How to Make Events More Neuroinclusive Without Trying Too Hard

Photo by J. Balla Photography on Unsplash.

I nearly passed up a great networking opportunity last week. To anyone watching, that would've looked like a bad business decision. For someone with ADHD, it's not that simple.

I was invited to a lunch celebrating women entrepreneurs featuring a keynote, panel, and interesting people in the room. All signs pointed to a great event. But reading more about the host organization, I started to wonder if I belonged there. The organization supports business owners growing businesses at a much larger scale than mine. Suddenly I was anticipating a heavy lift just to walk in.

Many of my neurodivergent traits are genuine strengths in networking spaces. Reading a room and adapting how I communicate developed partly as masking. But in the right context, those same skills help me facilitate genuine connection.

While valuable, these traits require a lot of energy. The more out of place I feel, the higher the cost. Sometimes my protective instincts go too far, and I nearly walk away from genuine opportunities. That almost happened last week.

What got me into the room was good leadership.

The event listing invited people to reach out if they weren't sure the event was the right fit. I contacted the organizer, who made it easy to book a quick chat. We talked about the event, found shared interests, and she even made an introduction that's already proving valuable.

Good leadership isn't a vague "let me know if you need anything." It's creating specific, easy pathways to support. And a side effect of that kind of leadership is inclusion for people who need a little more information before they can show up fully.

Had I stayed home, I would've missed a keynote on the importance of building a peer network instead of going it alone as an entrepreneur. I would've missed a panel of women sharing how they're running businesses with the sort of principled approach that I aspire to as I build my coaching practice. And I would've missed the chance to put neuroinclusion on the radar of some of the leaders I met.

I'm grateful for the organizer's leadership that opened a door into that room. And I'm glad I walked through it.

If you lead events or teams, what's your version of an open door? And how easy is it to actually find?