Summit Series- Burning Man meets Davos? - Tony Greenberg

The Summit Series Does it Right But PLEASE Don39t GoHave you ever had a perfect weekend A perfect experience Have you ever been part of an intentional if temporary community built out of seemingly thin air that coalesced into a deeply meaningful and rewarding experience for the rest of its short existence It seems Wired preempted my diatribeRecently I had all of that It was so intense and special that I was missing it about 042 seconds after I headed back home Since then I continue to think about what it was that made the communal experience so good and what it takes to create such temporary but intensely engaging gatherings on a more regular basis for a richer more enjoyable lifeAll that said don39t think I want you to try to go to this event the next time it39s held It would be a horrible experience for you whoever you are It39s the absolute epitome of Groucho Marx39s line about not wanting to be part of any club that would have him as a member You shouldn39t go You definitely shouldn39t even try to be part of it If they ask you to come you should refuse It would be bad for you Really I just happened to have a really good time that39s allAm I talking about Burning Man that annual confab of cool crazies on the scorching salt flats of northwest Nevada NahThis was something that was simultaneously more exclusive and more inclusive and thankfully completely lacking cakedon alkali dust on any sensitive bits And it was on the other side of the Nevada border at Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe Rather this was the Summit Basecamp weekend organized by TheCollective in late January Squaw Valley is really unbeautiful this time of year and cold cold cold You would have hated thatIt39s hard to do justice to all the amazing people I met at the event and trying to list them all merely ensures that I39ll forget several incredible someones There were astronauts and musicians doctors and venture capitalists social media mavens and authors oceanographers and attorneys None of them however were people you would want to knowThe attendees included a lot of people with boring conventional highlevel titles like CEO or founder or partner And then there were those amusing attempts to define one39s role like Director of Corporate Espionage or Chief Troublemaking Officer or Chief DODO or Breathing Guru Chief Humanist Chief Love Officer or Chief Eternal Optimist You get the idea Lots of terrible people with awful titles You wouldn39t have liked any of themGiven its location near Tahoe there were lots of people from the Bay Area and Los Angeles But there were lots of others from Israel and Doha Rio de Janeiro and Guatemala City Paris and Sydney Bogota and Montreal Shanghai and Phnom Penh You39d have felt uncomfortable with all those funny accentsIt even drew a few some actual celebrities like the president of the Republic of Georgia Mikhail Misha Saakashvili rapper DJ Jazzy Jeff Emanuelle Chrique of Entourage fame comic Patton Oswalt and director Gus Van Sant And there were a lot of people who are famous in the tech world like Zapposcom founder Tony Hsieh and Webbies founder Tiffany Shlain and more VCs than you could shake an IPO document at But you wouldn39t have liked to talk with any of them in a relaxed and stimulating atmosphere Sekou Andrews wrap up simply stunned the audienceThere were cool artsy sessions like mentalist LIor Suchard divining the name of someone39s first girlfriend and Swedish and Argentinian superstar Jose Gonzalez performing his intensely quiet guitardriven music And lots of brain food on investing in NGOs creating lean startups understanding the Mayan calendar system the history of Prohibition memorization tricks and the meaning of money You39d have been bored in those sessionsAll that said I had several important takeaways from this gathering1 For once in my sometimes overly driven life I didn39t go to an event with intent driving my choices I went to the event with no agenda no long list of people I had to meet no events I couldn39t miss no declamations I had to make I went with an open mind and an open calendar and just enjoyed all the experiences that serendipity brought me like that lunch with Misha his aide and the beautiful woman friend who invited me to the lunch2 Life is made up of people who are givers or takers I39ve never seen such a large group of givers Hats off to the organizers who curated the wideranging mix of invited attendees They worked hard to figure out the most challenging possible thing waving in the right mix of people to create the most precious club I39ve ever been in Everyone it seemed was there to connect and support each other It simply wasn39t possible to meet someone who didn39t say quotHow can I helpquot I revisit a piece on Gratitude I wrote years back truly showing these Summit creatures must feel the same3 As exclusionary as the gathering was a pricey inviteonly gathering in an expensive somewhat remote ski resort the attendees were amazingly inclusionary You didn39t see cliques that turned their backs on strangers With each passing minute I would pinch myself being honored to attend And I can39t wait to figure out new ways I can give back to others as a result of the inspiration I came away with4 It didn39t matter how wealthy or successful you were No one was peacocking boasting about their influence trying to prove their power showing off their expensive duds Every attendee got a pair of TOM39s sunglasses and Bogner boots which ended up making sure everyone ended up dressing a bit alike It became very egalitarian flattening out differences something like how parochial school uniforms do It was a crowd without ego or pretense or at least with no need to express those to others5 I felt almost like an elder statesman in this Benetton ad of a diverse crowd There was no hierarchy of beauty brains income gender or race the participants39 warmth and smiles turning handshakes into hugs The mix of attendees was split among those who already had wonderful achievements and the leaders of tomorrow It was an unbelievable combination As techoriented as many in the crowd were though it wasn39t a typical frenetic Type AAA dotcommer crowd Instead it was a dotcalmer crowd6 I still treasure the wonderful presences of Summit Basecamp organizers Elliot Bisnow and Jeff Rosenthal They led an impeccably groomed team that managed the most demanding and humbled of crowds placed somewhere between hippies and executives People were all sharing rooms spaces and parties and meals like there was no tomorrow and truly meshing into beautiful collective experience The organizers pulled together a remarkable set of materials from building a bar that housed the Prohibition and cocktail talk to a website support materials participant materials and more It was a veritable eye and brain feast like Burning Man meets TED meets Davos meets the Allen Media Conference meets Pop TechI salute the organizers and the participants for the experience they allowed me to enjoy with them and I thank them greatly But remember whatever you do don39t even bother trying to be part of this You39d hate itBesides I want to get invited back and actually have time to meet everyone who39s there because they39re some of the coolest people in the world If you came it39d just be one more amazing person I might not have time to get to know That would really suckAs CEO of RampRate Sourcing Advisors and DeepStrat Tony Greenberg has been an idea generator transforming perceptions and industries since he was 17 Under Greenberg39s leadership for more than a decade RampRate has radically changed how IT services are purchased creating actionable datadriven sourcing information that has saved tens of millions of dollars and thousands of hours of headaches for major clients in entertainment Internet services finance media and video games DeepStrat a spinoff from RampRate39s strategic research arm focuses on growthadvisory services for companies in the digital media value chain particularly in mergers ampamp acquisitions rampups and funding plansRead all Tony39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Only Time Buys TrustCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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