annual Gathering
The Empowering Sustainability initiative centers on a week-long series of presentations, panels, workshops, and discussions that promote idea development, capacity building, and programmatic resource exchange for emerging leaders of new thinking. The gathering is offered every year for around 30-40 members of the next generation of leaders of global sustainability from countries throughout the world who have already started their early professional contributions.
The week-long in Irvine has been transformed over the years from a conference focused on learning from experts to a more informal and flexible event shaped by the fellows themselves. Today, the gathering is mostly a (spatial and temporal) space where fellows have the opportunity to get re-energized, inspired, informed, trained, and supported. During the week in Irvine, fellows have the space and the time to take a break from their daily activities to reflect upon their work and lives. With this approach, the main purpose of the gathering is to provide fellows what they need to make the world a better place. For some of them what is most needed is information, for others it is training. Some fellows benefit most from the moral support offered by the group, while others find value in the friendships they form or the inspiration they receive. Regardless of the level of experience and involvement each of them has with sustainability, they all face challenges in working towards what they believe is a better world. The gathering allows them to be honest with themselves and to gather the resources they need to keep going.
1st Annual Empowering Sustainability Conference: July 18th to July 22nd, 2011.
2nd Annual Empowering Sustainability Conference: July 23rd to July 27th, 2012.
3rd Annual Empowering Sustainability Conference: July 22nd to July 26th, 2013.
4th Annual Empowering Sustainability Conference: July 21st to July 25th, 2014.
5th Annual Empowering Sustainability Gathering: July 20th to July 24th, 2015.
6th Annual Empowering Sustainability Gathering: July 18th to July 22nd, 2016.
7th Annual Empowering Sustainability Gathering: July 17th to July 21st, 2017.
8th Annual Empowering Sustainability Gathering: July 16th to July 20th, 2018.
The week-long in Irvine has been transformed over the years from a conference focused on learning from experts to a more informal and flexible event shaped by the fellows themselves. Today, the gathering is mostly a (spatial and temporal) space where fellows have the opportunity to get re-energized, inspired, informed, trained, and supported. During the week in Irvine, fellows have the space and the time to take a break from their daily activities to reflect upon their work and lives. With this approach, the main purpose of the gathering is to provide fellows what they need to make the world a better place. For some of them what is most needed is information, for others it is training. Some fellows benefit most from the moral support offered by the group, while others find value in the friendships they form or the inspiration they receive. Regardless of the level of experience and involvement each of them has with sustainability, they all face challenges in working towards what they believe is a better world. The gathering allows them to be honest with themselves and to gather the resources they need to keep going.
1st Annual Empowering Sustainability Conference: July 18th to July 22nd, 2011.
2nd Annual Empowering Sustainability Conference: July 23rd to July 27th, 2012.
3rd Annual Empowering Sustainability Conference: July 22nd to July 26th, 2013.
4th Annual Empowering Sustainability Conference: July 21st to July 25th, 2014.
5th Annual Empowering Sustainability Gathering: July 20th to July 24th, 2015.
6th Annual Empowering Sustainability Gathering: July 18th to July 22nd, 2016.
7th Annual Empowering Sustainability Gathering: July 17th to July 21st, 2017.
8th Annual Empowering Sustainability Gathering: July 16th to July 20th, 2018.
"I have seen the high-tech and the low-tech.
I have seen indigenous knowledge and state-of-the-art scientific knowledge.
I have seen the small-scale and the challenges to scale them up.
I have seen the mainstream and the alternative.
I have seen the concern with metrics and the concern for community spontaneity.
I have seen colleagues who define themselves as "citizens of the world" and those who claim to feel displaced when they are not home."
Quote from a conference participant about what he saw in the 3rd Annual Empowering Sustainability Conference.
I have seen indigenous knowledge and state-of-the-art scientific knowledge.
I have seen the small-scale and the challenges to scale them up.
I have seen the mainstream and the alternative.
I have seen the concern with metrics and the concern for community spontaneity.
I have seen colleagues who define themselves as "citizens of the world" and those who claim to feel displaced when they are not home."
Quote from a conference participant about what he saw in the 3rd Annual Empowering Sustainability Conference.