When the pandemic first started nearly exactly two years ago, I decided to accelerate some ideas I had wanted to implement in Fall 2022. In short, I felt it was the right time for my tech education nonprofit Tech Tree Root (https://techtreeroot.org) to adapt the remote mobility I had experienced while living among the Mongolian nomads in Summer 2013. They had found ways to incorporate modern technology into the lifestyles their ancestors had created thousands of years before, and they did so in a way that helped them become more connected than before, something that many of us struggle to do in our first-world lives. I felt this expanded connectivity would be a great way for all of us HBS Online Community Organizers to engage everyone during the pandemic and now.
Of course, it took a while for us to get used to the new mindset and skillset needed to do this right, but after some chats with Danilo (Miami), Nicco (Philadelphia), and Patrick (New York City), the four of us felt ready to host a joint event, with Danilo proposing our topic and structure, then Nicco providing our knowledge base. Although we didn't include an onsite portion to make our event fully hybrid, that will be an easy addition for future events. Our priority was creating an event that allowed participants, regardless of location, to feel included and energized by each other while enjoying a largely casual, yet informative, discussion about cryptocurrency, decentralized finance, NFTs, and other new developments in fintech. Aside from Nicco, who is an associate for Vanguard, we also had others who have deep understandings of these matters, and we proved our concept for how to host joint multi-Community events. For our next event, we (Houston, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia) want to include other Communities in the Western Hemisphere since our time zones are all close together.
Bogotá, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Mexico City, San Francisco, São Paulo, Toronto, and Washington DC: Let's work together!