The Next Stage of Gatherings for The Great Progression Network
Our first virtual gathering for paid members will be April 17th & our first physical gathering for founding members will be May 15 in San Francisco - plus an update for all new subscribers
We launched this ambitious new series on March 18th and within just several weeks we have doubled the number of free subscribers to more than 9000. We also now have a critical mass of paid subscribers to start the virtual gatherings next Thursday, April 17th, to end our first month.
Thanks to all of you for helping launch The Great Progression: 2025 to 2050 series of essays and interviews. Your interest in this positive, big-picture, long-term framework on what’s going on today and what’s possible in the next 25 years is what drove this explosive growth.
We also have been helped by having these essays and interviews syndicated by FreeThink Media, who have been getting these ideas beyond Substack into the open web via their two key publications Freethink and Big Think, as well as their extensive newsletters and social media.
Both these publications remind me of the kind of positive coverage of technology and the future that the original WIRED magazine pioneered when I worked there in the 1990s. Both Freethink and Big Think are raising their profile in Substack as well, and channeling people internally to this project. I highly recommend checking them out.
We’re now ready to start the next stage of this project by attempting to harness the knowledge and insights from this nascent network in order to help breathe life into what might be possible in the next 25 years.
“No one is as smart as everyone.” I attribute that saying to Kevin Kelly, my longtime mentor and friend whose interview I wrote up in this week’s installment of the series. I have spent the last 30 years seeking out the smartest, most knowledgable, most innovative people in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area to help figure out the future because no one is as smart as everyone.
The best way I have found over the years to leverage that kind of collective intelligence is through gatherings where you bring together a diverse set of — let’s just call them — innovators. I have done this in a wide variety of physical gatherings, from big gatherings of 250 people to smaller ones like roundtables or dinners with half a dozen people. I also helped pioneer the early world of virtual gatherings via video like we now know as Zoom. My piece on Kevin Kelly references and links to both kinds of gatherings over the years.
I learn something new from every one of the gatherings that I have hosted, curated and convened in the past. And I now want to start doing something similar with this burgeoning new network we are assembling here in Substack - which means all of you.
Our first virtual gathering for paid Members on Thursday, April 17th, at 4 pm PST
I will hold the first conversation with our paid members next Thursday, April 17th, at 4 pm San Francisco time, which gives those east of us a decent late afternoon or evening time after work. Right now we seem to have only Americans signed up as members but if we get more from Europe then over time we may have to adjust the starting time. For now it’s 4 pm PST.
This conversation is limited to those Members who pay the $10 a month, which is like buying me a beer for my efforts that month. Founding Members who paid the equivalent of two beers a month are included in any gathering or given any privilege that regular Members get.
We are going to hold these conversations on Zoom because the built-in video option within Substack is mostly about broadcasting one talking head, with the maximum of three. Zoom will allow us to see each other and pull more people into the conversation from among those who gather. If Substack evolves their video offering, which I expect they will with time, then we might shift back.
This means anyone who wants to attend will need to RSVP for the event to get the link to Zoom. That email or post will go out on Monday ONLY to Paid Members since they are the only ones who can attend the live virtual gatherings. We may post the videos later, though we might not, depending on the sensitivity of the conversation or the consensus of the group.
So if you are a free subscriber who is interested in being part of these gatherings and other member perks that I will get to below, then sign up to be a paid member before Monday.
Our first physical gathering for Founding Members on Thursday, May 15th, at 6 pm in San Francisco
We will be holding an exclusive physical gathering of about 250 innovators each quarter that any Founding Member can attend at the Shack15 club in the Ferry Building at ground zero for all things AI in San Francisco. The first one goes from 6 pm to 10 pm on Thursday, May 15th.
We're gathering not just our Founding Members but other entrepreneurs, technologists, creatives, and thinkers shaping the 21st century for an important live conversation that I will host, curate and moderate to fill out our understanding of what’s possible in the next 25 years.
I will give a short presentation to frame up the conversation and then interview each of three prominent thought leaders who can help all of us fill out the narrative of how The Great Progression: 2025 to 2050 could play out. Then we will open up the conversation to all the participants in the room.
After roughly a two-hour program roughing out the new way forward, the second half of these gatherings will be more like a party to cross-connect and have some fun too.
This physical event series also will be done in partnership with Freethink Media and their teams will be covering the program in video with side interviews as well. I expect some of that content will also be published here in The Great Progression series for all subscribers.
The invites for this first gathering will go out as early as next week but only to Founding Members. If you want to be part of these exclusive physical gatherings, then join before then.
The Chat for Members and Comments for Subscribers
The conversation will want to continue after the virtual and the physical gatherings and that brings up another perk of any paid Member - the Chat. Next week we are going to open up the Chat to paid Members because we are getting close to a critical mass of 100 of you.
I will occasionally throw a question in there if I am trying to glean some insights for an upcoming piece or get some feedback on a past piece. Mostly the Chat is meant to be for the Members to hold a conversation among yourselves about the ideas of the month or whatever else is relevant to this project. I will always review what took place by the end of each day but I will not primarily be driving that conversation. That is for you.
The comments on all essays and interviews are open to all subscribers for now. That is a way for the free subscribers to weigh in with their feedback and ideas. I always read all the comments on essays and interviews. Keep them coming.
If I am a Shack15 member but not a founding member, can I attend?