Global Gathering 2023 Recap & Team CommUNITY’s Future Plans
We are happy to report that Team CommUNITY’s first annual Global Gathering post-pandemic took place from September 15th to 17th, 2023. This year’s “alpha” event was part of a three-year vision to grow the event to the impact, size, and scope achieved pre-pandemic in a sustainable way that prioritizes the safety of our community.
In this regard, the 2023 edition was a success, helping Team CommUNITY (TCU) lay down the foundations needed to help address the new threats and challenges we now collectively all face when bringing the global digital rights community together physically.
To give back, both in this blog post and forthcoming toolkit we are creating, we will be sharing some of our learnings so that other events in the digital rights space can benefit. This blog post also has an update about TCU’s programming and what to expect in 2024.
First, Gratitude
The 2023 edition of the Global Gathering was an “alpha event” designed to help us scale back up in a sustainable way to the scope and size pre-pandemic. This means the event was an experiment designed to help TCU’s team lay the foundations needed for future instances.
From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank the 569 participants for their meaningful participation, patience, and support! We would have not been able to take on the intense undertaking of a re-launch without the love, messages of support and input we received from our community members. And for those that didn't come, we look forward to seeing you in future years, as the event grows and evolves.
We also want to thank the following organizations for their support:
These funders for believing in our vision:
Digital Rights Community Featured in Portugal’s Most Viewed News Programsst
Check out our segment on “Jornal da Tarde” at Rádio e Televisão de Portugal - RTP, one of the most viewed news programs, which was re-broadcasted on various channels. Special shoutout to our Portuguese counterparts, who not only received and supported us with open arms even though we were the new kids on the block.
The Global Gathering 2023 Learnings
We have begun collecting feedback from our community, and evaluating how to improve the 2024 edition. This is a dynamic process, so we continue to deepen our understanding of how to shape the event into one that is valuable for the many individuals and organizations we serve.
1. The Summit and Feira Separation: Unique Only for 2023 Edition
The Outdoor Venue
The Global Gathering’s outdoor venue was celebrated for the participants because it allowed several discussions formats in an relaxed and vibrant location.
This year, the Global Gathering was designed to have two main parts, the “Summit” in the morning, which was a highly-facilitated, invite-only workshop for organizational leaders, and the dynamic, participant-led “Feira” in the afternoon, open to everyone.
Some folks were not pleased with the separation however, this unique structure was designed to respond to evolving security concerns, and intended for this year only. As the threat landscape changed, our security experts gave us the greenlight to bring an additional 300 people, which is how the Feira was born. You can read more about the security and safety concerns that lead to this initial design here. The Summit was designed to bring together representatives of around 180 organizations and networks, meaning most organizations only had one spot.
New Opportunities for Satellite Events in 2024
The Conference Center
The additional venue boasts a privileged location on the Estoril coast, right next to our outdoor Global Gathering's venue.
In the future, the Global Gathering will mimic what we have seen in the past and this year’s Feira, with sessions and meetups open to all accepted applicants who will have the ability to design their own experience. While private events will take place as they have in the past, they will not be part of the public agenda, and will be organized instead by partners and community members.
2024 presents a particularly exciting opportunity, given that for future instances in addition to the outdoor venue we will be renting out the state-of-the-art conference center across the street, which has been awarded multiple “green” awards for environmental stewardship. We have also begun conversations with other venue spaces nearby, to ensure partners have options for venues.
Interested in hosting a private event? Reach out to us as soon as possible at gather@digitalrights.community. Remember, good events that are safe and secure require good planning.
2. The Equity Gap is Growing
The biggest finding, which should not be a surprise to any, is that the equity gap continues to grow. What this means in concrete terms, is that it's getting harder for underrepresented groups to access and take part in international events and strategic conversations. Problems range from lack of financial security, facing more oppressive surveillance and censorship tactics, to even recovering from/dealing with burnout.
To combat this, in 2024 TCU will relaunch our Equity Fund. Our calculations indicate that to have the same impact as in the past, we will need to fundraise double the amount.
TCU Launches Service Branch to Support Equity Fund
Despite this huge endeavor, we are staying positive, as our partners have always been heavily invested in this goal. In addition, TCU quietly launched a service branch in 2023 to test its viability long-term. We have decided to continue offering this service branch, as it's a win-win situation not just for TCU’s Equity Fund, but also for clients who get to benefit from our expertise. Services offered include but not are limited to:
* Community Building Workshop series, our most popular, covers diverse areas including code of conduct implementation, group safety and security, culture, digital strategy, developing audience profiles, and more.
* Consultation and strategy development on team building, organizational health, innovative program development, and more.
* Facilitation and event design.
3. Visas, Borders & More: Continued Support
TCU invested a considerable amount of research and effort in the 2023 alpha event to establish protocols, resources and secure experts that will be crucial to combat the challenges we are seeing relating to visas and border crossings in future instances. This year, 169 event participants reported needing varying levels of visa support. We suspect that as the event grows in size, this number will continue to increase significantly, especially as in 2024 the Equity Fund will be launched.
What is clear is that visa timelines and more difficult border crossing continue to be a major barrier, and supporting participants in this process was a huge priority for TCU this year. Events need to be planned with more time, so that participants have the opportunity to book appointments at embassies/consulates successfully. In addition, events need to provide more avenues for individuals to seek support or guidance pre-travel. Our Portugal-based experts have already begun exploring how to have more robust support structures for participants in 2024.
Announcing dates for 2024 Global Gathering!
For the 2024 edition, we will be accepting more than 900+ participants. As always, there will be an application process, to ensure representation is equal across regions, gender, disciplines and backgrounds, and also to ensure the safety and security of the event itself. Please save the dates of the 2024 gathering to help folks better estimate when they should be booking their visa appointments.
The dates for the 2024 Global Gathering (GG) will be September 27th to 29th. Note, while we suspect these dates will not change, there is a possibility that more activities will be added a few days before or after these dates.
4. Diversity of Topics are Growing
As problems sitting at the intersection of human rights and technology multiply, the issues that the digital rights community is actively working on also increase. For the Global Gathering, this means increased diversity in the types of proposals for sessions, but also increased surface area of problems our people are addressing, in the face of limited resources and capacity.
The only way forward is to continue increasing collaborations and solidarity across regions and disciplines. As such, for the 2024 edition we will continue to increase opportunities for organic networking and relationship building. In addition, we will be implementing a more robust event design that prioritizes those issues and/or conversations that are most urgent.
In Person Villages May Give Rise Again
To address this, we are considering re-introducing in-person Villages. These are almost like mini-conferences with a host of programming that is determined by partners invited to lead those villages. Some of those Villages may also be led by point-of-reference technology projects, such as The Tor Project, which had a beta run this year. We continue to run them virtually, but we suspect that for the Global Gathering they may be needed to improve the in-person collaborations and in-depth knowledge dives they achieve.
If you are interested in potentially serving as a partner for a 2024 Village, let us know soonish! We are already kicking off the 2024 planning.
5. Prioritizing and Fostering Wellness to Prevent Burnout
Since 2020, Team CommUNITY has been focusing on addressing the health of not just the digital rights community, but the individuals that are part of it. Needless to say, the effects of the pandemic are still lingering, and we suspect they will continue for some time. This concretely shows up when people are together in a physical space.
Without sharing details, the number of community health issues we addressed for the 2023 gathering are unprecedented, coupled with little patience and tolerance for situations that are perceived to be overwhelming. At the same time, more than ever, people shared how positive and needed it is to gather in person for both their wellbeing and work. What folks are able to accomplish in this format is quadruple what they are able to accomplish in a year virtually. Participants reported more quickly establishing collaborations and meeting new projects and individuals crucial for their work.
We continue to explore ways to improve event design and programming both virtually before the event, and during. We would also love to hear from community members on how to best achieve this balance.
Better Virtual Networking Before the Event
TCU will continue to invest and improve the virtual networking between Global Gatherings, to ensure participants arrive at the in-person event prepared to make the most of those three days. Already, we have improved our Digital Rights Job Board and Digital Rights Weekly Newsletter. Not only have we updated the UX experience, but have made the content and jobs we publish more in tune with what community members are needing.
For 2024, we will be re-imaging how we can better use Mattermost, which has proved successful to establish relationships between individuals. In addition, we will be experimenting with our weekly town hall, Glitter Meetup. In the past, most GMs were focused on featured experts. While this still has value, we will begin exploring how to create more town halls that focus on networking and building relationships.
Sunsetting Other Team CommUNITY Programming
While TCU has written about the changing landscape of the field in recent years, this does not mean we are not subjected to the same forces and changes. This includes facing a more austere funding landscape in the face of rising costs and inflation. Complicating matters, the launch of the Global Gathering brings with it higher financial responsibilities, such as having to fundraise double for the Equity Fund to reach the same impact as pre-pandemic years. As many of you have experienced in your own organizations, changes in funding prompt opportunities re-prioritize, re-evaluate, and re-focus. Sometimes this means having to change or cut programs. With that, we want to acknowledge the impact of changing programs and the incredible team members that helped them serve our community.
Psychosocial Program
The Community Mental Health Program provided individual and group psychosocial services to digital rights defenders for free and regardless their location. Deep gratitude to the consultants and our former Community Mental Health Program’s director, Selma Zaki.
We have made the very hard decision of sunsetting our psychosocial program, which provided a diversity of services to the digital rights community free of charge including group and one-to-one services, and important research into the wellbeing of the digital rights community. We want to sincerely recognize the labor of the consultants that worked tirelessly on this program: Fahad Awan and Mathero Nkhalamba, and of course, our former Community Mental Health Program’s director, Selma Zaki. Here are their thoughts on their work on the program:
“I am honored to have been part of a mental health programme that was accessible, inclusive and destigmatized mental health issues in the human rights activist space. In the process of working in this space, it has also provided me growth for my professional and personal life,” said Mathero Nkhalamba.
Fahad Awan expressed that "working at TCU has been an incredibly transformative experience for me that I will remember for a long time. I have had the privilege of working amongst the most compassionate and intelligent clinicians who continue to make others feel empowered, valued and understood. While it has been heartbreaking to witness the plight of digital right defenders across the world, working with them at Team CommUNITY, has reaffirmed my belief in the profound power of psychosocial support in fostering resilience. The program might be coming to an unfortunate end, but the feelings I take away are of resounding strength in community, unwavering perseverance, and hope in the face of adversity."
The Community Regional Leads Program Also Sunsetted
Mardiya Siba Yahaya (Africa), Astha Rajvanshi (Asia), Úrsula Schüler (Latin America), and Islam al Khatib (Middle East and North Africa) were our four 2022-2023 Community Regional Leads. Thanks for your meaningful contribution!
In addition, we were forced to shut down our Community Regional Leads Program, which consisted of four regional community managers who dispatched popular monthly regional briefs and were responsible for cultivating communities both within and across their regions via diverse monthly and weekly events. We want to express gratitude to Mardiya Siba Yahaya (Africa), Astha Rajvanshi (Asia), Úrsula Schüler (Latin America), and Islam al Khatib (Middle East and North Africa).
We will continue to do regional outreach, as we have done in the past, but more focused on bridging gaps and trust between regions, and technology projects and experts. In addition, Úrsula has been retained as our communication lead, and Mardiya is now our global community manager. Both will continue working hand-in-hand with the community.
The Future
While the last four years have been incredibly hard, we are so grateful for the wonderful group of people that make up our community. Your daily support has been invaluable not just for us, but for the many colleagues you have. For now, TCU will continue supporting you through:
* Weekly and monthly virtual community cultivation events and initiatives. This includes our popular VPN Community Initiative, the various private spaces we host for diverse organizations and members on Mattermost, our informal concierge desk where we help you address any requests, problem, or need you may have.
* Our Wiki, which we have begun updating with key resources and tips.
* Digital Rights Weekly Newsletter
* Global Gathering, including:
Equity Fund
Partnership Program
Villages (both to happen in person and virtual) and satellite events
* Service Branch, designed to help us download the expertise we have to you, but also support Equity in our space.
If there are other ways we can provide support let us know. In addition, if you would like to partner with us, reach out to us at team@digitalrights.community