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Hello Reader,

I just wrapped up my conference season for the first half of the year and - as always - it got me thinking about what makes a great conference for ecosystem builders.

While Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) in Indiana is less than a month away, I have watched other ecosystem builder conference get downsized or cancelled altogether. Having talked to some of my colleagues, I assume it's a mix of GEC stealing some thunder (aka travel budget) and federal budget cuts affecting most ecosystem builders (their travel budgets).

I do, however, believe that convening ecosystem builders is more important in times of turmoil than any other time. Speaking for myself, when I'm nervous about what punches the federal government might pull next or unsure whether I'll still have clients next month, I need my peers more than ever. When there's so much to figure out in a changing landscape of funding and policy, isolation makes it all the scarier.

Travel budgets are a real constraint (I've already spent $1,000+ on conference travel this year). And yet, I believe that ecosystem builders will prioritize convenings that are meaningful and promise to deliver true value. I believe, and hope, that we are done with run-of-the mill conferences in windowless ballrooms, sage-from-stage-style keynote speakers and so-called panel "discussions" that are nothing but a handful of people talking while the audience listens. Also, did you know that a conference center in a hotel charges up to $8 for a can of soda to the conference organizer?

I have beef.

We can do better.

In today's newsletter, I want to talk about what I see for the future of meaningful ecosystem conferences and how that translates to the convenings we might host in our ecosystems.

Ecosystem Essentials: Convene your people, but make it meaningful

I finally had the chance to read (and by 'read' I mean DEVOUR) Impact Networks by David Ehrlichman. Once I started, I could barely put it down. I read it twice (and I'm cooking up some awesome content to bring you into the fold, stay tuned).

In chapter 6, Ehrlichman talks about the power and art of Convening the People.

The chapter encompasses so much of my philosophy about hosting impactful convenings that I promptly emailed it to all colleagues who are planning an ecosystem conference this year. In hopes that together, we can re-design conferences into a meaningful format that ecosystem builders with small budgets will prioritize over generic large-scale events.

Ehrlichman highlights that impactful convenings bring the whole system together, provide space for relationships, advance learning and action, and create energy (Ehrlichman 2021, p. 100). He emphasizes the six elements that make an event deeply impactful:

• Put relationships first
• Embrace the magic of small groups
• Focus on the framing questions
• Cultivate deeper experiences
• Incorporate space
• Infuse energy into the network

With a decade of experience in hosting events for entrepreneurs and ecosystem builders, I put my own spin on his framework and added what I thought was missing:

Bookish

What I've been reading:

• ​Not a Novel, Jenny Erpenbeck. I read this to co-host the last Staunton International Book Club. Jenny Erpenbeck's writing is what I would call lyrical prose and a lot of this book resonated with me as an East German.
• ​Was man von hier aus sehen kann, Mariana Leky. Every time Selma dreams of an okapi, someone in her village dies. A surprisingly touching novel.
• ​Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry. We got what we came for: the Emily Henry formula pays off once again and I'm not mad about it. Pack this as your next beach read, I don't think you'll be disappointed!
• ​Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin. I don't know what I expected when I picked this up at Shelf Life in Richmond, VA, but once I started, I could not put this book down. It's a book about friendship, connection, love and the creative process - I loved it. With any luck, Ashley Wenger (who I read it with) will do a book review in the coming weeks: Get a taste here and subscribe if you need more book recs!

Staunton Bookshop Crawl

In honor of National Indie Bookshop Day, I went on a book crawl of Staunton's Indie bookshops and it was a blast! For those on Instagram, you can come along here!

From the show

ECOSYSTEMS FOR CHANGE • S7:E4 E 7.4 - Building a Climate-Ready Future in Colorado and Wyoming featuring Mike Freeman 55:46 MORE INFO

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Shen-Anika-ns

For years, I've been wanting to interview my parents. I only know my parents as my parents, not the individuals they were before they had kids, and the people they are outside of our parent-child relationship.

Since I'll be spending a few weeks in Germany this summer, I'm starting to wonder what types of questions I want to ask.

What are the kinds of things I wish I knew about my parents but don't? It feels a bit like asking questions that I don't know to ask.

Have any of you ever done something like this? For those of you who have lost a parent, what do you wish you had asked them?

I'd love to crowdsource some ideas!

In camaraderie,

Anika

P.S. If you enjoy reading Impact Curator and want to support it, here are 3 easy ways:

1. Reply and say hi! Let me know what you're working on, dreaming about or ask me any burning questions you have. I'm right here, staring at my inbox and hitting refresh in hopes of hearing from you!
2. Forward this newsletter to someone who could use a virtual high-five, some book recommendations and Ecosystem Essentials in their inbox every 2 weeks. They can get their own right here.
3. Bring me to your organization or ecosystem to speak (either virtual or in-person).

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