Neurodiversion! Our biggest event of the year so far! Even better, our biggest event ever so far! Yes we just launched a few weeks ago, but this event had a lot of pressure riding on it, whether we knew it or not. This was our first neurodivergent event experience, and honestly, we had no idea what to expect. But before we get into the event, let’s back up a bit.
Flashback to about October 2025. Mom saw an ad for the event in a newsletter she followed for work, and asked if we wanted to go. At the time, we were still in beta testing, so we were mostly just curious. We didn’t go into it thinking “this is going to be a big moment for us.” We just wanted to see what it had to offer and learn what we could. It felt low pressure then – just another opportunity to observe and take things in.
Fast forward to December 2025, and we find out they’re doing an expo. So naturally, we signed up. Not totally sure what would happen after signing up, because it was the first year they were even doing the expo. We didn’t know what it would look like, how many people we would actually be able to reach, or how the community would react to our app. At that point, it still felt like a “we’ll figure it out as we go” kind of decision, even though, looking back, it probably deserved a little more weight than we gave it.
There were a lot of feelings going into this. It’s one thing to just go to an event – sit in sessions, meet people, and learn. It’s another thing entirely to have a booth. Now you’re responsible for how you show up, how you present, and how people experience what you’ve built. You have to prep your booth, create giveaways and freebies, make sure you have answers ready for any question someone might ask, figure out logistics, timing, setup, and make sure the booth is staffed the entire time. That shift alone added a level of pressure we hadn’t really prepared for.
And don’t get me wrong – we were totally excited to go! It’s just, now there’s a lot of pressure (unintentionally or not) to show up and perform. Because when you’re a business owner, your business isn’t just a project you can detach from. It’s your baby, your passion project, and sometimes your reason for continuing to push forward even when things feel uncertain. We had spent two years building NeuroLocker, and now we were about to put it in front of the exact community we built it for. That meant opening ourselves up to validation, but also to rejection, and that’s a mental load that’s hard to fully explain until you’re in it.
But we decided to commit to it, and see what would happen. Now we have three months to prepare all of the things we need to have ready for the event. So we started posting on social media that we will be attending and jumped into prep mode. We created banners (two of them), flyers (which I personally cut out (yes, all 1,000 of them)), updated our business cards (yes, also my design) and got them all ordered so they would be here in time for the event.
Then came the question of freebies and giveaways, which somehow turned into its own full project. We decided to create a 3D-printed fidget clicker, which meant our printer was running almost nonstop leading up to the event. We also made notebooks, buttons that we designed, cut out, and assembled ourselves, and stickers that I designed as well. On paper, it all sounded fun and creative, and it was – but it was also a lot more time-consuming than we expected. Every small detail added up, and suddenly the timeline didn’t feel as generous as it had at the beginning.
Getting all of this done when you’re unemployed seems super easygoing, right? Well, 4 weeks before the event, I just had to go and get a job (a girl needs to make money, okay?). That added a whole new layer to everything we were already trying to do. Now we had to work around my new schedule while still being behind on the prep we wanted to complete. Late nights and early mornings (well…early for me at least) became the routine for those last few weeks. We were pushing to get everything done, knowing we probably wouldn’t get all of it done, but trying anyway.
Eventually, we reached the point where everything that absolutely needed to be done was done (or at least done enough). The car was packed, and we were on our way to Austin. A five hour drive (and two Buc-ee’s stops) later, we made it to the hotel. By the time we got there, it felt like everything had built up to this moment, even though the event hadn’t technically started yet.
The first unofficial meetup was Thursday night, and we got to Austin about an hour before the start of the meetup. Our nerves were already running high at that point, but we decided to go anyway. We got tacos, grabbed a drink, and found a table to sit at, trying to act like we knew what we were doing. At first, we weren’t even sure who was there for the event and who was just there hanging out. It felt a little awkward, like we had shown up to something we weren’t fully part of yet.
Eventually, we found one guy who looked just as lost as we were, and together we figured out where the rest of the group was. That helped break the tension a little, but then came the part I was quietly dreading – the socializing. Talking to new people is already hard for me, and now we were talking to people about something we had poured two years into building. That added a different kind of pressure, because it wasn’t just small talk anymore. It felt personal.
We ended up meeting some really great people and got to talk about NeuroLocker. Hearing people say they thought it was a great idea, especially coming from the neurodivergent community, was incredibly validating. It was one of those moments where you realize maybe you’re not completely off track, even if your brain has been telling you otherwise. Still, we didn’t stay too long. We knew the next day was the official start of the event, and we needed to be rested for it.
Part 2 coming soon!
Sophea
English