The Founding Weekend
Two days in Vail. One table..
The weekend is built around two questions.
How has raising your autistic child reshaped who you are as a leader?
What levers are you going to pull because of it — in your company, in your community, in your family?
The two days are structured as four working sessions. The sessions are sequenced deliberately, and the room is small enough that each member has real time inside every one of them.
Friday, October 2 (Optional)
The founding weekend runs Saturday October 3 and Sunday October 4. Friday evening arrival is optional for members who want a more relaxed start.
Saturday, October 3
The Inward Day
Session 1 — The Moment We Knew
Morning. Each member speaks in turn about the diagnosis — how they learned, what they felt, what changed inside them and inside their family. The room builds the trust required for the work that follows.
Session 2 — The Idea That Sharpens the Life
Afternoon. A working session on legacy, on finite time, and on planning for a child whose life will continue after ours. What facing this question changes about how we lead now. What it changes about the plan we build for our children while we still can.
A member of our brain trust leads the second half of this session: how to hand a child’s life off seamlessly to family and caregivers, what to teach the people around them to advocate for beyond finances — the day-to-day choices that make our children happier and more capable — and how members of this room begin looking after each other’s children as one ecosystem.
Session 2 is led by Dr. Ben Yalom and Amanda Lukof
Evening. Dinner together. No agenda. The work continues at the table or it does not. Both are fine.
Sunday, October 4
The outward day.
Session 3 — What Our Children Have Made Us
Morning. The room takes up what has actually changed — in our values, in our companies, in the cultures we have tried to build. Each member practices telling their leadership story in a way that is authentic, specific, and useful to the room.
Session 4 — The Outward Act
Early afternoon. The business case for cognitive diversity and autistic talent — what we know, what we have built, what companies still miss. Each member names one outward act they will carry into the next twelve months. The room agrees on what it wants to build together.
The bet is simple. Build a world that values how our children think — and the day one of them becomes CEO is a day all of us are better for it.
Close. A calendar of regional gatherings and a commitment that has been spoken aloud in front of people who care and who will remember.
The Founding Roundtable
Two working days in Vail, October 3–4, 2026.
The Year, After Vail
Regional Gatherings
Regional Gatherings — Hosted by founding members in New York, Nashville, and other cities..
Monthly Briefings
A short note from the founder. What's changing? Who is available?
Looking Forward
Founding members set the agenda for what comes next — the shape of future weekends and the questions the room takes up as it grows.
The Brain Trust
Researchers, clinicians, and operators ready to share insight and facilitate peer driven learning.
One Outward Act
Each member commits to one act per year that carries our private room into the world.
What Founding Membership Includes
Founding membership covers the full year: the Vail weekend and the community that continues after it — the Brain Trust, monthly expert sessions, regional gatherings hosted by founding members, and monthly briefings.
Lodging at Vail is arranged by each member at the Four Seasons or Sebastian.
Our thought leaders will receive complimentary resort accommodations.
Travel, Lodging, and Time Off The Clock
Lodging is at the Four Seasons or The Sebastian in Vail, side by side. Members arrange their own room directly with the resort; a preferred block is held at both.
Fly into Denver International (approximately two hours by car) or Eagle County Regional (shorter transfer). All guests make their own travel arrangements.
Outside the working sessions, the resort is yours — spa, hiking, time to think, time to decompress.
We encourage you to join us on a special gondola ride and hike. Vail is especially beautiful in early October as the foliage turns golden.
