What Unfolded at This Year’s Common Ground Summit
We missed having you with us on Kauaʻi this year, but we wanted to share a brief reflection on what unfolded – both to keep you connected and to offer a sense of the conversations and relationships taking shape across this community.
Over three days, we explored how place, legacy, and collective care shape the futures we’re building. What made this year so special was the way people showed up: with curiosity, generosity, and a willingness to engage across disciplines, backgrounds, and lived experiences.
A Community of Builders - This year’s group included:
Investors and funders working at the intersection of climate, culture, and community
Founders and operators building new models in local and regenerative economies
Artists, chefs, cultural practitioners, and youth leaders
Educators, storytellers, and leaders working across sectors and generations, exploring new ways of working together
The diversity of experience in the room is what allowed the conversations to go as deep as they did…
Memorable Discussion Threads - Across panels, workshops, and meals, several themes surfaced again and again:
Creativity as a pathway to insight and trust. From drawing and music to dance, food, and spray-paint, creativity wasn’t an accessory to the Summit; it was a way of thinking, listening, and making sense of the world together.
Care – for ourselves and for each other – as the core of meaningful work. People spoke openly about burnout, resilience, and the importance of showing up in ways that leave us and the people around us more restored than when we arrived.
Connection and presence as practices, not outcomes. Whether walking the agroforest, cooking alongside one another, or sitting in stillness during a drawing exercise, the week reinforced how powerful it is to be fully present with and for one another.
Place-based values as the grounding force. Again and again, conversations returned to the idea that the most durable, impactful work grows from deep relationships with the people and places we’re responsible to – not abstract strategies or external timelines.
But the week was shaped just as much by the moments in between as by the formal conversations…
Highlights & Shared Moments
Walking the Common Ground agroforest with John Parziale, tracing the layers of a living system and hearing how care, patience, and observation shape the work happening on that land.
Early morning and late evening movement with Rhia Gowen, where people found themselves dancing with strangers-turned-friends, reconnecting to presence, breath, and play.
Sharing breath with gentle giants during the horse breathing session with Earth Song Horse & Hitch – a quiet, grounding moment held in a field on the Common Ground campus, surrounded by butterflies and mountain views.
Exploring memory through food with Ashley Rouse – from quiet reflection to the shared stories that emerged as people blended ingredients, compared childhood flavors, and created something together.
The tasting experience with Rebecca Sullivan and Aaron Fenwick,where food & wine became a conduit for connection, curiosity, and grounding.
Music with Giancarlo Luiggi in the late afternoon light – a reminder of how sound gathers people, shifts energy, and invites joy.
Collective spray-painting with Kaplan Bunce, stepping into color and expression and seeing people surprise themselves with what they created.
Drawing with Pui Tiffany Chow, sitting face-to-face in stillness, paying deep attention to another person, and letting form dissolve into presence.
What Comes Next
Our hope is that the Summit is one point in an ongoing dialogue – not a singular moment. Thank you for being part of this community. We hope to welcome you to a future Summit and to stay in conversation in the meantime.
Have a fabulous day!
Your Ensemble Team