black and white bed linen

Theme: Neurodivergence Plus

Beyond labels: Explore identity, biology, and culture.

SOCIAL CONNECTIONS SUMMIT 2026
September 23 & 24 | 10am - 2pm CT | Virtual

A two-day summit for late-identified neurodivergent professionals.

"Not a single disappointing session in the entire two days."

— Neurodivergent professional, 2025 Summit Attendee

There's more to you than how your brain works. Learn what no one told you about how identity, biology, and culture shape your life experiences, so that you can stop blaming yourself and find what fits.

Theme: Neurodivergence Plus

Explore how your neurodivergent experience interacts with race, gender, sexuality, and other identities as part of the bigger picture.

Identity

Understand why your brain and body feel different across life stages, from hormonal shifts to sensory changes.

Biology

See how the country and culture you grew up in shaped what your neurodivergence looks like and what support you were (or weren't) given.

Culture

The lineup

Two days of focused sessions, designed to go deep without overwhelming you:

A keynote to open things up. Thirty minutes of big ideas, plus fifteen for your questions.

Lightning talks. Eight minutes each, one sharp idea at a time, no filler.

A live panel taking on the question you've probably asked yourself: Is neurodivergence a superpower, a struggle, or both at once? Four voices speaking from lived experience. Maybe you'll see yourself in one.

An interactive workshop. A hands-on session where you practice something, not just hear about it.

Plus giveaways that introduce you to the tools and services nobody told you about, and the rare thing, curated connection time with people who actually think the way you do.

  • A way to catch burnout early
    Signals that show up before it becomes a leave of absence or a resignation.

  • A way to tell skill apart from capacity
    A lens for performance conversations that separates a real skill gap from a capacity gap.

  • A way to build workload around real capacity
    Practical tools for managing workload that account for real fluctuations in attention and energy.

  • A filter for incoming requests
    A framework for prioritizing what comes in, based on actual team capacity.

  • A shared language for capacity
    Vocabulary that moves vague check-ins into specifics you can actually act on.

  • A way to keep accommodation conversations practical
    A structure that keeps the focus on what someone needs to do their best work.

  • A set of low-cost environment changes
    Adjustments that measurably improve focus and output, without a budget request.

  • A clearer read on what professionalism rewards
    Which standards reward style over substance, and what that's costing you.

  • A read on how culture shapes stress
    How cultural background shapes the way stress and struggle show up, useful for any manager leading a global team.

  • One question for every check-in
    A repeatable question that asks what's actually getting in the way.

What You'll Bring Back

Here's what's inside.

This is where the pieces stop being interesting and start being useful.

You know your brain works differently. You've tried to build a life around that. Something still isn't working.

The Social Connections Summit is two days for late-identified neurodivergent professionals developed around one idea: your experience is your wiring plus your identity, your biology, and the culture you grew up in.
Join us for live sessions, real conversation, and insights to take with you.
You'll leave with something you can actually use.

There's more to your story than one label can hold, and more riding on it than how you feel after hours.

If you're tired of having the label but still not knowing what to do with it at your desk, this is where that changes.

It's the chance to finally understand why none of your other attempts stuck, at home or at the workplace.

And we won't leave you alone with what you just learned.

The Social Connections Summit connects you with people who think the way you do, because insight without connection is still isolating.

The Useful Part

They come because the definition didn't change what their workday actually feels like.

ADHD explained why you'd feel stuck on a deadline until the night before, then suddenly clear-headed at 11pm.

Autism explained why a full day of meetings could leave you flattened by 3pm, with nothing left for the evening.

Late identification explained why chronic exhaustion was a part of your daily life.

Good information. Not a next step.

People don't come to the Social Connections Summit for another definition of neurodivergence.

Here, your label gets layered with everything else that shaped how you work.

Your identity comes into focus.
Your biology gets named.
The culture you grew up in finally counts as part of the picture, including how you were taught to handle pressure at work.

This Summit considers your neurodivergence plus your lived experience, in the room where you spend most of your hours.

You're missing the connection between having a label and understanding how it impacts your life at work and beyond.

We go further, with frameworks built for specific friction points, the kind that show up most clearly during a workday.

You tried fidget toys, dimming your monitor, and a breathing exercise before walking into the open office.

What if the real problem is knowing how to manage a sensory environment that's been wearing you down?

You tried scripting your small talk and rehearsing how to show up, especially before a client call or a performance review.

→ What if the real problem is a masking tax that compounds across race and culture, and gets more expensive the higher you climb?

You tried explaining your exhaustion as burnout, your fog as just getting older, and what your body was doing as something hormonal to push through.

→ What if the discovery was just the beginning of a much bigger story about hormones and fluctuating capacity?

We do more than simply affirm that your brain works fine.

"Being in community with other neurodivergent professionals and feeling a sense of belonging was my favorite."

— Neurodivergent professional, 2025 Summit Attendee

Welcome kit, mailed to you — turns two days of screen time into something you can hold. Experience low-waste, sensory-aware tools that help you stay present and get more from every session. Plus get 30 days extended replay watch time.

Two days of live sessions — keynote, lightning talks, a panel, and a hands-on workshop. Sept 23 & 24, 10am–2pm CT.

Live Q&A with speakers — not a passive watch. You're in the room, and you can ask.

Replay access — every session is yours to rewatch for 7 days, on your own schedule.

The professional directory — a curated bonus: affirming coaches, providers, and spaces, yours to keep.

Authentic Connection — curated time to meet with those who know and live your struggle.

VIP only

What's Included

This might sound familar.

"I've learned a lot already, but it still doesn't show up when I'm staring down a deadline."

"I understand myself, but I can't seem to follow through, especially when someone's waiting on me."

"I keep trying new systems at work, and nothing sticks past the first week."

"I've done the work. Why is this still so hard to bring into a meeting?"

Join us if you're neurodivergent yourself and leading others, on a team, in a classroom, or in a practice.
Your lived experience shapes how you lead, even on the days coaching wasn't part of the job.
This summit welcomes neurodivergent adults whether you are late-identified, late-diagnosed or still working it out.
Here you'll find peers across coaching, education, healthcare, technology, the arts, and beyond.

Maybe this sounds familiar too.

"I know what it's like, but I'm still learning how to lead someone else through it."

"I don't want to assume my experience is automatically their experience."

"I'm the only neurodivergent person leading here, and I don't have a model to follow."

"I care about getting this right for my team while I'm still getting it right for myself."

Who This Is For

For the Professional Leading It

For the Professional Living It

Late-identified AuDHDer & trans man · Founder & host

Why this exists

I'm Coach Lee, a late-identified AuDHDer and trans man. For a long time, I didn't know how much my identities were shaping my experience.

In transgender spaces I expected to belong but left feeling misunderstood. In Black spaces I kept breaking unspoken rules I didn't know existed. And autism? I never considered it, because nobody who looked like me was ever part of that conversation.

Perhaps you can relate.

Maybe your version looks different. Maybe it's energy that disappears for reasons no one can name, or pain and fatigue that keep getting waved off. Maybe it's the days the motivation and focus just aren't there and you call yourself lazy for it. Maybe you grew up somewhere that had no language for any of this, so you just learned to push through.

Whatever the mix, it's rarely just about being neurodivergent. It's about how your brain meets your body, your identity, and the world you move through.

That's why we built this summit. Because when you finally see how the pieces fit, the problem stops being you.

Coach Lee Hopkins

(He/him)

"I got so much out of these past two days, and cannot wait to come back next year."

— Neurodivergent professional, 2025 Summit Attendee

Save your seat for September.

Priority access

Join us for two days where you finally don't have to translate yourself, and leave with the words for what's been getting in the way.

$47

August 1 to September 21

General access

$97

Late access

September 22

$147

Price moves to $147 on September 22

Through July 31

Professionals like you have already reserved their seat

  • Artist

  • Trainer

  • Holistic Life Coach

  • Online Art Gallerist

  • Administrative Assistant

  • Nonprofit Consultant

  • Program Specialist

  • Clinical Psychologist

  • Discrimination Researcher

  • Instructional Designer

  • Organization Development Specialist

  • Sales Leader

  • Payroll Director

  • Director, People and Culture

  • Founder & Executive Director

  • Founder, Strategic Communications & Brand Strategist

For the person who wants personalized support. Only 10 spots available.

Includes full two day access plus:

A post-summit group strategy session with key speakers and service providers.

30 days of replay access, so you can revisit sessions when your energy actually allows, not race a countdown.

A curated package of neuroaffirming goodies arriving at your door before September 23.

Early access to the virtual goodie bag with first dibs on free and discounted services.

Your name acknowledged at the summit.

A special giveaway exclusively for All In ticket holders.

Limited to 10

All In Access

Want more support? Take the next step up.

$197

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Not ready yet? Stay in the loop.

Get behind the scenes insights, a voice in summit programming and bonus content from our sponsors before the doors open.

Silver

Thank you to the people and organizations who make this conversation possible.

Patterns of Possibility logo, Gold sponsor of the Social Connections SummitPatterns of Possibility logo, Gold sponsor of the Social Connections Summit
Spicy Brains logo, Gold sponsor of the Social Connections SummitSpicy Brains logo, Gold sponsor of the Social Connections Summit

Sponsors

Gold

Constellation logo, Silver sponsor of the Social Connections SummitConstellation logo, Silver sponsor of the Social Connections Summit
Squirrel Space logo, Gold sponsor of the Social Connections SummitSquirrel Space logo, Gold sponsor of the Social Connections Summit