A rolling conference
How do we sustain the energy of conferences throughout the year?
Hi all,
I’ve been to a lot of conferences and festivals. Maybe you have too.
If the event goes well, and there’s a feedback session, you will inevitably hear someone say something like
“It’s so great to see everyone and connect. We created a lot of energy and momentum, and now we are all going home. How can we keep the energy and momentum going over the rest of the year?”
I have heard this so many times and I’ve given it a lot of thought.
I’ve been privileged to attend a ton of events over the years, as a speaker, as a facilitator, and as a participant. So much so that my friends and colleagues are distributed all over the world.
I’ve felt the need — maybe you have, too — to maintain the creative energy and feeling of belonging that comes from these kinds of special events. And since my creative community is so globally distributed, I’ve been wondering, can we do this virtually?
This is the reason I started the School of the Possible, and it’s the main idea behind the Collaboratories I’ve been co-hosting since January.
I think of these Collaboratories as one long rolling conference of short talks and mini-workshops that take place over the course of the year. On the first and third Wednesday of every month, I co-create a short talk and exercise to prime the collective pump of our creative energy.
It’s not just the event that I’m after. I’m shooting for a rhythm, a sense of community, a feeling of belonging. Each time we gather, I make sure that there’s plenty of room for serendipitous connections and conversations. We pepper each session with small breakout groups and make space for “in-between-ness.”
The twice-monthly Collaboratories are supplemented by weekly Zoom Campfire calls, where there’s no agenda beyond saying hello, syncing up, and sharing our sharing ideas, inspiration, and projects. The Campfire calls are a weekly space to connect and reflect on our shared journey.
That adds up to a rolling conference a little over 100 hours long, spread out over the course of a year.
I’m encouraged by the results so far. Wonderful people have given their time and energy to co-create these workshops with me. Each time we connect, there’s a wonderful mix of familiar faces and new ones. New connections, new conversations, new sparks, that often coalesce and reconfigure into offline conversations and projects. Sometimes they even result in an online course or activity that generates even more energy.
Things are happening. We have three courses launching this week, as well as a peer-to-peer coaching call and a four-week experiment to see if there’s energy for an AsiaPac Campfire. You can have a peek at the collective activity in our Community pages.
I’m committed to holding this space for the rest of 2024, and beyond, if people want to continue the journey.
I want to make this journey as easy as possible for people to join, so here’s what I came up with: You can join this rolling conference for $20/month or $200/year. In my mind this makes it “Netflix easy.” If this is something you want, it should be easy to say yes to.
I think this is important because customer relationships are important. Over my career I have found that the best way to make sure I’m creating value — that is, not wasting my time — is to ask people to make a commitment that’s equivalent to the commitment I’m making.
If you see value in this exercise, consider joining this experiment we are calling the School of the Possible.
Who is it for? It’s for you.
What are we working on? What is our collective project? We are exploring and practicing the Art of the Possible, which is rooted in the belief that we can create the lives we want and the world we want to live in. We believe that when we join together in a curious learning community, we can learn to see and create possibilities that we wouldn’t see otherwise.
You become a member of the School when you subscribe to our paid substack. There’s a free version if you want to try it out. Here’s the link to join:
I’m hoping that nurturing and growing the School of the Possible will be the journey I’m on for the rest of my life. If you agree and want to be a part of it, please join us.
