Similar to my desire to help “multiplier” types of people like entrepreneurs, it was no surprise that I gravitated towards doing work to support grassroots community leaders.
“Grassroots community leaders”, in my definition, refers to people who are voluntarily spending their free time and energy leading, growing, or maintaining a network of people who are united by a shared cause or advocacy and are typically getting non-monetary benefits from this work.
Naturally, my inclination is towards “innovation” community leaders; namely people who lead economic development efforts for the engineering, design, or startup space, and so it made sense to cater to the needs of this demographic first for the type of event I wanted to pilot.
The idea came from my involvement in the Techstars APAC Summit back in 2016 and my more recent organizing work for the Product Tonic Unconference 2023. I wanted to create a safe space where community leaders could connect, learn, and talk about issues they find important and impactful in the work that they do.
In this blog post, I’ll talk about my thought process on how I designed the retreat experience and I will share some of the feedback I got from participants after the event.
Side note, one of the major takeaways I got from organizing this event was that it was erroneous for me to call it a “Innovation Community Builders Unconference”. Since the format was more like an open forum rather than a series of topics with specialized breakout rooms, the event wasn’t strictly a “conference” but ended up being more like a retreat so, for the purposes of this blog post, I’ll start referencing the event as a retreat.
Making the event title more inclusive
I used to be an active moderator of this Facebook group called Startup PH: Community Builders. One of the observations I made while I was still actively moderating is that the word “community builder” resonates with a lot of people even though the word “startup” preceded it in the group name.
I say this because the membership requests the group receives shows not only people who are technology user group leads or startup incubator employees, but also people who want to build communities of hydroponics enthusiasts, women’s livelihood program managers, and even… golfing?
Looking back, I recognize that leaders like these, regardless if they’re in the “startup” space or not, still feel the need to connect and learn from others like them on how to grow and nurture their networks. Aside from some academic gatherings like the u-lab program run by MIT Sloan held at The Rizal Academy for Innovation and Leadership a few years ago, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for people who do this kind of work to connect in the Philippines.
So I suppose for the next event, instead of explicitly targeting “Innovation Community Builders”, I can simply call such a gathering something along the lines of “Community Leaders Retreat” to be more inclusive of others who do similar work but in different sectors. This way, this would enrich conversation and would allow ideas to cross-pollinate, potentially birthing something new and useful to the group at large.
Shoutout to the person who gave this feedback after the retreat. I agree with you that the event’s usefulness could increase if we involve people from other disciplines.
Connection to nature reminds us that communities are complex living systems
It was important to me to find a venue that allowed us to not only break out into smaller groups, but also to give us a space away from the usual work environment. Function rooms, aircon, screens, and office chairs, will visibly constrain our thinking as it puts us literally in the same context of our usual day-to-day. I wanted to design an experience that would allow natural conversation to flow, while also exposing participants to environments with an open space and a view of nature.
I recall Michael, my co-organizer of the Product Tonic Retreat 2023, saying that “shared pain brings people together” where the idea was that if the group experienced a hardship or challenge together at the beginning of the event, this would bring a sense of honesty and camaraderie amongst participants.
In the most recent retreat, we certainly did have a few hardships that we had to maneuver around. First was the heat and humidity of the Philippines and the second was pelting rain that made too much noise and made it difficult to hold conversation.
I suppose a middle ground for the next event would be to have a venue that had an open space where we could start the day with nature, and as the heat of the day arrives, we can move towards a airconditioned open plan function room (with big windows) to protect us from the elements.
The distance of the venue from the city center is not something I would like to change though. I would like the “travel” to already be a part of the event experience. This allows participants to already start solving problems together (how to get from point A to point B, where to eat, what to do, etc) which sets the context of the program itself. Considering the longest travel time, I would say that 4 hours to go from your home to the venue would be a reasonable experience, provided that participants spent about 30% of that time commuting together.
Another feedback I received from the retreat participants was that for those who could stay overnight, it would have been better to stay in one place together, as we had two different accommodations. I agree with this and I believe it is just a matter of budget and location to achieve this criteria.
Participant-driven topics and a flexible conversation structure helps keep things interesting
The format that I chose for the recent event was Open Space, as it was the only structure that I was familiar with that systematically sourced ideas from participants and provides just enough guidelines afterwards for conversation to naturally evolve. I got feedback that the “time blocks” for topics were too long. It was around 50 minutes per conversation block and I understand how this could result into a “dull moment” when conversing with a group of people.
I believe that this is okay. In our day-to-day life, we are used to having a rigid structure and a deadline. Being able to experience the natural flow of a conversation allows us to be more aware of ourselves (how we speak, the types of ideas we form and how we vocalize it) which will ultimately help us sense better and improve the soft skill of communication, which is critical to master in the type of work we do. We rarely ever have the chance to talk naturally in a “serious” environment (with many of us having time-bound calls or meetings) and so I’d like the retreat to be one of the chances where people can talk meaningfully without a strict agenda or itinerary.
Having a bigger time block forces participants to recognize the value of the conversation currently happening and to notice when would be the best time to explicitly close it and tackle something else or even naturally suggest a quick break before resuming conversation. This activity should help participants not only notice themselves (their speech patters, attention span, etc) but also practice respect for the collective by ensuring that what is being talked about matters to everyone and includes everyone who choses to stay.
Working with a venue that knows the area intimately
I think one factor of success for me as the organizer was the attentiveness and quality service the venue provided us throughout the event. They housed us, fed us, arranged transportation, answered questions about the area for newcomers, and ensured that we got everything at an accessible price.
Having a venue partner that not only understands the purpose of your gathering but also has empathy for your desire to provide a good experience to participants is crucial to allow organizers the freedom to focus on the facilitation of the program and the delivery of the content.
The only limitation for this arrangement was the scarcity of options. The venue was the only establishment that served food in the area and so the menu selection was limited. Nevertheless, if the goal was to reduce the organizing overhead then this set up was perfect especially for me personally as I wanted to have this preparatory work outsourced and I needed a facility that was reasonably priced.
What I’d like to try for the next retreat
I would stick to the same Open Space format but perhaps have a speaker to impart some knowledge at the beginning of the event. The topic would ideally be something that preempts the Open Space theme so that participants have something to reference or think about as they craft the topics they want to tackle in the later half of the event.
Another “listening” mechanic I would like to try is to equip participants with Empathy Box reaction cards and speaking agreements. The ideas is to basically give each person time to speak and equip listeners to “emote” using the reaction cards to allow the speaker to see responses to their statements while not disrupting their flow of thought. I’m not to sure yet on how to marry both concepts, it might be a fun experiment to try for next time.
Final Takeaway
Overall, I would like for this event to be a space where leaders can collaborate and help enrich each other in their network nurturing journey. Hopefully if this type of gathering takes off, then others will find value in organizing it.
I acknowledge it may take different forms or flavors but at the end of the day, if a safe space gets hosted for grassroots leaders, then I can say our efforts have borne fruit.
Ashley Uy 
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