By Menachem Rephun, Communications Manager, Creative Spirit
October 6-9, 2025, was Advertising Week, an annual event based in NYC’s Penn District, bringing together experts in marketing, advertising, technology, and media for a wide range of seminars, workshops, and panel discussions. It’s an amazing, invaluable opportunity to expand awareness of neurodiversity, including the strengths, skills, and talents of the millions of people who are neurodivergent. By utilizing the full scope of their creativity and ingenuity, the marketing, media, and advertising industries have the power to contribute to that cause.
Starting on Oct. 6, Creative Spirit set up a dedicated space at 100 West 33rd Street, joining many other companies and organizations, including neuroverse powered by Havas. In addition to promoting fair-wage employment for the neurodivergent community, we also highlighted our #HireDifferent Academy program, which works one-on-one with companies to help them become more inclusive of neurodivergent employees, as well as become neurodiversity-certified.
On Oct. 8, we held a panel titled “Rethinking Difference: Cognitive Diversity as a Creative and Business Advantage”. The discussion featured Darlene Doubert, EVP and Client Services Director of neuroverse; Laurel Rossi, Co-Founder and Board Chair of Creative Spirit; Rachel Lowenstein, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of the New Project; Kathryn Parsons, VP, Content Strategy Havas Health; and Kerry Sette, VP, Head of Consumer Insights and Research, Voya Financial. The panelists shared their insights on why utilizing and appreciating the talent of neurodivergent employees is not just a plus but also essential for a competitive advantage.
‘‘When you’re thinking about content,’’ Kathryn said, ‘‘rather than thinking about what you want to say, think about who’s not in the room, and then get those people in the room, so that you’re co-creating.” Rachel Lowenstein also shared her perspective on respecting and appreciating the differences in how people work and express creativity. “I always give this really radical piece of advice to people,” she said. “If you work with anybody who is creative, just ask them how they do their best work. Every time I say that in a training, and when I’m advising on a project, we’re working with clients, it’s the first question we get, like what’s the most simple brass tacks thing that we should know? And I tell them, just ask people how they do their best work, how you best give and receive information. I think work would be a lot more humane, and we would have a lot less issues in professional environments right now if we all just asked that simple question, and honored it from the beginning of a work engagement all the way through to the end. I don’t know a single person who wouldn’t benefit from that type of question.”
Laurel Rossi shared her perspective as well. “People with expertise and also lived experience, invaluable, [there’s] nothing like it,” she said. “I feel like you have to reach out and talk to the people in your own organizations to understand exactly where the sweet spot is, because there is a business problem underlying [unleashing neurodiversity in the workplace]. When I think about Voya, I think about families bankrupting themselves to fund their special needs families, and they couldn’t retire. And, finally reach out to one of us for expertise, we make it really easy.” Laurel also emphasized the importance of avoiding “an indictment of companies and brands…for companies, it’s really a matter of education. We learned very early on that education is critical. Companies don’t know how to innately train or move forward. The simple story is that education is at the heart of everything we need to do…when everyone is on the same playing field, it makes the experience better for everyone…everybody wants to activate the benefits of neurodiversity in the workplace.”
Lastly, Kerry Sette advocated for focusing on “what people can do, not what they can’t do.” She noted that people-first language is “absolutely critical. Like Laurel said, we found super-intelligent people that they were doing all the right things for their family, and they literally were completely bankrupting and leaving their children with nothing, because basic financial instruments were missing.”
The panel discussion encapsulated part of the goal of Advertising Week, which is for experts in branding, marketing, technology, advertising, and other forms of media to recognize the value and diverse minds, diverse thinking, and creative expression. It’s about celebrating intellectual curiosity and the strengths and skills of professionals who are neurodivergent.
You can meet with Creative Spirit to learn more about our Hire Different Academy program and how we can help you educate your teams and utilize the talent resident in your current employees, clients, and customers.
