who are the most popular touring artists of the last two decades based on ticket sales? The results may surprise you.

On Monday, in advance of Pollstar's 2025 year-end issue, the concert trade publication ranked the top 25 “Most Popular Touring Artists of the Millennium,” based on ticket sales from Jan. 1, 2001, to the end of 2025. Leading the list? Coldplay with 24.8 million tickets sold. Next, is U2, with 20.2 million tickets sold, and Ed Sheeran, with 19.6 million.

Rounding out the top five is Dave Matthews Band, with nearly 19.6 million tickets sold, and Swift, with roughly 18.9 million. Keep in mind that her debut album was released in 2006.

Pollstar chart data is pulled from reported and estimated box office data from events that occurred between 2001 and 2025.

Swift is the only woman featured in the top 10. She's followed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Kenny Chesney, Metallica, Bon Jovi and Elton John.

In fact, there are only four women in the top 25: Pink is at No. 11 with nearly 13 million tickets. Beyoncé is No. 13 with 11.8 million tickets sold; Madonna is listed at No. 15 with almost 11 million tickets.

Don't get it twisted: It should be mentioned that numbers of tickets sold is a different metric than money grossed.

As previously mentioned, in 2023, Swift’s Eras Tour became the first tour to cross the billion-dollar mark, according to Pollstar’s 2023 year-end charts. Then she broke her own record: In December 2024, Pollstar announced that the Eras Tour brought in $2.2 billion across its nearly two-year run, extending its lead as the highest-grossing tour of all time.

According to the new chart published Monday, Swift has grossed over $3.1 billion in the new millennium. Compare that to Coldplay, who leads with most tickets sold, and follows with a gross of nearly 2.5 billion.

In September, Pollstar reported that cumulative grosses from Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour reached $1.39 billion. It also launched in 2022 and ran through 2025.

And last month, The Weeknd’s After Hours 'Til Dawn Tour officially crossed the $1 billion mark, according to Live Nation.

FILE - Jonny Buckland, from left, Chris Martin, Will Champion, and Guy Berryman of Coldplay performs a song from the band's 10th studio album "Moon Music" on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in the Williamsburg section of the Brooklyn borough of New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, file)

This combination of images shows Bono, from left, Chris Martin, and Ed Sheeran. (AP Photo)