There’s something about going to a conference that offers hope. You meet people interested in the same things, hear speakers and attend workshops designed to inspire and challenge, and ideally expand your horizons just a bit—certainly all “changing the world” criteria.

Last year I wrote about two disparate conferences, one of which I’d attended, the ostensibly liberal Christian Wild Goose Festival and one I’d been invited to attend, the liberal social media meet-up called the World Domination Summit. I concluded that they were the same conference and were definitely committed to changing the world. You can read my 2013 article about the conferences here.

So this year I thought I should go to both. Both still each have about 2,500 attendees. Both began in 2011. Both happen over a summer weekend. 

This year the Wild Goose Festival (WGF) occurred first and I dutifully borrowed a tent for the event which takes place in a beautiful campground in the mountains of North Carolina. It’s a lot cheaper (especially if you camp) to attend WGF. Preparation had me again volunteering to cook one night for the group with whom I was traveling, boning chickens and packing spaghetti for 20, and figuring out from Google maps where everyone was meeting, grateful that this year I didn’t have to drive. When we arrived at the North Carolina site, someone from my group had already created a gathering place for us and my borrowed tent was already up. I was ready.

There was a new planning team for WGF in 2014 and the whole program felt to me a little scattered and overly busy, but the offerings were certainly interesting and varied, including the Carnival de Resistance (they had multiple events, but I got there only for a poetry slam). I don’t think I stayed through an entire presentation at the main tent, but spent my time wandering to workshops, concerts, and other events featuring friends and familiar faces, although we could hear a lot of what was happening at the main stage just from our campsite at the back of the main lawn. There was a great feeling of accessibility. Speakers wandered the grounds, attended other events, and signed books according to a posted schedule. Musicians hawked CDs and afterwards sent Twitter requests for pictures. Names known by some such as Frank Schaffer, Franklyn Schaefer, and Phil Madeira shared the limelight with friends such as Ana Hernandez, Brianna Kelly, and Steve Knight. William J. Barber, II, of the ongoing Moral Mondays social disobedience witness in North Carolina was the closing speaker. 

For me the overwhelming feeling was one of community. The night I cooked about 20 people gathered around and someone took a plate to the guy who had been driving through the grounds all day keeping the Porta Potties clean. As I walked to a food stand one of last year’s organizers yelled, “Hey, Spirit Moxie!” as he drove past. I ended up with an unexpected tent mate who, before she left Sunday morning, stood behind the “share a bit on what Wild Goose is for you” video camera in support as I explained how the event had, indeed, helped shape Spirit Moxie. [You can watch it here.] Politics, global and religious, were claimed and commitments abounded. Read that book. Share that vision. March if you will.

The second conference, the World Domination Summit (WDS) took place in the heart of Portland, Oregon, three time zones away. Preparation involved driving to the airport and cribbing breakfast from Delta’s Sky Club. In Portland I stayed in solitary splendor in a boutique hotel and attended the main presentations which were held in the largest theatre in the downtown area. I’d never heard of any of the speakers, but I didn’t miss any of their talks. One of the first, A. J. Jacobs, shared research proving we’re all related. Maybe the common theme was community here too! I spent the first day telling myself I couldn’t assume that: nothing like making facts fit what one planned to write. But it was very easy to have in-depth and supportive conversations at WDS. You looked at anyone with a green, round badge and asked “where are you from” and “what are you up to.” And the latter inevitably led to an exchange of dreams and ideas and business cards. In fact one of the key words, the motto for the conference as it were, was “community.” The other two, “adventure” and “service,” only gradually wove their way into the mix I was experiencing. The keys here seemed to be: Live into your dream. Claim adventure. Love the earth and its inhabitants.

So were the two conferences in reality the same? As this second weekend wore on and I marveled at the extra “swag” made possible by a much larger registration fee and personal adventures were made easier by less rain and better wifi, even for me it wasn’t just about community. WGF and WDS were not “the same conference.” There were still a lot of commonalities. Food carts and Porta Potties for the outdoor events. Both had people separating their trash into recycle, compost, and landfill. There was a great mix of people, although probably the average age was younger at WDS. Both had vegetarian and vegan options everywhere.There was a mixture of religious and political beliefs, although WGF seemed slightly less diverse this year despite an attempt at more ethnic diversity. The last nights at both we danced outside to great bands (Jars of Clay (WGF)/Portland Cello Project (WDS)), I got identical social media advice (stay tuned), drank some great IPAs, and wandered the site (WGF) and city (WDS) when free. 

Both conferences really do want the greater world, and our individual worlds, to work and be better than they are. At both there was a sense of possibility as we offered ourselves up to change and to see the beauty and hope in a unified, healed world. Both conferences appreciated words (I’ve decided the decline of books is a myth; everyone seems to have written one). Both embraced the importance of the role and energy of non-profit organizations. 

But there was a major difference—and that was in the central focus. At the Wild Goose Festival the overarching concern seemed to be social justice through politics. They would probably add “prayer” too. While individual growth and health is important, it is through this collective energy that change becomes possible. At the World Domination Summit the emphasis was social justice through entrepreneurship. They would probably add that it was also through exploration and experience. By challenging and working within the economic system and witnessing to one’s dreams, change and health become possible.

So this year the spirit, the energy for hope and change in the world, is still working at both events. But this time, allow me to introduce you, “WGF meet WDS. WDS, WGF.” It’s together that you make a whole for changing the world.

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Photo credits from the top:

French Broad River near Hot Springs, NC — Spirit Moxie
Soul Emergence Radio — Spirit Moxie
Brianna Kelly — Spirit Moxie
“Green Round Badges” wds2014-619— Armosa Studios
Willamette River near Portland, OH — Spirit Moxie
A. J. Jacobs – wds2014-543 — Armosa Studios
Portland food carts — Spirit Moxie
Trash bins in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall — Spirit Moxie
Chris Guillebeau‘s book excerpt (part of WDS swag) wds2014-0264
— Armosa Studios