Ask and amazing things happen

Last week I was super excited to announce how a session I pitched for the Southby Southwest conference (SXSW) was accepted last week. I’m really excited to rally the smart minds of the conference into thinking of solutions that might help the many sections of the special needs world come together.

A little more than 48 hours ago, I got the congratulatory email telling me some of the details on running a SXSW core conversation. One element that I didn’t know was a core conversation can only officially include two speakers. That meant one person of my planned three-person session would not get a speaker’s pass into the conference. I was crushed. My session needs all three of us! So I decided to try and ask my online community for help. Heck, it was worth the try, right?

I created a ChipIn account and asked all of my social networks if I could get some help purchasing a SXSW pass for the conference in March 2012. It isn’t cheap. The conference doesn’t sell day passes. It’s either all or nothing. So I need $650 for our third person to join the conference and join in on the core conversation. That’s when something amazing happened. People started donating their hard earned money so my session could come together the way I had envisioned! To make things even more amazing, Julia Roberts and Support for Special Needs offered an incentive. If I could raise the first $325 before the pass goes up an extra hundred dollars on November 11th, they would match it.

Less than 48 hours later, we met our goal! I’m so honored so many people are willing to support me and our quest to investigate the possibility of how the tech-minded community can help special needs communities work together. I’m touched and determined to see if we can come up with solutions to help bring more members of the many kinds of different special needs communities together to support each other.

(Photo courtesy of vistamommy on Flickr)