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Add to Calendar! 07/05/2023 09:00 AM 07/08/2023 11:59 PM America/New_York 2023 NSA Annual Conference
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2023 NSA Annual Conference

Are you ready to be part of the largest gathering of people who stutter? Mark your calendars now, July 5-8, 2023.

Day at a Glance Calendar
Online Registration
Keynote Speakers
Special Guest Appearance

For the past 40 years, the National Stuttering Association has hosted an Annual Conference, and we hope you’ll join us for all of the celebration, education, and connection at this year’s event in sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida!

Here’s what you can expect:

  • Workshops and opportunities to learn more about life as a PWS,
  • Exciting activities and excursions in and around the FTL area,
  • A new educational experience for people who professionally support the stuttering community, and
  • Best of all: the powerful experience of being around hundreds of others who ‘get it’.

Don’t wait, though – early bird rates are only available until May 1st.

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  • 00 hours
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2023 NSA Annual Conference

Are you ready to be part of the largest gathering of people who stutter? Mark your calendars now, July 5-8, 2023.

For the past 40 years, the National Stuttering Association has hosted an Annual Conference, and we hope you’ll join us for all of the celebration, education, and connection at this year’s event in sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida!

With informative workshops, exciting activities and excursions in and around the FTL area, and the powerful experience of being around hundreds of others who ‘get it’, this is THE place to be this summer. Don’t wait, though – early bird rates are only available until May 1st!

This year we’re excited and honored to bring the stuttering community our first NSA Professional Development Experience, July 3-4, where we will dive deep and explore this year’s empowering and timely theme, Embracing the Person Behind the Stutter. Designed to serve the needs of graduate students and speech-language pathologists (at all points in their career), or anyone looking to get a better understanding of stuttering, this experience will delve into topics geared toward the development of an inclusive, person-centered approach when working with people who stutter. 

During our long weekend together, we will celebrate and connect with others as we embrace this wonderful community of people who stutter, the supporters that love them, and the professionals that serve them. The NSA Annual Conference captures that magic in a unique way, so join us and find out for yourself what it’s like to Never Stutter Alone ☀

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Register Now!

Hotel Information & Travel

Hotel & Travel Information

Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa

Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa has everything we could ask for in an Annual Conference setting! Nestled along a quarter-mile stretch of pristine private beach, this year’s conference hotel blends laid-back tropical tranquility with the signature Marriott service you’ve come to expect. We’ll be right in the heart of everything you could need, with nearby shops, dining at all price points, and the vibrant nightlife of Las Olas Boulevard.

Professional Development Experience

Join us as we explore this year’s theme, Embracing the Person Behind the Stutter. Designed to serve the needs of graduate students, speech-language pathologists (at all points in their career), or anyone looking to learn more about stuttering. This experience will delve into topics geared toward the development of an inclusive, person-centered approach when working with people who stutter. By exploring the diverse experiences of individuals who stutter we’ll dive into conversations on how to best serve those who stutter. This event will spur collaboration and provide an opportunity to learn about new ideas from thought leaders in the field. Seating is limited to 100, so register early! Up to 1.2 ASHA CEUs being offered.

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Activities & Excursions

We have put together an exciting lineup of on and off-site activities to add even more fun to your Ft. Lauderdale experience! Check out the details below, and then reserve your space for these activities during registration.

Activity & Excursion Details

What To Expect

Two separate events, one amazing location!

Experience an unforgettable event at the largest gathering of people who stutter. Our tailored workshops, sessions, speakers, and events offer an opportunity to learn, connect, and make new friends. Our Annual Conference will offer up to 1.3 ASHA CEUs.

New this year is our Professional Development Experience! Professional development is something we like to offer all speech professionals, from graduate students to emerging professionals and those with many years of experience. Our Professional Development Experience this year will offer continuing education opportunities that explore how SLPs can incorporate a person-centered approach when supporting PWS. Up to 1.25 ASHA CEUs available.

Still on the fence? Take a peek at our Conference Agenda to see what a typical day looks like. This year’s Annual Conference will be one to remember, and we can’t wait to see you in July!

Conference Agenda

First Timer?

It’s a difficult decision to attend for the first time, but we can ease your fears.

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Families

Are you attending as a family?
Here’s what to expect.

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SLPs

Speech professionals can learn from other experts and earn ASHA CEUs.

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Keynote Speakers

Pamela Mertz

Life begins where fear ends: Owning your inner rockstar
What is it you have always wanted to be, or do, if you didn’t stutter? What holds you back? For half her life, Pamela Mertz let shame and fear hold her back from being her true self. The person she wanted to be was always there, she just didn’t see her for so long. Pam will share how her deep dive into covert stuttering shaped who she was and who she became. She will share how she found her voice, and learned that she could help others find their voice too, which became the most transformative thing in her life. Her keynote will offer insights into how talking openly about stuttering helps more people than we will often ever know.
About Pam
Pamela Mertz is an active member of the global stuttering community. She has presented many workshops for the NSA and has been a guest speaker for other countries’ stuttering associations, including India, China, Peru, and Ireland. She is a past Board member of the National Stuttering Association, the International Stuttering Association and was the USA lead for 50 Million Voices (a global employment advocacy organization) for four years. She also currently assists with organizing the annual International Stuttering Awareness Day online conference held every year during the month of October. She regularly speaks to SLP graduate training program classes about Covert Stuttering.
She has been a passionate advocate for women’s voices and proudly hosts the podcast “Women Who Stutter: Our Stories” which began in 2010.  She has had women from every corner of the world as guests on the podcast, which is the only podcast in the world exclusively for women who stutter.  Pam has also written a blog about stuttering called “Make Room For The Stuttering” since 2009.
Pam was involved with Toastmasters for many years and received the highest distinction within the organization, Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM).
Pam is one of the leaders who began the  NSA “We Stutter @ Work” program that launched in 2019. “We Stutter @ WorK” provides career success resources for people who stutter, including practice interviews, webinars on stuttering in the workplace and employer education. Pam has facilitated training sessions about stuttering for companies such as Goldman Sachs, MITRE, and Macmillan Publishing.
Pam has received the NSA Volunteer of the Year award in 2009, a Jefferson Medal for Outstanding Public Service (for educating about stuttering) in 2011, an Outstanding Service award from Stutter Social in 2017, and was inducted into the NSA Hall of Fame in 2022.

Joze Piranian

Can Stuttering and Confidence Co-Exist?
Drawing from his personal stuttering journey, from holding back immensely to performing on stages worldwide, Joze Piranian will share insights about confronting our speaking challenges, reframing our relationship with fear, and becoming the best version of ourselves as stutterers with confidence. Moreover, Joze will share mindset shifts and mental wellness strategies that have empowered him towards self-acceptance and ongoing personal growth. The transformational insights of this keynote will be infused with lighthearted moments of stand-up comedy.
About Joze
Born and raised in Lebanon, Joze avoided speaking for more than 25 years out of the fear of being judged for being a person who stutters. Over the past few years, everything changed. Jose has won multiple public speaking competitions, delivered several TEDx talks, and performed stand-up comedy in North America, Europe, and the Middle East in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic. Joze has since delivered hundreds of stand-up comedy and speaking engagements at the United Nations, Google, Boeing, Tesla, Meta, TikTok, and IBM, as well at schools and conferences internationally. He has been featured in Forbes, TED, ABC, Fox, NowThis (where he was interviewed about the public perception of Joe Biden’s stutter during the elections), Ashton Kutcher’s “A Plus”, and John Krasinski’s “Some Good News.”

Matice Morris

Onward and Upward
Stutter-Stepping Your Way to the Top is all about owning your stutter! It’s about doing the hard things and not being controlled by fear, not letting obstacles and adversity become a block, but rather a building block to becoming your most confident, successful self (while defining success according to your own terms)!
About Matice
Matice was born in Killeen, Texas, spending much of her life in St. Louis, MO, and now residing in Dallas, TX.  After attending the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Matice went on to earn a Masters of Science in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
As someone who stutters, Matice wants to encourage and educate stutterers and non-stutterers alike.  She started a YouTube channel in 2017 that has viewers in six of the seven continents (she is determined to find someone who stutters in Antarctica!).  In 2018, she wrote and published her first book, The Product of My Selfishness: The Stutter and The Story. By 2019, she initiated the 1st Annual StutterBae® Scholarship, and recently celebrated the 5th year by awarding two recipients.
Outside of touching hearts and lives through her YouTube channel, book, and scholarship, Matice loves adventure and travel.  When she is not physically traveling, she likes to ‘travel’ vicariously through the characters in the books she reads.  But no matter what she is doing or where she is going, Matice lives by two mottos: “Progress, not perfection,” and “Onward and upward.”  Always, in all ways.

Special Guest

Amanda Mammana

At the age of 10, Amanda developed a speech impediment. Once an outgoing kid, she became very shy and insecure. She picked up guitar as a way to escape and began singing a couple months later. Music became her safe place. She practiced and practiced until she could play and sing at the same time, joining the worship band at her school and eventually at her church. Amanda felt so free being able to share her voice conveying the powerful message of her personal faith.

 

As Amanda got older she battled insecurity and self doubt. Embarrassed by the way that she spoke, she began to feel that her voice didn’t matter. Because of that, she turned to songwriting during a particularly difficult period of anxiety and depression. While Singing covers was fun, Amanda quickly realized there’s nothing quite like writing and performing her own songs. Through her writing, Amanda Mammana is able to take pain and doubt, and turn it into something authentic and beautiful. Beauty for ashes.

 

Amanda Mammana writes songs about the human condition, tapping into the incredible power of faith, hope and perseverance.

Pricing

Conference Registration

  • Adult/SLP – $249.00
  • Kids (12 and Under) – $123.00
  • Teens (Ages 13-17) – $223.00
  • College/Grad Student – $223.00
  • Chapter Leader – $228.00
  • 1-Day Admission – $103.00
  • ASHA CEU Add-On – $35.00

Registration Includes:

  • Full access to all workshops, general sessions, and all associated workshop materials
  • Coffee and refreshment breaks
  • Saturday Night Banquet meal (not included in 1-Day Admission price. 1-Day attendees will have the option add on a banquet meal at event check in)

Saturday Night Banquet

Regular registration includes the Saturday Night Banquet. You may make your meal selection during checkout.

All meals come with fresh market salad, dinner rolls, coffee, tea, and dessert. Please let us know if you have any dietary restrictions.

  • Chicken Roulade with Caramelized Fennel, Baby Spinach with Roasted Peppers & Garlic, Parmesan & Herb Polenta Cake, Sundried Tomato Broth
  • Braised Beef Short Rib, Baby Spinach with Roasted Peppers & Garlic, Parmesan & Herb Polenta Cake, Sundried Tomato Broth
  • Vegetarian/Vegan: Curried Black Lentils with Grilled Tofu and Roasted Vegetables
  • Kids meal: Chicken Tenders, Mac & Cheese, Salad

Notes:

No refunds will be given. Special circumstances will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

*Thanks to the generosity of the Liben Family Scholarship Fund, we are honored to be able to offer a discounted rate to our college/graduate student attendees.

Register Now!

Pre-order your Annual Conference T-shirt now!

Sport these trendy tees and let everyone know that with the NSA, you Never Stutter Alone! Order your t-shirt when you register and we’ll have it waiting for you upon check-in.

Silent Auction

The Silent Auction is a fan favorite at our Conference, with attendees bidding on items such as autographed sports memorabilia, wine, or gourmet gift baskets. Consider donating items such as Apple iPads or AirPods, gaming systems, vacation stays, tickets to professional sporting events, or other items/experiences.

Ready to donate an item? Email us or fill out the Silent Auction form and let us know what you are bringing!

All proceeds support the NSA’s mission.

Scholarships

Thanks to the generosity of the Liben Family Fund, community donors, and many of our supporters, we are determined that financial difficulties will not prevent anyone from attending our Conference. However, funds are not unlimited, and due to the increasing number of applications each year, we encourage those with financial hardships to apply.

Please keep in mind that we do not offer 100% scholarships for anyone and that funds are limited. In addition, yearly scholarship funding may run out before the May 1st, deadline. Scholarship applications must be received no later than 5PM, May 1st, 2023. 

Thank you to all who applied for scholarship funding during this cycle. All scholarship funding for 2023 has been awarded and all recipients have been notified.

Scholarships

We don’t want financial difficulties to prevent anyone from attending our conference. 

Learn More

Workshops

Interested in hosting your own workshop? Here’s everything you need to know.

Learn More

Sponsorships

We offer a variety of sponsorship opportunities, beginning as low as $500.

Learn More

It’s impossible to describe how powerful it is to spend four days where the majority of people you talk with, stutter. They understand what it is like to live with a stutter every day and achieve success in life.

Add to Calendar!
07/05/2023 09:00 AM
07/08/2022 11:59 PM
America/New_York
2023 NSA Annual Conference

The NSA Annual Conference is something that can’t be described; whether online or in person, you have to experience it for yourself. In numerous workshops, sessions, and events you’ll learn about stuttering from experts, explore your attitudes toward living life as a person who stutters, make new friends, reconnect with old friends, be entertained, and feel a togetherness that you’ve never felt before.

But don’t take our word for it. Read these testimonials from recent Conference attendees.

“Meeting other people who stutter from all walks of life — some of them are very successful. It made me realize that stuttering is not going to hold me back from what I want to do in life.”

– Mark D.

“I’ve never experienced so much support for stuttering and it makes me feel like I am part of something bigger and not alone.”

– Nicole P.

“Everything changed for me when I went to my first NSA Conference at the age of twelve. I felt as if I had slipped into another world, a world that was finally made for me. I had been drowning in my stutter for so long that I had forgotten what air tasted like. At the NSA Conference, I finally found patience, kindness, and acceptance. Most importantly, I found people who understood everything that I dealt with when it came to my stutter.”

– Isabel S.

“The Conference has made me become more of who I am. It has given me more confidence in myself. It’s made me more outgoing. More social. Some of my lifelong friends are from the Conference.”

– Cathy O.

“My husband and I met amazing people [at the Conference], many of whom quickly became our friends. While all of our stories are different, we share one common bond: as a parent, you want the best for your kids, and often there are things out of your control, but you still do everything within your power to make sure they experience unconditional love, kindness, and support. That is what the NSA Conference has done for my family.”

– Denise D.

“Stuttering has given me far more than it ever could have taken away. I wouldn’t have half the friends I have today. These friends … have, literally, become my family. Once I walk into that Conference hotel, time stands still for just one fleeting moment and how unbelievable it is. You can try to use every adjective out there to explain what it means to be with 900 of the most selfless, passionate people I know, but it is asking the impossible to do that. I may crumble and be an emotional wreck at the closing banquet, but it is moments like that, which will always define my life.”

– Jess G.

“This was my sixth Conference and, once again, I have to say that it was absolutely amazing! It was even more amazing to see people across countries, cultures, and generations coming together. In the past few days, I’ve met people from Russia, Croatia, Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Australia and more regions. Stuttering may be frustrating, but it’s opened me up to this world of the most loving, supporting and inspiring people I know. So, thank you, everyone!”

– Sam D.

NSA 2020 Virtual Conference

While this year’s Conference didn’t look quite the same as in years past, we were able to deliver an experience that won’t soon be forgotten! This online event offered connection, support, and education to people who stutter of all ages through interactive Zoom sessions, keynote conversations, roundtable discussions, games, and fun activities, all surrounding the theme of: Changing Lives Together.

View Content from our 2020 Virtual Conference (free!)

Cancellations received prior to June 1, 2023 will receive a full refund minus $100 processing fee per attendee.
Cancellations received after June 1, 2023 are non-refundable.
The Marriott Harbor Beach Resort and Spa accepts reservation cancellations with no penalty if received 72 hours prior to scheduled check in.