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The Good Summit part I
Saturday 27th October 2018 @ 1:46 pm
What an experience the first The Good Summit was.
Full of wonderful and passionate speakers who care about the state of the world and the state of humanity.
We heard so much that was positive – from world changing health care design, to a local social enterprise making bags for kids in the social care system, to politicians saying ‘of course I would do some things differently if I could do it again,’ to some of Ireland’s most successful business leaders talking about the unsustainability of the system, to care for the homeless the hungry the immigrant and the elderly … to … to … to …
It was a delight to be in the midst of such wonderful people who know the world can work differently.
The speakers were light. Each of them spoke at the event at their own expense – no–one was paid to attend and present. It was true giftedness on the part of those who spoke. I wrote to them afterwards to thank them most sincerely for their vital part in bringing The Good Summit to birth. And I pointed out that what they witnessed, was a massive collaborative effort between a small army of volunteers and speakers from an incredibly wide variety of backgrounds, experience, learning, skill, age, race and language. Among all of those volunteers and speakers (numbering c.55 people in all) we witnessed over a dozen nations represented, with ages ranging from 18–70, among whom were folks who are gay / straight / wealthy / living on the line / university professors / no college degree / European / African / Asian / North American / national mangers / entrepreneurs / NGO workers / film makers / match–makers and much more besides.
Something worthwhile came into being … and maybe the same serendipity and good favour that brought us to this point will offer some bridges to something sustainable worthwhile beautiful and Good in the future.
It was inspiring to listen to the keynotes, and even more inspiring to watch the interactions and conversations afterwards between different people. What captivated me most, was the energy and vibrancy that became palpable so very quickly into the event. People wanted to meet people. There was a massive desire for connecting and participating, and there are today networks being refreshed while new networks are being created. I don’t know much about social media, but on the day of the Summit on Twitter we had 115K impressions, and on Facebook a reach of over 10k. Not bad for a first attempt.
It has been a value of The Good Summit from the start that things such as goodness, kindness, generosity and well–being are things which need careful cultivation, things which need to be tended to carefully so as to not destroy them. It can be tough to stick to such positive virtues, but we are determined to keep the conversation going.
It might well be, that when all is said and done, all we were really trying to do, is spread some real love around the island and around the globe.
Let the cultivating of the seeds sown begin …
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