I just got back from Summit at Sea and it was amazing! From Forbes Blog:
This April, Summit Series will pack 1,000 people on a cruise ship and sail from Florida to an undisclosed island for a 3 day weekend. This is no Carnival Cruise. The (invitation only) group will be made up of some of the brightest names in business, politics, technology, philanthropy and culture.
In just 3 years, Summit Series has attracted the likes of President Bill Clinton, billionaires Mark Cuban (HD Net; Dallas Mavericks) and Ted Turner (CNN, TBS Time Warner) plus a new generation of influencers like Facebook’s Sean Parker, author Tim Ferriss, models Christy Turlington and Bar Refaeli, TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie and Wine Library’s Gary Vaynerchuck.
Co-Founders Elliott Bisnow , Brett Leve, Jeffery Rosenthal and Jeremy Schwartz (all in their 20’s) gather an eclectic mix of people and put them in unique situations. Summit Series attendees participate in concerts (by the Roots), yoga and sky diving along with the standard panels and speeches.
Summit Series gets results for its attendees. Shakil Khan of online music site Spotify, met Sean Parker (Napster and Facebook) at a past event and snagged an investment from Parker’s venture group, the Founders Fund. Summit Series has also matched charities with big money, helping the non-profits collect more than $2 million in donations.
We spent two days at sea and one day on an amazing private island. The entire experience was a little bit surreal, for several reasons.
Firstly, being out in international waters meant that there was no cell phone coverage. Everyone was forced to *gasp* have conversations without the presence of a device screen to fall back on. Personally, I found it refreshing to actually have someone’s attention as it is my biggest pet peeve when people check their phones at the table or during meetings. I always have to restrain myself from yelling “be present, dammit!”
Secondly, we were on a boat, which meant we were all stuck for the entire conference together. No ducking out and going home! It was almost like being back in a dorm room again, people were introducing themselves from the balcony next door and saying hi in the hall way. My friend Robyn Scott and I met several of our neighbors including Jesse from Jess3, Tom Conrad, CTO of Pandora, and Russell Simmons, CEO of Def Jam Records.
Thirdly, the mix of being out on the open water and around such inspiring people meant the mood was fun and infectious. In between intensive conversations about social enterprise, the future of technology and emerging new business models, we partied with the roots, danced until the wee hours of the morning, and started an unofficial ritual of eating pizza at 4am. I felt completely at ease in approaching anyone to say a friendly hello. In fact, there was an unspoken rule where everyone introduced themselves if they found themselves in an elevator, hallway, or dining hall next to someone they didn’t know.
Some of my favorite and most memorable moments include hearing Tim Ferris’ talk about the 4 hour body turn into sex-ed tutorial and asking an affronted Peter Thiel if he wanted to join a dance party. Also, hearing keynote Richard Branson casually refer to an idea he had while he was “bottle feeding a baby tiger yesterday,” made me laugh.
The speakers were fantastic:
- John Osbourne CEO of BBDO talked about the challenge of leveraging creative talent within the structure of an organization. Recognizing that big companies need to bend to cater to alternative working styles shed light on some of the recruiting and retention challenges that industries will face in the next five years.
- Blake Mycoskie of TOMs Shoes described how giving can be built into every business model. He challenged me reevaluate how I look at business models and to find opportunities to be helpful no matter what industry I’m in.
- Jacqueline Novogratz from Acumen Fund completely blew me away with stories of social entrepreneurs making a big difference at the bottom of the pyramid and talking about the Acumen Fund’s important work in improving the quality of life for those less fortunate than us. I literally sat through her entire presentation with goosebumps. The woman is my hero. Robyn and I are still discussing how we want to get involved with some of her work.
Coming back from the trip I felt elated and ready to do more, to be more. Every single one of the people that I had met was living their dream. I met Jonny Imerman of Imerman’s Angels on my last day in Miami. He was on his way out but stopped to say bye to a mutual friend who introduced us. His charity helps pair families affected by cancer with someone else who is in a similar position. I cannot even describe his energy, he radiates such a deep serenity that it’s almost mesmerizing. Having lost my cousin to cancer a few weeks ago, his cause resonated with me. He himself is a survivor and within three minutes of meeting we were hugging like old friends and I had tears in my eyes. Sometimes time doesn’t really mean anything in connecting with another human being.
The organizers did a tremendous job of bringing such a wonderful and diverse group of people together and I feel very grateful and lucky to have been apart of it. Even more exciting is the Summit Network looks like it’s continuing strong. The Summit team launched a social network for the community called The Collective so people can continue to stay in touch and collaborate.
