Neurodiversity Event - June 2

I discovered I was dyslexic in my mid-forties. My oldest daughter was struggling in middle school and the memory of my own challenges through school came flooding back. During my career as a Microsoft Solution Specialist, there were only a few challenges that prevented me from doing my job. I rarely mentioned my scholastic career and wasn’t forthcoming that I didn’t have a college degree.

Somewhere along the way, I was referred to a book that ended up changing my life. The Dyslexic Advantage told me that there was a benefit to being Dyslexic and a whole new world opened up.

I started to get active within the community and joined a disability group within Microsoft. This is where I met Jack. Jack was a code tester who happened to be on the spectrum of Asperger’s. He told me that during his end-of-year performance review, his boss told him that he didn’t seem to get along with his team and didn’t seem to want to communicate much.

Ninety percent of all disabilities in the workforce are invisible -- including learning disabilities, ADD, ADHD, medical conditions and more. When a disability is invisible, the fear of disclosure can be intimidating.

This conversation made me think about my own experience of disclosing my disability and I thought with the help of Microsoft, I could get the word out and effect change.

Microsoft is committed to neurodiversity and has recently been in the news around the hiring program for hiring employees with Autism.

On June 2, 2015, Microsoft is hosting a Neurodiversity Conference. Through the conference, I envision progress towards a new and different view around Neurodifferences. Business leaders and pioneers such as Richard Branson, Charles Schwab, David Hewlett, John Chambers, and Walt Disney are all dyslexic. We ask the question – Do we want to attract, retain and embrace the employee with differences? Do we want an entrepreneurship spirit within our organizations?

Participants will be able to hear from the Dr.’s as they make the case for the advantages of Dyslexia. Through their research and interviews with several distinguished dyslexics, they tell the story and make the case of a distinct advantage to being dyslexic.

To illustrate the example, two leading and well known venture capitalists – Scott Sandell and David Hornik will discuss their dyslexia and experiences as business leaders. Each were instrumental to the growth and funding development of well-known successful ventures such as Salesforce, Workday, Ebates, Splunk and others.

A roundtable discussion with entrepreneur and founder of Sugar CRM – John Roberts, PeopleSoft Executive David Obershaw and Dr. Joan Bisagno from Stanford Dyslexia center, will tackle the education and workforce dynamic.

Afterwards, there is an opportunity for the attendees to network with partners and sponsors such as Netwoven, Understood, Lime Connect, Parents Education Network and local schools that specialize in learning differences. The International Dyslexia Association will lead participants through a simulation of what it is like to be dyslexic.

The conference is free and open to anyone. It starts at 9 am and competes by 12 noon.

If interested in attending this event please register here.

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032612700&Culture=en-US&community=0

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Stu Shader is an Office 365 sales specialist at Microsoft. Stu loves his job, and has had various sales, consulting and business development roles with companies such as Documentum, PeopleSoft, Hyperion, Apple and Anderson Consulting. He lives in Pleasanton with his wife and two dyslexic daughters.