You may have already heard about our new neurodiversity conference, It Takes All Kinds Of Minds, known as ITAKOM. The conference is taking place at the EICC and online, on 13-14th March 2023, and will welcome hundreds of delegates to attend this neurodiversity-focused research & practice event.
ITAKOM is a two day conference from Professor Sue Fletcher-Watson, with five parallel streams of content spanning biomedical to social science perspectives. There will be scientific research keynotes from Neuroscience REF panel chair Professor Susan Gathercole, Professor Sven Bolte, Dr Kathy Leadbitter and Professor Pierre Magistretti. In addition, we will have expert community speakers on autism, ADHD and with Tourette syndrome from Holly Smale, Rory Bremner and Pelle Sandstrak respectively. The conference as a whole features more than 60 world-class speakers and over 100 posters sharing cutting-edge innovations from science and practice – and plenty of breaks for networking and discussion.
Check out the conference overview to see how it all fits together, with highlights for those interested in healthcare, education, workplaces and communities. Or download the full brochure for more detail!
Advantage rates for delegates expire on the 31st January, so if you are interested please take the chance to register for the event here. We also have a large pool of bursary places (i.e. completely free registrations) available for people who don’t have funding to attend. People can also request a 30% discounted rate for low incomes, and this won’t rise as the conference dates approach. And organisations can block book: buy 5 get the 6th place free.
In addition, we have a Call for Stories live until the end of January too. This is a chance for neurodivergent people to share their own personal stories as part of the conference programme, by submitting a recording. There are detailed instructions in the call – people can record alone or with a friend or helper. The goal is to make this an inclusive and relatively unfiltered chance to hear from neurodivergent people in their own words (or pictures, or sounds).
Neurodiversity is an exciting new idea but we are still very much learning about how to apply it, in our schools, our clinics, our communities, our workplaces, our homes and in our research. Join us to explore the implications of neurodiversity and learn how you can become more neurodiversity-informed, and affirmative!
Follow the event: on twitter @ITAKOM_CONF or find us on facebook, linkedin and Instagram.
Holly E. A. Sutherland
PhD candidate @ DART Lab / Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
The University of Edinburgh
Kennedy Tower,
Morningside Terrace,
EH10 5HF
h.e.a.sutherland@sms.ed.ac.uk