NYC Autism Community

Supports and guidance for autistic young people and families are often expensive, out of reach, and can even cause more harm than good.

Are you unhappy with your autism support services like I was for our daughter? I feel like we've been lied to and misled about what are the best options by the mainstream autism service "funnel" we all get steered towards--drugs and ABA services. There is a better way!

If you want more, better solutions for your autistic family member or yourself, you need to come to our Autism Tech, Innovation and Careers Expo. You will find better solutions I guarantee it! And all are evidence-based!

Don't Miss Out on the Event of the Year and the start of our mission to help families with autistic members and autistic people.

For most of us parents who have just found out our child is autistic, services usually begin with a pharmaceutical drug and cookie cutter ABA services, which do not serve our autistic children. These are the mainstream autism services offered at the outset typically.

Instead, we want to showcase to you, via a variety of speakers, exhibitors, vendors, and demonstrations - that modern tech and innovation along with alternative solutions can support autistic young people to accept themselves - and families to embrace their autistic young people more authentically and affordably.

A key goal of our event - is to provide spirited conversations around neurodiversity employment, where it is, where it needs to go the remedy the challenges there. Neurodiversity underemployment or unemployment is estimated at 50-80% for certain well greater than for neurotypical workers - we want to play our part to drastically improve that with our event. There is hope and we want you to hear it!

We are also creating an eco system and community with our exhibitor/sponsorship partners so they can accelerate their businesses working together through our network. This way, they can serve more families in need with their amazing solutions.

We are proud for the support of our two Platinum Sponsors, Kyndryl and Go Manda. They epitomize our mission to seek alternative solutions from the point of view of autistic individuals.

Karima Bryant, Chief Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Officer for Kyndryl will be anchoring our panel on Neurodiversity employment in the workspace. We welcome Karima!

There will be speakers and workshops throughout the day.

Our Keynote Speaker is Jude Morrow - Autistic author, motivational speaker, 2x TEDx Speaker, and Founder of Neurodiversity Training International.

Our other Keynote Speaker - Celest Austin MD - Founder of GoManda - a tech inspired app that helps autistic children learn and communicate in their already wonderful autistic way. GoManda is a our proud key event sponsor.

Karima Bryant, Chief Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Officer for Kyndryl will be anchoring our panel on Neurodiversity employment in the workspace. We welcome Karima!

Special Guest Speaker Nat Lyckowski.  A thought leader and keynote speaker in neurodiversity hiring and employment at IBM and beyond. Nat represents the voice for all neurodivergent adults seeking employment and acceptance and support at their employers, a shift that has to happen and will thanks to torch bearers like Nat.

Special Guest Performer: Well Known actor/television and film producer and executive speaking coach Joe Sabatino will be joining us live via streaming to talk about the place of humor and importance of public speaking fundamentals in our lives! You've seen Joe in dozens of movies and TV series and he is a gem we are proud to have on board!

Other Notable Speakers include:

Hugh Zaretsky. Coming from three generations of teachers he understands how we need to improve our traditional educational system. Hugh wants to help teach kids from a young age to learn financial and personal responsibility for their lives.

Manisha Lad. Creator of the Akhil Autism Foundation after her son and an extraordinary entrepreneur creating real change in autism services. “Every autistic individual deserves treatment, and every parent and professionals needs education. Make all the treatments affordable and accessible to every individual.” is her mantra.

Liviu Babitz. Co Founder of CyborgNest. Thought leader and keynote speaker, presenting and building a positive future where the world learns from each step taken, one step at a time. Over a decade of experience in creating cutting edge technology for impact in the fields of Sensory Enhancement and Human Rights.

Jeff Miller and Dave Thompson from Potentia Connecting organizations to neurodiversity through programs, projects, and products resulting in a 96% employee retention rate, over 50% more productivity, and 2X faster skill acquisition.

Zeke Zimmerman Certified Financial Service Registered Representative and Financial Advisor of Park Avenue Securities LLC (PAS). Securities products and advisory services offered through PAS, member FINRA, SIPC. Certified Financial Services, LLC is not an affiliate or subsidiary of PAS or Guardian.

Leslie Robinson Trans4Mation Games Ms. Robinson founded Trance4mation Games, a company formed as the overall company for the Warrior Spirit Mission Homefront and the Keep It Real brand. Her popular and highly regarded workshops cover diversity and inclusion, leadership development, team building, anti-bullying and staff development, among others.

Lauren Pearson. Lauren is a high school senior from Ontario, Canada. She is also a teen author, who is passionate about neuroscience and neurodiversity. Due to her own experiences with having ADHD and Autism, she aspires to end the implicit gender gap among neurodiverse females. She created "DiverseNeuro" to increase academic efforts surrounding neurodiversity.

There will be an expert panel to discuss:

Neurodiversity employment and job matching for young adults with autism including Karima Bryant from Kyndryl and assisted by Jeff Miller of Potentia and Nat Lyckowski, IBM, moderated by Jude Morrow.

In person attendee tickets include access to the online virtual event platform hosted on Aspire.

Online tickets contain the keynote speeches, online discussion boards, networking opportunities and the catalogue of exhibitors.

For Vendors/Exhibitors- Do you want to showcase your innovations to your ideal audience? When purchasing an in-person vendor space - this includes space in the online platform catalogue complete with links. Should you not wish to exhibit at the actual event, please purchase an "online exhibitor" ticket.

For any event contact or information including for vendor/exhibitors please email Richard Schreiber at rschreiber@nycautismcommunity.org