Conference|POSTPONED(2024)

A growing variety of individuals and organisations are adopting purpose-drivennes, self-organising and decentralized leadership as operational models that aim to create a more sustainable future. These models are often affiliated with participatory cultures, where individuals do not act as consumers only, but also as contributors, and are used both in support of and in resistance to traditional market capitalism.  

To understand this phenomenon and it's potential for various communities, members from Burning Stories team will host a science-driven conference after the COVID-19 crisis and other stuff (likely late 2024), with a theme:

Participatory Cultures and Capitalism: A challenge or a symbiosis?

The conference brings together 60 thought-leaders from three communities - science, practitioner (NGO/business sector) and the Burning Man community - to address some of the biggest challenges of our time and explore actionable solutions for bridging social and environmental sustainability and prosperity. The conference presents a unique chance for cross-pollination between world-class scholars from universities, Nordic chief executives, and a delegation from Burning Man Project Headquarters and Burning Man global community leaders. The aim of the non-commercial conference is to share new knowledge and foster collaboration between these three communities to produce actionable outcomes for all stakeholders.

The conference is not going to be a traditional scientific conference. Instead, a selection of speakers is curated to contribute through ‘Lighting Talks’, which act as inspiration for co-creating concrete solutions for unleashing human potential in purpose-driven organisations that are the building blocks of societal structures.

The opening keynote will be given by the Minister of Education Li Andersson. Other confirmed speakers for the conference currently include: Prof. Primavera De Philippi, Prof. Alf Rehn, Prof. Lauri Järvilehto,  Prof. Kalevi Ekman, Dr. Frank Martela, Dr. Graham St. John, Dr. Terje Toomistu, Karoliina Jarenko, Emilia Lahti, Aaron Muszalski, Katariina Haikala and from San Francisco joining Stuart Mangrum and Caveat Magister, from Bay are Nichol Bradford. Participants include experts from a variety of backgrounds, such as Antero Vartia (Compensate Foundation), Antti Merilehto (AI expert), Antton Rönnholm (Party Secretary of Social Democratic Party) Roope Mokka (Demos Helsinki), Outi Kuittinen (Demos Helsinki), Matthias Gullbrandson (Dreamler), Dominic Curaly (US Peace Institute). More to be announced soon from the total 80 of participants where also some of the Burning Man European community leaders are joining as participants, together with academics and decision-makers from diverse backgrounds.  

The content will be created based on the discussions at Burning Stories Forum where the discussions will be analysed by ethnographers. This allow us to harness the collective wisdom of the conference participants and curate as relevant content for the conference as possible. Discussion is already gearing up: https://forum.burning-stories.org/t/burning-man-the-internet-and-late-stage-capitalism/137/9

The conference space will be infused with a variety of arts from regional artists to inspire discussions that will cross over the standard boundaries. There will be live art performances, art exhibition and some of the presentations will be boosted with sound and visual art.

Read more about 2020 European Leadership Summit from Burning Man Journal Meet our European Leadership Summit Hosts: Finland and Estonia (Feb 14 2020) and Burning Man Goes to the Baltic Sea! Helsinki & Tallinn to Host 2020 European Leadership Summit (Dec 19 /2019)