Convenings, Cohorts + Communities: Notes on so-called "impact" gatherings
Convenings, Cohorts + Communities: Notes on so-called "impact" gatherings
The role of curators and conveners has never had more responsibility.
We are witnessing a massive surge—in a dynamic era of changemaking and global systems work—of convenings, communities, boot camps, immersions, academies, gatherings, labs, conferences, summits, unconferences, festivals, retreats, circles, councils, learning journeys, masterclasses, boards and networks.
These activities are all about bringing people together in service of something.
Curated gatherings. Intentional invitation lists. Convening impact actors, changemakers, leaders, innovators. Awards ceremonies. Big conversations, existential topics. Big issues, big emotions. Elite platforms. Community gatherings. People are coming together—and we are actively innovating what this looks like.
They may be at estates in the mountains of Portugal, esteemed halls in the heart of London, renovated castles in the Po River Valley above Milan Italy, industrial cities in the Midwest US, Zen Buddhist centers in France, farms in Germany, ranches by the California Coast. Gorgeous event venues in Silicon Valley. As I type this, a week with hundreds of such events is taking place in the concrete jungle of New York City, in the name of solving climate change.
The objectives and desired outcomes can vary: We want to create a community. We want to grow and be ‘effective.’ We want to foster a network. We want to inspire. We want to share knowledge. We want to ‘drive impact.’ We want to avoid the worst of global systemic breakdown. We want to lead. We want funding. We want to fund.
Sometimes these events are to be seen, celebrated and get accolades. They can be full of self-importance, grandiosity; or they can be down to earth. Other times it's to feel like we are ‘doing something.’ Maybe a combination of many of these things. At the end of the day, the tone and vibe comes often from who is convening, curating and how explicit the intentions are.
Buried in these remits are often implied theories of change. That if we bring people together, something will happen. Something will change. Relationships will spark, new connections are made, that may or may not lead to specific outcomes, impact in the world.
Is this actually true?
The curator and conveners’ theory of change is experienced and expressed in every aspect of the design, experience and communications, infusing the gathering and conveyed to each participant on a visceral level. How does it feel when you enter the convening? Is it welcoming? Exhausting? Draining? Excluding and cliquey? Energizing? Is it about prestige? Are people there to network, to sell, to pitch? To connect, learn and shift default ways of being and thinking? To be transformed? To be changed? Is it about celebration and play? Escaping and indulging? What comforts are offered to soothe and enable care? Do we feel safe and held, or jostled together like lots of atoms in an accelerator? Are you fed? Whose nervous systems is this for? As the gathering maven Priya Parker has acknowledged: how we gather people matters deeply. Convenings, circles, groups and communities are the engines of change–if done skillfully and intentionally.
We are in a collective global moment of figuring out, testing and experimenting with ways of bringing people together for impact. How we do this in service of driving change in the world is a topic of much interest and considerable investment of resources. We are in-between paradigms, between older and more emergent, newer formats.
What is clear: the previous, established rules and models of conferences, summits and events are getting blown up and replaced with an array of experiences, interventions, connectivity practices and celebrations to foster deeper engagement and more substantial change work.
A business conference may resemble more of a Burning Man camp or a festival or a field trip; and a Burning Man camp may start to resemble a cyberpunk board meeting. C-Suite leaders convene in crumbling estates in Portugal; hundreds of people gather in a concert hall and do guided visualizations of future generations. Sponsors still take the stage and the airtime, while Indigenous women leaders fly thousands of miles from the Amazon to Europe to tell hundreds of tech founders that we are in fact only “water and earth.”
This is the time to creatively, thoughtfully and carefully consider how we design and foster our communities of impact. To be intentional about format, facilitation and how our gatherings can help grow each other, and inform our practices and business.
10 takeaways from 6 global impact convenings over 5 weeks, from 25-800 people
1. Many are currently toggling between ‘old’ (conventional) and ‘new’ (experimental, participatory) formats.
We are all familiar with the conventional formats of panels, keynotes, TED-style talks, and the fireside chat between a moderator and a special guest. However, organizers are beginning to emerge from this mode, recognizing there is less energy and patience for sitting through watching people talk, often without any space for reflecting, processing or integrating what’s been shared. As a result, many events are feeling a bit incoherent, a mash-up of convening formats and styles. There may be a festive opening drinks, music, performances, DJ dances—mixed with full days of panels and keynotes. The result can be disjointed and incoherent. We need a red thread to tie it together—and a commitment from curators and conveners to be bold and experiment, and be willing to tolerate people’s discomfort.
2. The shadow side of echo chambers
While we are enjoying successes, a shadow of curated events and mission/purpose oriented impact communities is precisely the creation of echo chambers. People are working out the balance of ensuring a community has adequate diversity of POV, background, demographics, while fostering focus and ability to ‘go fast.’ What can be missing are key perspectives in the room representing the complexity of challenges being addressed and discussed. For example, a session between Oliva Lazard and Bruno Giussani at House of Beautiful Business (HOBB) in 2023 was electrifying, yet while discussing the dark shadow of renewable energy industries’ devastating mining operations, one had to wonder how those who work in these spaces, and the people most impacted, can also be in the room.
3. Many people are now sensemaking about how to lead – and what leadership is today
The most energy was going into explicit and implicit discussions of how to lead on radically complex, urgent, high stakes and chaotic challenges in uncertain conditions. This level of soul-searching and open sensemaking was palpable throughout all the events. At BMW Foundation’s Responsible Leaders gathering in Piedmont Italy, an orienting prompt was this line from Bayo Akomolafe: “Leadership needs to change – not in terms of getting new leaders, but in recalibrating what leadership is doing.”
4. Spirituality, transformation, experience, authenticity, and embodiment are on the rise and gaining legitimacy fast
With the growth of new communities such as HOBB, Katapult, Future Horizon (FH), BMW Responsible Leaders Network, we are seeing a great hunger for richer and more immersive experiences. The balance of experience, content, panels, talks and interactivity varies hugely across venues and forums—people are figuring out how to stay “business critical” and yet allow for deeper, richer and more spiritually grounded practice.
5. People want and need less “content” and more (and deeper) quality interactions
While many events continue to have panels that are moderated by a facilitator, the trend is to break up the panel format, and mix it up. Examples include an “intimate” and edgy conversation between two artists or leaders, such as the format at HOBB on a catwalk-like stage in the woods. Fishbowls with participants is hugely powerful. Many events now have participant-led sessions, where people can test, experiment, get input, or share their work or ideas. The occasions I introduced the powerful practice of “Complex Leadership Rounds”—introduced to me by Robert Kegan— people were immensely grateful, and it shifted the tenor of the event instantly to be more vulnerable and real. It also provided real-time value and support for people to apply immediately. The model (recommended below) is for gatherings of 25 people or more, put people into smaller cohorts (pods) or groups of 3-5, which meet before and throughout the event, providing a cadence and scale of human interaction that enables processing/connecting amidst the larger plenary group.
6. The “HOW” of changemaking is now the main story. People are ready and want to be “equipped,” and to gain skills, tools and support
Convenings are increasingly incorporating workshops, offerings, skill-building and opportunities for people to gain new complex leading capabilities. This is not the same as a “training” or learning new technical information only; this is about positioning yourself as a convener, as a guide and partner who is here to help people grow, and to unlock the community to grow and develop each other. This is a practice that takes careful design and consideration, and is on the rise. For example, the workshops led at HOBB were very popular and well received – including my own in Sir Arthur Connon Doyle’s former greenhouse!
7. Curators, conveners and facilitators are themselves caught in-between formats
Many events felt like a mash-up of old and new. There is still desire for edutainment, the big keynotes, and yet these often sucked all the oxygen out of the room. Especially if events are highly curated; every single person in the room easily could give their own keynote. The formats that worked well were shorter and more personal sharing about one’s story (how I got into doing this work, a turning point in my life, what I am most challenged by right now), play (putting on talent shows and getting to show different sides of ourselves), intimate dinners, and dinners. What did not work: too rushed of a program, too many panels and long talks; old-school facilitation (everyone check-in with something fun about you, etc), and introducing substantial topics without adequate time to do it justice.
8. Beginnings and endings are critically important
This is absolutely key. The first 20 minutes of an event are arguably the most important, along with the last 20 minutes. How do you want to lead and set the tone? If there are newcomers, what is their experience? Are you letting people mix ad hoc, or is it more intentional? What is on the name tag, and are there name tags? One event in Portugal started with a dinner in a tiny restaurant in Lisbon we could book in advance. This was a fantastic way to start an event. However the next day, everyone showed up wearing the “dress code” of black and seemed to know each other. That felt more of an insider excluding vibe. How do you design your event so people don’t leave feeling exhausted and drained? And feel included and seen?
9. More attention to integration + what happens after (the principle of “Sustain”)
As formats evolve and people are less interested in dropping into a peak experience and then leaving exhausted with a huge list of people to follow up with, there is now more design attention to enabling people to integrate. One creative design with a large gathering, was taking the last day as entirely with no agenda, and booking out a restaurant offsite (people find their own way there), for the community to relax and connect informally with no program. Another event closed at noon for lunch, and those who wanted to, could then explore on their own. Having follow up sessions online for people to check in and share reflections, or any impacts from the gathering, is taking place increasingly.
10. Less is more: spacious, intentional design is on the rise
We need highly skillful facilitation. Even in mega events. More people are starting to feel the effects of a schedule or program that is too full. Given the intensity of our work, convenings should be an experiential reset. They need to put relationality first, content second, because of how humans integrate and process information (fact). The nervous system ideally registers the interactivity as stimulating, yet not draining. We need to design for neurodiversity, clearly. There is more desire for spaciousness given the intensity of most of our working days; therefore, if an event feels rejuvenating, and recharging, a time to take a step back and reflect a bit, it creates a sense of being supported and nurtured as a changemaker. When there is time to walk, do morning practices, and have space to explore the grounds or terrain, it is always appreciated. This is usually the main thing people report as not having enough time for, especially if an event is held in a beautiful place or on natural grounds.
How did these tips land for you?
Did you learn something new?
I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
A List of Recommendations for Impact Conveners and Curators
Ensure a coherent and shared welcome and initiation into the experience. Enable arriving.
Logistics. This matters hugely. Create a seamless and easy experience. Manage transitions.
Create a buddy system if it’s a large group (over 25) to check in with each other before, during and after.
Spacious design. Do not over-schedule. Make transitions spacious.
Create small (randomized) cohorts to break up scale. Toggle in your program between individual, pairs, small groups and the full group (plenary).
Develop and equip participants with skills: enlist a cohort of members to facilitate, lead and guide.
Break up formats - get people into deeper conversation with each other on the stage.
Surface and encourage messier conversations about the hard stuff. Avoid people simply sharing out their knowledge and talking points.
Avoid the conventional Q+A after a talk or panel. Find other ways to surface responses, such as smaller groups after a plenary.
Use fishbowls and fishbowl-like formats.
Create forums for people to share their complex challenges and pain points with each other. (I have a powerful process adapted from Robert Kegan’s Immunity to Change.)
Set the stage at the top, from the leader/lead convener, what the intention is, how to show up, and how to treat the community.
Be extremely mindful of beginnings and endings. Use the first day to allow people to arrive and land; allow the last day or part of the event to have space for people to connect, integrate and not feel rushed.
Design so that when people leave, they are energized—and not drained, overloaded and fatigued.
Such an insightful article - thank you for sharing - lots of food for thought and reflection
Relevant, insightful and resonant.
Your piece was shared by colleague who is helping to support an early stage network of people from various regions across the US doing change work in diverse settings. It tied directly with what we are working through as we are forming.
I then couldn’t wait to share it with those I’ve been working with for years in place based work. Themes and take aways spot on for what we are grappling with as well.
Thank you!
- Julie