The Course That Made Everyone Mad - And Everyone Better
Bill showed up, delivered one of the most memorable courses in SLP Summit history, and walked away without selling a single thing. And people were furious!!!
July 2026 | SLP Summit Retrospective Series
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He showed up, delivered one of the most memorable courses in SLP Summit history, and walked away without selling a single thing.
And people were furious!!!
In the best possible way.
Bill Bolden's SLP Summit course on grammar is the one Marisha Metz of SLP Now still talks about. In a conversation about standout sessions across nearly a decade of summits, his was one of the first names out of her mouth.
"I just love how he built it - he created activities and showed us how to use that for grammar," she shared. "And he didn't have them for sale, and people were so mad! They're like, where do I get these? And he's like, you can create them!"
Cue the collective groan from thousands of SLPs who desperately wanted to click "add to cart" — and couldn't.
Why It Worked
Here's the thing about Bill Bolden's course: it did exactly what SLP Summit was built to do. It handed SLPs something real and tangible - not a theory, not a framework buried in a journal article, but actual activities for grammar intervention, demonstrated live, in an hour.
And then, he handed them something even more valuable: the belief that they could build it themselves.
That's a different kind of takeaway. It's not a resource you download and file away. It's a shift in how you think about your own capacity as a clinician. When an expert walks you through their process and says, "You've got this," the ripple effect lasts a lot longer than any PDF.
Of course, SLPs being SLPs - people who spend their days solving problems and building things out of nothing - many of them went right home and did exactly that. They made their own versions. They adapted the concept for their specific students, their grade levels, and their therapy rooms.
Which, if you think about it, is the most SLP thing possible.
The Tension That Makes SLP Summit Great
What happened with Bill's course captures something that comes up every SLP Summit: the fine line between inspiring people and just doing it for them.
SLP Summit presenters share a wealth of practical knowledge, an approach that has worked in real classrooms with real kids. Sometimes they have products you can purchase if you'd rather not spend your limited time building from scratch. Sometimes, like Bill, they equip you with everything except the finished product, trusting you to run with it.
Both approaches have their place. And both, it turns out, can make for an unforgettable course.
What It Means for Your Practice
If you weren't in the virtual room for Bill's grammar intervention course, there is a recording available in the BIM library.
Ask yourself after any great PD session: what did I just learn how to do? Not just what resource did I get, but what can I now build, adapt, or try on my own? That's the kind of learning that sticks and the kind that ends up benefiting far more students than a single downloaded activity ever could.
SLP Summit has featured hundreds of presenters over nine years, covering everything from AAC to fluency to grammar to social skills and beyond. The next SLP Summit happens July 27-July 29, 2026 and features two pre-recorded courses that you can access as soon as you sign up! Register now and earn up to .8 ASHA CEUs/ 8.0 PDHs when you complete all of the courses included in SLP Summit.
