These are a few of my Favorite Things

I attended the first Neurodiversion 2025 “A Celebration of Unique Minds” conference. One hope I had when I traveled to Austin was to come home with an idea for a new newsletter. Through a series of conversations and meetups, I came up with a weekly one featuring a talk by an inspiring speaker. Thanks to Hank from Wyoming who brought this idea to fruition. You can join in the fun by signing up here – the first talk will be headed your way and I believe you’ll enjoy it. Here is issue #1

I’ve been a fan of Chris Guillebeau ever since I first learned about him in 2017. That led to following his writing, reading his books, and attending a conference he put on for 10 years called The World Domination Summit (WDS). Like most cutting-edge events, this one attracted a lot of interesting people. When Chris announced in his A Year of Mental Health newsletter that he was trying out a new conference focused on neurodivergence I bought a ticket straight away. I’d been missing the magic of WDS and any excuse to gather with the types of people who are attracted to this type of event = I’m all in. As the event got closer I hemmed and hawed and considered selling my ticket (who needs to go to Texas? How can I leave Portland when the fruit trees are all starting to bloom? It’s easier to just stay put and keep doing what I’m doing!). But in the end, something stirred in me and I bought my plane ticket and I was off to Austin, Texas for 5 days!

I wanted to come to Neurodiversion with an attitude of openness and an interest in learning. I tried to be as open as possible and not push my agenda on others. This proved to be a good idea because so much of what I was about to experience was new information.

A couple of years ago I made a new friend, Sundeep, at the Breitenbush Summer Solstice Healing Retreat, who offered to host me. He was also able to buy a ticket, so we got to share the experience and I got to stay in his lovely house Northwest of the City. I also stayed a couple of days afterward and we visited some special places like Casa De Luz, The 3rd Eye Lounge, The Laguna Gloria sculpture garden, and the Zilker Botanical Garden above – with a beautiful view of Austin. For all the pics from my trip – go here. Tag people you know if you’re willing! Thanks!

On day 1 of the event my first meetup was about singing and led by Whitney. Unfortunately, it was held in a nearby bar which was kinda loud. But I also learned a few things and it was nice to start with an interesting meetup. I then followed a group to the gelato place across from Fair Market (the main venue) and talked to Whitney about Human Design. After that, I participated in a meetup about activism and ADHD. That was held in a nearby hotel where many who attended the conference were staying. Then, it was time for registration and the opening ceremony where we played this fun ice-breaker! The idea was to go around and see if you could fill out your bingo card. But the way this was set up it was hard not to meet a few people and hear some fun stories.

The next day began with a great couple of keynote speeches and then there were break-out sessions leading up to lunch. There were people attending from 4 countries and all over the US. I think there were probably about 250 people attending and 15-20 ambassadors – who helped answer questions and register us. They were very busy and I’m glad I paid to attend vs. doing that. I know the event is free for ambassadors, but I think it would be hard to see all the speeches and attend meetups if you were in that role.

Karla Starr’s presentation on AI really stuck out to me. She’s very smart – at one point the mic cut out and we couldn’t hear her (we were wearing silent disco headphones). After a minute she just switched to Spanish which was kinda hilarious. Eventually, her talk got back into gear and she regaled us with info from the AI highway. Productivity tools and various ways she’s using AI. Here’s an example – and for more of her slides visit my pictures.

Part of what makes this type of conference wonderful is the workshops we all put on for one another. On the last day of the conference, I offered a meetup on how to improve where you live. This idea was based loosely on the various issues I activate on in Portland. I also wanted to make the activity interactive so asked people about where they lived and the types of issues they face there. Then I offered some tools and ideas on how to make a change where you live. I talked about how everyone you interact with will take the information you share in a different way. And also how long some of these campaigns (to get a bike lane; get trees planted; stop a big box store from being built) may take. Some really great questions came up and I felt like the meetup was one of the best I’ve ever done.

How to Improve Where You Live Meetup

The days sort of blur together for me. But I’m excited to share that this conference had a really lovely feel to it. It reminded me of WDS in that the people were very interesting and also willing to come towards one another quickly. Not every interaction I had was fantastic, but quite a number of them were. And I got to learn more about neurodiversity and ADHD than I’d known before. I didn’t think of myself as neurodiverse before the event, but now I’m kind of wondering.

Through the course of listening to talks and meeting a wide variety of people, I really got a sense of what neurodivergence is about. I know a number of people who are challenged by this and now have some perspectives and tools I can offer that might help. I also got to wondering whether and how I might also be neurodivergent. I arrived at the event figuring that my brain works just fine and that I was there to learn to help others. But by the end, I realized that I shared some of the same challenges as others were speaking of through the weekend.

I’m fascinated by what it takes to put on an event like this. I feel like I’ve been to many things that have some similar elements, and have been planning my own funconference.me for a while (coming this Spring!) – but this also had an element that I’m not familiar with. I think it was the topic and people mix that felt different. My intention in attending was to try to come with an open mind and heart and that worked out well. I tried to pull back on sharing my own agenda too much, and stay open to learning and meeting people. I’m very glad I tried that approach as I felt that the conference kind of worked its magic on me.

At the last group meeting, Chris did a check-in to see how people were feeling and asked if we should do the event again the following year. He then shared that we could buy tickets and that Neurodiversion will happen next year (date and location TBD!). I decided to buy a ticket – both to support the event and cause I will likely attend.

After that meeting, we had a fun party outside on the lawn. It had been very hot during the day and it was nice to congregate on the lawn. There was a place to pet animals, a marching band, and some other fun things + two food carts, and a wine & beer bar. I wandered around and had some time with some of the people I’d met and met a few new ones, too. The conference also has a private Facebook group and people have been posting some pictures and lovely thoughts about our time together. An interesting part of that is that even people who couldn’t make it seem to have been touched by the event.

After Neurodiversion ended Sundeep and I headed back to his house and went to sleep. I had a good long sleep and woke up refreshed and very thoughtful! I spent another couple of days in Austin – got to see a great sculpture garden; ate a couple of meals at Cafe De Luz and hung out at 3rd Eye Lounge then on Monday visited a lovely botanical garden before heading to Cafe de Luz and then the airport.

Overall, it was great to get out of town; make some new friends; learn about ADHD and other neurodivergences; have a WDS reunion with folks I’d met in previous years, and get inspired. Thanks for reading this far!

I’m always open to feedback – feel free to leave a comment or write me directly. And, maybe I’ll see you at Neurodiversion 2026!