Adonis Autism Assistance Foundation (AAAF)

Now that the dust has settled on our 5th Promising Pathways Conference and while we await the official attendee responses and our traditional post event committee wrap up I thought I would offer some personal reflections. The hard work that the committee devoted certainly paid off. I have heard from several attendees who gave the conference a rousing show of support. The logistics went off extremely well with some minor hitches that none of the registrants could spot. A very good thing.

It has been nearly a year and a half since we took the challange to bring both Dr.Grandin and Dr. Smith to our community. I must say that the well turned adage "If you don't have a dream, how can you have a dream come true?" beacame a reality for me. It was after they both agreed to keynote our conference that the real work began!

Working with Dr. Grandin can be a bit unforgiving since her autism contains a number of the often observed co morbid traits of OCD. This combined with her stature as one of the 100 most influential people in the world (Time Magazine 2010)presented a series of challanges that could result in one huge logistical headache. I found that the best way to deal with this was simply to accept the reality and find a way to satisfy the requirement regardless of the cost. It was the reward that kept us focused and on task.

Once we receive and review the post conference surveys I will continue with my personal reflections with the comments as a backdrop.