Andy Williamson, Founder of Welcome Brain, discusses how the events industry can lead the way with neuroinclusive events.

Welcome Brain is a consultancy aiming to change the world of events by embracing neurodiversity and making inclusion central to the industry. Andy Williamson came to neuroinclusion through education – working with neurodivergent young people in schools. He noticed a sharp drop-off as people move out of compulsory education: “As a society, we’re reasonably good at making adjustments for neurodivergent people at school, but when they reach adulthood, a lot of that disappears. The expectation becomes that you conform. There’s a clear gap there, and that’s what Welcome Brain exists to address.”

Welcome Brain’s most significant contribution to the events sector is the Neurodiversity in Events Checklist, co-developed with the Association of British Professional Conference Organisers (ABPCO) and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) and launched in February last year. Free and open source, it operates across three tiers – silver, gold, and platinum – with silver designed to be achievable at no cost. Organisations that complete a tier can apply for official accreditation at that level, also free of charge. A parallel Neuroinclusive Venue Accreditation scheme has followed, piloted with the Eastside Rooms in Birmingham – the first venue in the country to receive the award – and it’s expanding rapidly. At Hospitality Live, the Royal Armouries announced it was signing up, and Welcome Brain has now partnered with Venue Directory so planners can search specifically for accredited venues: “Event planners are increasingly looking for that because more and more people are demanding it.”

Around 20% of the population is neurodivergent – one in five of the people in any room. So, the case for Welcome Brain’s initiative is both ethical and commercial: “The events industry is fundamentally about human connection. If you’re not making your events neuroinclusive, you’re excluding a significant portion of people.” The proof is in the results: a NatWest Audit Academy event at the EICC became the first to achieve gold certification and returned 100% positive feedback: “At worst, neurotypical people don’t notice the changes. But for neurodivergent people, it genuinely means the world.” The NatWest chief executive subsequently announced that the practices trialled at the event would be incorporated into the company’s wider corporate operations.

Andy challenges the assumption that feedback data justifies inaction: “Your end-of-event survey only captures the people who had the energy to stay all day. It doesn’t account for the people who didn’t come in the first place or who left at lunchtime because they’d already burnt out.”

Some of the most effective changes are also the cheapest. At a fertility conference at the EICC, reserving the two back rows of the plenary hall so delegates could step in and out without disruption cost nothing and generated some of the warmest feedback of the day: “We’ve since built that into our checklist as standard practice.”

Welcome Brain offers two CPD-certified training routes. A Neurodiversity in Events course focuses on embedding inclusive structures well ahead of the event day – reducing, not adding to, on-the-day workload. The Neurodiversity First Responder course, modelled on mental health first aid and believed to be the first of its kind in the UK, allows individual staff members to be upskilled without taking an entire team offline.

Technology is also lowering the barriers: AI-powered real-time subtitling tools such as Speakeasy have made live transcription affordable, and Andy points to emerging AI crowd-navigation tools that could guide attendees around busy areas of a venue in real time: “They act in the same way Google Maps redirects you around traffic. I think that’s going to become commonplace.”

Welcome Brain is launching a free guide on neuroinclusive networking at The Meetings Show, the product of a major research study undertaken with an ABPCO working group. The findings make sobering reading for event planners: 94% of neurodivergent people reported feeling actively anxious when networking, but so did 74% of neurotypical people, and three quarters said their least favourite format was unstructured mingling, which is still the industry default.

For Andy, the trajectory is clear: “In the events industry, sustainability is now the expected standard, not a differentiator. That’s exactly where I want neuroinclusion to go. The UK is currently the world leader on this, which is a huge advantage for event planners. The checklist works and it’s free, so there really aren’t any excuses left.”

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