Slowdown shop
Our pop-up shop features a thoughtfully curated selection of books, resources, and goods that align with the spirit of the Slowdown Summit. We’ll be featuring books from our speakers, fidgets and gadgets to help you focus, and tools to support meaningful connection.
Merchandise
Book store
Fidgets + gadgets
Afterparties
We’ll close out the Slowdown Summit with a celebration over food, drink, music, and connection. Come as you are, stay as long as it feels good, and know there’s zero pressure to drink or perform.
Food & beverage
We take dietary needs seriously. Meals and snacks will be thoughtfully planned with sensitivity to a wide range of dietary restrictions, and everything will be clearly labeled.
Gluten free
Vegan & vegetarian
Sensitive options
Religious and personal exclusions
BYO-lunch options
Accessibility
We’ve intentionally designed the Slowdown Summit to be accessible, inclusive, and welcoming—so every attendee can engage in the way that feels right for them.
Live captioning and assisted listening
Live captioning will be available for all mainstage talks and select workshops. Assisted listening devices can be requested in advance. We want everyone to be able to engage fully, whether you're tuning in with your eyes, your ears, or both.
ASL interpretation
ASL interpreters will be present for all keynotes and featured sessions. If you’d like interpretation at smaller breakout sessions or workshops, just let us know in advance—we’re happy to accommodate wherever we can.
Mobility devices and accommodation
The venue is fully ADA accessible, with ramps, elevators, and accessible restrooms. We’ve also made sure seating layouts work for wheelchairs, mobility aids, and anyone who needs extra space.
Digital and analog options
Everyone processes information differently. We’ll be offering both digital and analog tools — from printed agendas and journaling materials to digital guides, slides, and QR codes. Choose the format that works best for your brain and your bandwidth.
Psychological safety
We believe that feeling safe is the foundation of all learning. We design every session, transition, and gathering space with care so you can show up as your full self without fear of judgment, overwhelm, or pressure to perform. Our environment honors boundaries, emphasizes consent, and prioritizes clarity so everyone can engage at the pace and depth that feels right to them.
Agency
You are in control of your own experience. Every session includes clear opt-in moments, space to step out, and multiple ways to participate. We empower you to choose what feels comfortable, to say no without explanation, and to engage only in ways that support your wellbeing and learning.
Physical safety
Your comfort in the physical environment of the Summit matters. From seating variety to accessible movement pathways, from temperature considerations to hydration stations, we’ve worked with The Columbus Museum of Art to provide a space that feels healthy and calm.
Stimulation mitigation
We have intentionally minimized sensory overload for all attendees by considering lighting, sound levels, and visual noise decisions with care. Quiet zones, soft seating, and low-stimulation corners are available throughout the venue, ensuring everyone, especially introverts, neurodivergent attendees, and those with sensory sensitivities, has space to reset.
Expectation setting and preparedness
One of the simplest ways to calm your nervous system is to know what is expected of you before walking into the room. We provide detailed agendas, session descriptions, speaker expectations, and clear guidance on how each activity will work so nothing feels like a surprise. You’ll know what’s coming, what’s optional, and how to prepare, well in advance of each part of the Summit experience.
Learning styles
Everyone learns differently, so why do we structure most events to work exclusively for auditory learners? We have built The Slowdown Summit with multi-modal learning in mind. Each session will be clearly labeled with the learning style it best supports, so you can choose the experiences that resonate most. And no matter your preference, every session will include alternate pathways to engage, ensuring auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and reading/writing learners all have ways to absorb, reflect, and participate fully.
Auditory
For those who learn best by listening, our speakers and facilitators bring narrative, rhythm, and dialogue to the forefront. Expect rich conversations, thoughtful storytelling, live discussions, and opportunities to process ideas through spoken reflection.
Visual
Visual learners will find clarity through illustrated concepts, spatial demonstrations, and environmental cues woven directly into our venue. From interactive art to diagrams to thoughtfully curated aesthetics, opportunities for visual learning will be available to support your learning journey.
Kinesthetic
If you learn by doing, moving, or feeling, you’ll feel at home at The Slowdown Summit. Many sessions incorporate hands-on activities, guided embodiment, spatial exploration, and sensory engagement to help you internalize ideas through action rather than abstraction.
Reading/writing
For reflective thinkers who ground their learning in words, we provide structured journaling prompts in The Slowdown Volume One – our book of teaching and takeaways compiled through contributions from each of our speakers. Quiet corners for processing and opportunities to translate insights onto paper are at the core of our learning model.
Goals
In a world moving faster than humans were built to handle, the Slowdown Summit exists to redefine what leadership looks and feels like. This Summit blends practical learning with reflective experiences, creating conditions where attendees can build clarity, strengthen their leadership identity, and form connections that last long beyond the event.
Individual goals
Leaving with Confidence
Attendees walk away feeling that their time was meaningful, productive, and equipped them with practical tools, new perspectives, and actionable strategies they can immediately apply in their work and life.
Build Meaningful Relationships
We facilitate high-quality, non-transactional networking where people meet collaborators, mentors, and peers who resonate with their values and experiences.
Strengthened Leadership Capacity
Especially for introverts, neurodivergent individuals, and reflective thinkers, the Summit provides guidance on advocating for oneself, navigating the workplace, and embracing a leadership identity that doesn’t require masking or self-erasure.
Set Meaningful Goals
Attendees leave with tangible next steps that align with their strengths, neurotype, and personal leadership philosophy.
Organization-wide goals
Improved Team Dynamics
By empowering individuals to lead from authenticity, companies will experience smoother communication, more trust, and stronger collective intelligence.
Reduced Burnout and Turnover
When employees are supported in honoring their nervous systems, energy cycles, and work styles, workplace friction decreases — and retention improves.
Reframe Challenges as Strengths
By addressing culture gaps directly and compassionately, organizations begin to see neurodiversity, introversion, and different communication styles as assets, not liabilities.
broader leadership development outcomes
Our framework helps companies equip all employees, not just the usual extraverted cohort, with tools for communication, emotional regulation, and decision-making. This distributes leadership capacity more evenly and leads to healthier, more resilient teams.
Topics
With many goals to accomplish and only a day to accomplish them, our team has curated a selection of speakers and workshops that inspire deep conversations about the Self, Community, and 21st Century Issues. Not all of our sessions will be publicly shared: to see the full agenda, you will need to buy a ticket! A selection of the kinds of topics and workshops you can expect to explore at The Slowdown Summit are as follows:
Building an authentic personal brand
Networking without the "Ick"
Managing up and down — communicating across corporate levels
Human skills in the age of AI
Generalist skills are the future: the rise of versatile thinkers
Designing physical spaces that are built for your mind
Keynotes: 10 minute talks that inspire
Our keynotes are designed to inspire without overwhelming by blending story, science, and personal insight from leaders who model a new kind of presence in their work. Keynotes at the Slowdown Summit are short, poignant, and grouped so that no session extends for more than 50 minutes.
Workshops: for the hands on learner
Our workshops are hands-on, high-engagement sessions for those who learn best by doing. Expect practical tools, embodied learning, and room for creativity. If auditory learning isn’t your thing, join our keynote speakers in smaller, more intimate workshops for a play-based learning experience.
Structured networking: it's just... better!
Connection doesn’t have to be awkward. We design moments for you to meet others naturally, from the moment you walk through the door, during guided reflection time, through experiencing shared challenges, or by responding to curiosity prompts throughout the day.
Self guided learning: you do you.
Throughout the day, engage with the big ideas we are exploring on your own terms. Each Session will come equipped with a self-guided reflection sheet that can be completed solo or in pairs. These self-guided reflection opportunities will augment the auditory and kinesthetic materials at the Summit.
Sessions
Sessions at The Slowdown Summit are built around learning styles rather than titles. Choose what feels right: small group conversations, experiential workshops, or reflective talks that meet your current energy level. On your agenda, you’ll find unique tags that identify the session format, energy level required, and whether the session is best for Auditory, Visual or Kinesthetic learners.
What to expect
Think of the Slowdown Summit as part retreat, part professional development, and part creative recharge. You’ll find immersive sessions, quiet corners, shared meals, and real conversations - all within a setting designed to be intentional and energizing.
We’ve done away with the marathon panel discussions and forced networking. Instead, you’ll find like minded peers to learn from, spaces that invite self-guided reflection, and ideas that meet you where you are. Whether you’re looking for movement, meditation, deep conversation, or solo reflection, the day is designed to serve your individuality.
Our why for The Slowdown Summit is this: every person, at every level, of every background and inclination can be and already is a leader. We’re here to show you what is already true inside of you, and to Redefine Leadership not as the loudest voice in the room, but as showing up as your authentic self in service to others.