- REXpedition offsite – Santa Fe/Galisteo, New Mexico (July 2011)
- World Water Week – Stockholm, Sweden (August 2011)
- SoCap (social capital markets) – San Francisco, California (September 2011)
- World Economic Forum/Young Global Leaders New Champions Annual Summit – Dalian, China (September 2011)
- Google Zeitgeist – Phoenix, Arizona (September 2011)
- Opportunity Collaboration – Ixtapa, Mexico (October 2011)
- Global MicroCredit Summit – Valladoid, Spain (November 2011)
- “the” World Economic Forum – Davos, Switzerland (January 2012) – this is the maybe #8, I’ll know soon…
As of today I’m officially halfway though this (for me) uber-exciting-albeit-slightly-daunting calendar, and already favorite memories are many. Lots of interesting discussions about the Future of Money and alternative currencies, which have cross-cut these gatherings. It seems that people everywhere are interested, in different ways, about how to live life and build a world focused on quality of life rather than quantity of dollars (or euro or renminbi) stashed away. How do we build more resilient, human-centered economies that focus on relationships and well-being, rather than anonymous number signs (which, by the way, seem to be one of the lousiest indicators of happiness these days)? How do we build a toolkit of exchange mechanisms – for example some based on time, others on expertise and others on reputation, each of which plays a meaningful and appropriate role in daily life?
Other favorite topics include urban mobility; the nexus between water security + food security + energy security + climate change; encouraging “more knowledge, less information” in today’s hyper-connected world; and the relationship between taking care of oneself and being an effective leader. Each of these merits a blogpost of its own; well, all in due course – notwithstanding the firehose of ideas that seem to be streaming my way on a daily basis! Better yet, perhaps I could get some YGL friends to guest blog here…
Aside from these events, I went to Peru over the summer to explore WaterCredit expansion opportunities there – as a springboard to other countries in Latin America. It was great to refresh my rusty Spanish, and Lima has undergone a sort of urban renaissance since I was last there six years ago.
Now time to go dive into Zeitgeist!
[...] and early December (happily, Jerry attended four of them plus others of his own; April also wrote a short blogpost). In August we returned to Colorado for April’s high school reunion which was much more fun [...]