11de Nationaal Autisme Congres, Rotterdam What an amazing day! My presentation (The Advantages and Disadvantages of diagnosis, misdiagnosis and treatment in the development of my autistic personality) went brilliantly and I met some truly amazing people. I finally got the chance to hear Prof.Dick Swaab talk about how truly amazing our brains are and meeting Adam Feinstein of Autism Cymru was an inspirational moment. The lecture of Dr.Michael Lombardo from the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge was very technical and fascinating to listen to. The work they are doing there is groundbreaking to say the least. The last lecture of the day by Prof.Mark Stokes of Deakin University, Australia was insightful, respectful and most importantly, funny! I learnt things about myself through listening to all of these lectures and my brain is still overloaded with new thoughts and ideas’. I hope I inspired some more people during my talk, I was certainly inspired! A big thankyou to Hans Bogte for helping me find the people I wanted to talk to in the massive crowds! 19th March 2011 InService Autism Congres, Belgium The months of March and April have been pretty busy so far! I spoke with my sister Pamela at the largest 2 day autism conference in Belgium about our personal experiences with autism as sisters’, being a parent and how we can see my diagnosis helping my 10 yr old nephew. The 1 hour presentation was extremely well received and even though we had only had the chance to do a full run-through the night before...and had to stop 3/4’s of the way through since it was 12 at night and I needed my sleep. Me+lack of sleep+1 hour presentation+ALOT of socializing would not have been a good combination! We rocked it as I had expected us to and we both had an amazing time. I met some fascinating people and managed to corner Vicki Bliss of Brief Therapy Support Systems, UK during lunch to ask her some of my burning questions based on her presentation. It was lovely to be able to converse with a fellow native english speaker and her energy was very calming. Lunch and dinner enabled us to meet many people who were busy within the world of autism, teaching and the health sector. I can’t wait for the next big conference! Highlight: My next presentation will be on Autism and Creativity at MEE West-Brabant, Breda on the 16th of May at 19.30. 20th April 2011    Presentation at the Steunpunt Autisme&Onderwijs in Nijmegen 22 September, 19.30-20.15 Tarweweg 3, Nijmegen Coming Thursday I will be giving a dutch version of the presentation I gave at the 11de Nationaal Autisme Congres in Rotterdam in March. The theme of the evening is ‘VolwASSen en dan?’/ ‘Grown-up and then?’ and visitors will have the opportunity to see the films Autidelict and Ruimte voor beperking, wonen met autisme, or listen to Marijke Schokkenbroek talking about the learning of social skills. Hanneke Verbeek will give a talk about the guidance of students in WO and HBO eduacation. My thanks to Susanne Wolthaar for inviting me to give this presentation. I am sure the night will be very interesting and I am very curious what questions I will have asked of me. This is often my favourite part of speaking engagements, the feedback of the audience and the questions I get asked. These often help me to have more insights into how I think! 21st September, 2011