Build the Future of Freedom & Democracy in the US
April 25–26
San Francisco
We the people, take action.
What would your dream community, country, and democracy look like?
What if that wasn’t so far off?
Our democracy in the US is far from perfect, and at the same time it has provided us with so so much. While there’s plenty of talk about how it’s broken, there’s less talk about what we can do about it, and what we actually want it to become.
Come join this dynamic and participatory gathering for discussions and co-creation at the hub of dreaming and building, in the city of builders, the City of Awe, and let’s co-create the communities, the country, the democracy, and the world that we dream of living in.
We’re gathering at Frontier Tower in San Francisco, a 16-story “vertical village”, innovation hub, and “community democracy in formation” that once served as the Burning Man headquarters, for 2 days of community building, good food, and designing the future that we’re going to co-create through our collective action.
You’ll leave feeling inspired, connected, and with an action plan and simple concrete things you, your community or organization, and us collectively as citizens can do to strengthen our democracy and make government more responsive to our community interests.
And the beautiful thing is that we, as citizens, have far more power and opportunity to bring about that change than most of us think we have.
We can do this. Now is the time to act. Join us.
We are the neighbors we’ve been waiting for.
April 25: SF Democracy Unconference
A dynamic unconference to help us connect, sensemake, and build towards more cohesive and collective action to help this be a slingshot democracy revival moment.
April 26: AI & Democracy Forum
Lightning talks, unconference sessions, collective ecosystem mapping, and strategic action planning to help us avert an AI-driven collapse and build towards human flourishing.
What’s an unconference, and why this format?
An unconference is a dynamic gathering approach where the participants co-create the agenda at the start of the event, with an emphasis on participatory discussions more than presentations or panels. This approach makes vastly better use of the capabilities, intellect, and creativity of the participants than traditional conference formats.
This unconference is designed to help us:
1. Connect with each other, and strengthen our communities of shared interests.
2. Make sense of the fuzzy situation we’re in, what’s going on, and what we can do about it.
3. Help us identify pathways for action, things we can do that can have an impact.
We’ll invite sessions to be action/solution-oriented, with a notetaker in each to share findings for collective harvesting. All with a goal towards improving individual, organizational, and collective action well beyond this gathering.
There will also be a limited number of offerings and “framing lightning talks” to help us learn, reflect, and envision the next phase of our democracy that we want to co-create together. We’ll also invite people to a series of online discussions prior to the in-person event. If you’re interested in sharing a lightning talk or other type of content offering, please fill out the Speaker / Presenter Interest Form.
Register to Attend
Join as a
Partners
Let’s build America’s Next Democracy together.
“Whatever you care about most — climate, housing, healthcare, education, economic justice — there’s one thing all of those have in common. Every single one of them requires us to work together. And right now, that’s exactly what’s at risk. Democracy is the solution, and we need to build and sustain that, together.”
“There are hundreds of amazing civic initiatives around the country. People want a thriving society with high levels of trust locally and nationally. Join us at Build our Next Democracy, and let’s figure out how to do this at scale.”
“We as citizens have so much more ability to influence our shared destiny than most of us appreciate. We need to remind ourselves that we are the overseers of our democracy, that we need to reassert ourselves in that role. Join us at the Next Democracy Unconference as we connect, learn, set plans to do that.”
The Democracy Unconference is cyclical, and coming to a town near you.
There’s no time to waste, we have important work to do, and one-off events (or annual events) won’t get it done.
We’re planning to do more Democracy Unconferences, Hackathons, Accelerators, Citizen Assemblies, Citizen-Led Candidate Debates, and otherwise both in the SF Bay Area, online, and with partners elsewhere in the US. If you’re interested in joining or collaborating on any of those, please fill out this General Interest Form and we’ll follow up with you.
Other Initiatives
To revitalize American democracy for all of us, current and future generations. If you’re interested in learning more or collaborating on these issues, please fill out the General Interest Form, or sign up for the newsletter to get updates.
Democracy Hackathon & Accelerator/Incubator
Providing mentorship, community support, and visibility to organizations working to preserve and strengthen democracy. Sign up as a mentor, or apply for support via the General Interest Form.
Democracy Week(s)
Fostering a renewed sense of civic engagement and civic joy.
Citizen Assemblies & Citizen-Led Candidate Debates
Bringing together citizens, civic organizations, and public servants to strengthen community ties, refine our requests to the government, and boost public sector accountability to citizen’s needs.
Lu.ma/democracy – a shared calendar for democracy events nationwide
Improving visibility for all things democracy related, nationwide. Feel free to add your events there!
Contact us: partner (at) nextdemocracy.us