Community Events

Overview

Community Events is a fundamental component of regenerative village development. This guide synthesizes knowledge from re:build gatherings to provide practical insights for implementing community events in community projects.

Methods and Approaches

Diverse event formats: Communities host events, workshops, and gatherings—whether retreats, activities, or weekend events—to educate, empower, and inspire people. This process develops connection, offers variety, and includes stewardship education about environmental responsibility.

Event background: Some practitioners come from backgrounds in nightlife and large events (e.g., New York City), where they learned to gather people and build community. Eventually, they discovered that nightlife and parties weren't the only way to build community—regenerative events offer deeper connection.

Key Insights

International events: Some practitioners organize events across different industries and locations (e.g., Singapore, marine bases), creating diverse experiences.

Regular event programming: Some communities have been hosting peak events for a long time, creating regular programming that brings people together.

Flexible space use: There's possibility to bring people from nearby areas (e.g., an hour away) to participate in experiences. You can have spaces open all year long, or open for specific events, creating flexibility.

Structured event calendar: Some communities plan structured event calendars (e.g., two events and four retreats every year) as times when they bring in different people and create special experiences.

Narrative perception: We are creatures that perceive the universe through narrative. Our perception of events is recounted through memories, making events powerful for creating shared stories.

Profitable events: During intensive periods (e.g., four months when 17 people lived together, grew together, and built houses together), communities can generate profit through donations, events, and experiences.

Addressing underlying issues: Often we put bandages on top of things and ignore underlying issues. Some communities decide to address these directly, recognizing that events and community building "could be a real thing" worth investing in.

Best Practices

• Yeah, we're going to be hosting a bunch of events every two weeks
• With other people who are holding We also host events and workshops and gatherings, whether it's a retreat, an activity, or just something for the weekend, trying to educate and empower and inspire people, the process of developing the connection, offering a variety of workshops, and obviously, stewardship that comes into working on how we are responsible for our environment
• Because we want to attract families and also team building events
• Um, a little bit about how I got here, but yeah, I'm originally from New York City and I was in nightlife, throwing very large events and parties, gathering people and I knew I loved community, eventually nightlife and parties were not the only way together community

Implementation Guide

To implement community events in your regenerative village project, consider the following approach:

Implementation details to be added.