Friday, July 25th & Saturday, July 26th
Hurst Conference Center
Hurst, Texas
Sunday, July 27th
Six Flags Water Park (Optional)
Early Bird Ticket Pricing- $125 per person (ends 12/31) $150 per person in 2025.
All kids and teens are welcome! All ages, genders & treatments. Siblings are welcome, too. Bring the whole family!
Lunch, dinner, morning snack and afternoon snack both Friday and Saturday. The recommended hotels have free breakfast, so all of your meals will be covered both days.
Vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options available. Casual options like pasta or taco buffets.
Mini Higgy Con themed Higgy Bear, Higgy Con t-shirt, prizes, accessories and more!
Early bird tickets are $125 per person until 12/31. $150 is the 2015 price. Tickets are fully refundable through 4/30 in case plans change.
Hotel rooms are either $129 (at the convention center) or $119 (a block or two away.) No airport shuttle, unfortunately.
Hilton Garden Inn Dallas at Hurst Conference Center: This is the hotel that is connected that is connected to the conference center. $129 a night. 2 adult/teen breakfasts each day included. Kids 12 and under eat free. Additional adult/teen breakfasts available for a fee.
Hampton Inn & Suites Dallas- DFW- Hurst: $119 a night. Includes free breakfast. Use group code, "HBC."
Holiday Inn Express & Suites DFW- West Hurst: $119 a night. Includes free breakfast. Use group code, "HBC."
The last two hotels are within a 5 minute walk to the Hurst Conference Center.
Interested in coming, but not ready to buy your tickets? Fill out the Higgy Con 2025 Interest Form to receive occasional updates.
Higgy Con is a very special 2-3 days that I put together each year for scoliosis families. The main objective of Higgy Con is to let kids and teens see that they are not alone in their diagnosis. It is the one weekend a year where you are an outsider if you do not have scoliosis. Being in a room with 200+ other kids that have scoliosis is very empowering and a feeling you do not want your kids to miss. Many kids and teens wear their braces on the outside of the clothes and proudly rock their scoliosis braces, inspiring others to do the same. They laugh, play, have fun and most important, do not feel alone.
All kids and teens are welcome to join, all ages, all genders and all treatments! Whether if you have had scoliosis for years or were just diagnosed, Higgy Con is the place to be. Kids will be divided up by age in groups of 50 or so. Teens and parents will help run each of the groups. For the younger kids, we do lots of scoliosis-themed crafts and play games. Kids share their stories and offer each other support. The older kids and teens will have a few crafts, but will mainly focus on connecting and supporting each other. I will have speakers come in speak with the older kids and teen groups to help encourage, inspire and educate them. Veteran teens will help run the groups and mentor kids and teens just starting out.
Higgy Con isn't just for the kids, it's for parents, too! I have top scoliosis professionals come and speak to parents and offer their insights into the latest treatments and ways to help your kids cope with scoliosis. I have been so lucky to have amazing doctors, surgeons, physical therapists, psycholgists from Shriners Children's, Mayo Clinic, Scoliosis Specialty Center and more offer their time to help parents. The main focus is how to help your kids emotionally through this. You will learn from experienced scoliosis moms on ways to help encourage your kids wear their brace or tips on surgery recovery. The majority of the families there are bracing families, but about 25% are surgery families, so we focus on both.
The last night of Higgy Con is the Fashion Show! Kids and teens proudly strut their stuff and walk down the runway either by themselves orw ith their friends beaming with new-found confidence in their brace. It is a sight to see!
I hope you can make it to Higgy Con 2025!
Higgy Con iS FUN and SILLY. I create an atmosphere that isn't too serious so that kids can feel as comfortable as possible. We have a blast!
Let's have some downtime with your friends and make some HIggy Bear Braces! Each kid/teen will get a Higgy Bear and their own brace that they can decorate. We will also make cards and write letters for other kids to encourage them!
Let your kid know they are not alone in this. Meeting others that are going through the same thing is the very best treatment there is.
Higgy Con isn't just for kids. It's for all ages. There is a group of teens that are group leaders and help run Higgy Con, but there is also a large group are there just as participants to learn, meet friends and have fun!
Meet so many new friends that wear a brace or have had surgery. Boys and girls are welcome. There is such power in knowing that you are not alone. Many kids stay in touch outside of Higgy Con and have become the best of friends.
Girls and boys of all ages strut their stuff down the runway either by themselves or with friends. They can wear their braces or not, and do not have to particpate. It's just a fun way to celebrate each kid and build their confidence.
Bring the whole family and celebrate your child or teen. Have a blast at the Higgy Con Party & Green Fashion Show, play games and win prizes at the Higgy Con Extravaganza, and meet other families!
Parents are the experts. Learn from each other. Teach each other. Support each other.
Learn from Orthotists, Physical Therapists, Schroth Therapists, Orthopedic Surgeons, Psychiatrists, Expert Scoli Moms, Expert Scoli Teens and more! The MAIN focus is on how to help and encourage your kid to thrive with scoliosis.
Gather in small groups with medical providers and expert scoli moms to ask questions and get support!
Mix and mingle with the sponsors that make Higgy Con possible. It's a great opportunity to ask questions and learn more about their services and treatments on an individual basis.
Learn from Expert Scoli Moms & Scoli Teens. Listen to their stories and advice, ask questions and get support!
2025 will be my third Higgy Con. I am learning from each convention and keeping what works and changing was doesn't. A conversation with a scoli dad this year stuck with me this year in Chicago. He said that sure, minor changes and tweaks can be made here and there to improve things, but don't change too much. Clearly, there is magic here in what you have created! And that's what I aim to do! Keep the main structure, maintain the magic and improve where I can.
The main feedback I got was that the kids room was way too big. All 200 kids and teens of all ages were in the same room. While it was a TON of fun and very silly, it was a little chaotic and didn't allow a space for the older kids and teens to connect as much as I would have liked. Next year, we will have separate rooms where kids/teens of similar ages and treatments can group together. This will allow the younger kids to still play games and do crafts, while giving space for older kids and teens to share stories and offer each other more support. I will also bring in medical professionals so teens can learn ways to thrive with scoliosis. Parents told me that a lot of the talks they heard from speakers they wish their kids and teens could have heard, too and I agree. I put together a teen committee to help me make changes for 2025 and would love your feedback, too!
The speakers are AMAZING and we are so lucky to have such wonderful scoliosis professionals volunteer their time at Higgy Con. But, when it comes down to it, the true experts are the PARENTS. We will still have exceptional speakers and presentations, but there will be a bigger focus on parents presenting and sharing what they have learned. Parents leading support groups talking about how to help your kids not only succeed with bracing, but how to thrive with it. How to empower kids to be proud of their curves and embrace the brace or their scars. There will be a much bigger focus on parents helping parents and not quite as many medical speeches. There will be more focus on the emotional and social aspect. There will also be separate tracks for parents. Parents that are brand new to the scoliosis world need to hear different speeches than Higgy Con veterans that have been at this for years and this is their third Higgy Con. Parents, like the kids, will be divided up into different rooms and have multiple speeches/workshops to choose from depending on where they are in the journey.
The Fashion Show was a HUGE hit and will definitely be back for 2025. The party night was so much fun, but I noticed that it was mainly the younger kids out on the dance floor, and the older kids didn't have much to do. So, we are sticking with the fashion show next year and taking the last day to all go to the water park!
The magic is staying the same. The kids eyes that light up when they see hundreds of other kids just like them. The kids that run to put their braces on so they can rock their brace like their new friends do. The overall silly atmosphere that lends space to kids opening up and connecting. And most importantly, YOU! I hope you come again this year and for years to come!
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