Leadership Development

Regional Contacts and community leaders from around the world gather throughout the year for knowledge sharing, co-learning and network building through the following events:

  • Burning Man Regional Network Forum: Emerging, Wayfinding, Igniting (June 5-6, 2021) This online forum is a regathering and potential jumping off point for global group of community leaders after a year of cancelled Regional Events, prototyping COVID-safe interactive art experiences and pandemic-related isolation. Its goal: re-inspire engagement in Burning Man culture beyond Black Rock City and strengthen the cultural connections between regional communities. The forum is designed to be globally inclusive for engagement across all time zones.
  • Global Leadership Conference (GLC) – From 2007 to 2017, this conference brought together an international group for Burning Man Project’s premiere educational event in the San Francisco Bay Area.
  • European Leadership Summit – Summits have been organized by Burning Man Project and local Burner host communities in Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Stockholm, Nantes.
  • Southeastern Leadership Roundtable – Previous host cities include Asheville, Charlotte, Smyrna, Richmond and Knoxville in the USA.
  • Multi-Regional Summit – This locally organized summit gathers leaders annually from Northern California and Nevada in a campground centrally located to participants of these regions.
  • Mid-Atlantic Leadership Conference – Washington, DC and Baltimore Burner communities have hosted this biannual summit since 2016.
  • Australia/New Zealand Leadership Summit – Melbourne has hosted this locally organized summit since 2017.
  • Rocky Mountain Burning Arts Summit – The Boulder Burner community hosted the first summit in 2018.
  • Jozi Burner Summit – Johannesburg hosted this locally organized summit in 2017.

Workshops and presentations include not only skill-based knowledge but also higher-level learning, including the creation of business entities, insurance and risk management, grant writing, and other key organizational topics. Based on the notion that teaching and learning are as inseparable as speaking and listening, many sessions focused on peer-to-peer sharing opportunities where groups present their projects and event experiences, and highlight their successes and challenges so that others may build on those ideas and grow to the next level in their own communities.

Participation in the conference is by invitation only, but selected sessions are sometimes made available to the public via webcast or on-demand video.