Common Ground Summit
North Shore, Kauai, November 20-22nd, 2024
Join us for a 3-Day gathering building community through conversation, food, experiences, and exploration.
Event Video
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Why you should join
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Our community
Form deep connections with amazing people that will become collaborators and lifelong friends. We are an ensemble where each member plays a vital role in co-creating the event, trusting that change will come of it.
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Regenerative Leadership
We believe in transformation through connection: Only through (re)learning how to connect meaningfully with people, place, and planet can we move towards a regenerative future.
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Peak Moments of Joy
Experience awe on our magical campus, through collective effervescence and the feeling of belonging and “home”.
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A Culinary Adventure
Join us for a “3 day dinner party” with outstanding food sourced from local farmes, ranchers and fishermen and prepared with traditional skills and knowledge.
The Community
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Billy Martin
Medeski Martin & Wood, composer, percussionist, visual artist, filmmaker.
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Meleana Estes
Lei Maker, Founder HIE Hawaii, Author ‘Lei Aloha’, stylist-in-residence Common Ground
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Sean Sherman
Oglala Lakota Sioux chef, cookbook author, forager, and promoter of indigenous cuisine.
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Leland Maschmeyer
CEO Collins, previous CBO Chobani, Board Member Sway, Basis, Circle of Blue, Nomi
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Linda Black Elk
Ethnobotanist & Food Sovereignty Activist
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Mark Brand
Entrepreneur, Educator, Facilitator, Chef, Founder A Better Life Foundation
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Félix Maradiaga
Academic & political activist. Former Secretary General of the Ministry of Defense Nicaragua
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Nicole Masters
Founder of Integrity Soils, Author of "For the Love of Soil"
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Peter Lupoff
Impact investor, educator and former Chief Executive Officer of Net Impact
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Kealoha Domingo
Chef and Hawaiian cultural practitioner, Nui Kealoha catering, community leader
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Mike Coots
Surfer, photographer, shark advocate
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Franklin Chang Diaz
NASA Astronaut & founder of Ad Astra
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Jannes Sorenson
Kepler Hotel Group, former GM Beaumont Hotel London
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Skya Duchenaux
Executive Director of Akiptan, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
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E. Benjamin Skinner
Founder & President Transparentem, prev. Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism of Brandeis University
The Conversations
We will focus on deep connection to place, setting the stage for personal transformation and professional development towards regenerative leadership.
Our goal is to cultivate an environment that celebrates the universality of place-based values and regenerative principles. In our rapidly evolving global landscape, traditional transactional approaches no longer suffice in fostering the prosperity of individuals, businesses, communities, and the environment. To thrive in this interconnected and complex world, we must embrace new paradigms of engagement.
Content Tracks
Anchoring in Place - The Importance of "Place" for Regenerative Leadership
Community, Welcome, and Belonging
in Times of ChangeTravel, Hospitality, and Exploration:
Finding Place Anywhere (or Everywhere)Our Place in the Future
The Program
Wednesday
November 20th - Day 1
On our final day together, begin with morning wellness activities such as Horse breathing, a silent meditation walk to Stone Dam, or a sound bath with Hawaiian singing bowls.
Don’t miss a final farm-to-table breakfast, followed by your choice of the content sessions such as Food as the Great Connector, Regenerative Hospitality and Leadership and Displacement
Experience a hands-on lab with Jamie Miller, Designing for the Future. How can we design systems, environments, and networks for the future that generate positive outcomes for their communities by incorporating principles of biomimicry?
After a farm-to-table lunch join conversations about Natural Resource Management or Oceans of Water & Space.
Before Pau Hana there will be some time to stop by the tea lounge to snack on fresh fruit from the agroforest and keep the conversations going with new friends from the day’s activities, and reflect on the new perspectives and wisdom you have gained. Or you might decide to do a quick trip to the beach before we wrap up our last day with dinner by Chef Kealoha Domingo, followed by more music and drinks in the Speakeasy.
Thursday
November 21st - Day 2
On day two, we will start early at 8am with breakfast. Afterwards, join our local partners to see place-based work in action:
One of them is Hui Makaʻāinana o Makana (Hui), a a community-based organization formed in 1998 by lineal descendants of Hāʻena. Learn about their work teaching the skills, knowledge, and practices of their kūpuna (ancestors) through the interpretation, restoration, care and protection of the natural and cultural resources that are located within the Hāʻena State Park and plant and harvest kalo, also known as taro, that has provided sustenance for many generations.
Our second partner will be announced soon. A quick dip into the ocean or swimming hole is included in these field trips!
Then, return to campus in time for a farm-to-table lunch, followed by a session on Regeneration, Place, Promise. What does it mean to commit to place? What does the future of regenerative leadership look like?
The afternoon will continue with the quilting project with Deimosa Webber-Bey, part 2 of the percussion and instrument-making workshops with Billy Martin and two more content sessions.
Close the day with another incredible meal by Chefs Kealoha Domingo and Sean Sherman, a bonfire and music on the CG campus, or some quiet time for reflection and integration.
Friday
November 22nd - Day 3
Day one begins with a traditional welcoming ceremony, where participants come together to get to know each other on the most human level, sharing where they come from and who they are bringing with them to the experience.
Our first content sessions include: Connecting Past and Future Generations, Financing Healthy Communities and Indigenous Food Systems.
After lunch, you will hear Astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz on Imagining Futures: What does it mean to be a Futurist? What does it mean to create a technology for worlds that don’t yet exist?
Later you have a choice between a session on Brands and Beloning, a hands on lab with Mahina Paishon Duarte, a tour of the Common Ground tropical agroforest or a collective quilting project with Deimosa Webber-Bey.
Stop by the tea lounge to snack on fresh fruit from the farm and dive deeper into conversations sparked by the day’s sessions.
Close the first day with fireside chats, percussion and instrument-making workshops with Billy Martin, and an incredible dinner featuring Chef Mark Brand.
“Building Common Ground to me is the genesis of a movement. It is well intentioned people coming together and creating the space for difficult conversations to occur about regenerating the Earth’s resources, regenerating the human spirit, regenerating connectivity to each other and I think that is what we are building.”
-Mike Kanazawa, Partner EY
The Food
Prepare to indulge in a 3-day culinary journey of food that is locally sourced and prepared with best practices creating experiences that can’t be replicated elsewhere; all while supporting small farmers, fisherman, ranchers and producers. The artisan crafted alcoholic & non-alcoholic beverages paired with each meal and offered throughout the day take an equally exquisite approach to featuring local botanical delights.
The Experiences
Immerse in the beautiful Common Ground campus with its history, community and culture. Learn a new skill from a community of enthusiastic practitioners, volunteer at an ancient fishpond or taro field, start the morning with guided meditation, holotropic breathing, martial arts or a sound bath, tour our food forest, ride a horse carriage to Stone Dam or celebrate with a botanical libation, live music, and art installations at the end of each day.
Explore Kaua’i
Join us 1 day before the Summit on Tuesday, November 19th for a curated adventure to the wondrous Hanalei Town.
Begin your exploration of ‘place’ and establish life long connections within our collective as we paddle up the Hanalei River and delight in fresh sashimi at the pier at sunset. Kaua’i is a window into our most beautiful & serene world.
“The 2023 Common Ground event was the most valuable gathering I have attended in years. From the moment I arrived, I found myself in deep conversations with thoughtful individuals bringing diverse experiences and perspectives to critical issues of shared concern. We did indeed find "Common Ground" by challenging conventional thinking, authentically sharing experiences rooted in diverse communities and places. People did not just come to talk or present - they came to listen and learn, which is rare in a gathering of highly accomplished, smart, successful individuals.”
-Beth Robinson, Hawaii Life
Your Hosts
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Oliver Niedermaier
Common Ground, Tau Investment
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David Stevens
Broaden
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Jen Luck
Common Ground, CG Foundation
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Geoff Davis
Sorenson Impact
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Matt Siegel
Common Ground Summit, Landbridge Design
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Peleke Flores
Mālama Hulē'ia
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Constanze Niedermaier
Common Ground Ensemble
Contact us for special group packages and shared villa rentals. We’d love to help you organize a special trip with your peers.
Contact us at: Ensemble@commonground-summit.com
We offer customized sponsoring opportunities that make you a full partner of the event. Let us know how we could best include your company or brand.
Contact us at: Ensemble@commonground-summit.com
Our Partners
“One of the things I loved most about my time at the Common Ground Summit was how personal the time is -- it's like the pressure to do business is checked at the front gate, and I could relax into getting to know everyone, learning, and reflecting. I honestly can't remember the last time I went to a conference and placed a priority on learning. It felt like such a gift -- and a really valuable one professionally. In the weeks that followed, I found that the deep relationships I forged there, alongside the time to reflect, learn and change have woven their way into my professional conversations, seeding new ideas, potential new work, and new ways of thinking. I found the Common Ground Summit an incredibly valuable investment into me as a leader -- and I often overlook making those investments..”
-Katie Macc, Sorensson Impact
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