In addition to being a facilitator and strategic advisor, Priya wrote a book that is taking the gathering world by storm right now—so many of our speakers have cited this book as an inspiration of theirs!

As the founder of Thrive Labs, Priya helps activists, elected officials, corporate executives, educators, and philanthropists create transformative gatherings. She works with teams and leaders across technology, business, the arts, fashion, and politics to clarify their vision for the future and build meaningful, purpose-driven communities.

Along with Angie Thurston, Casper produced a seminal report with the Harvard Divinity School called How We Gather. It's well worth a look, as it speaks to the root causes driving this conference.

As a Ministry Innovation Fellow at Harvard Divinity School, Angie co-authored How We Gather and Care of Souls, two reports profiling new forms of social and spiritual connection.

She's also Director of Formation at On Being Impact Lab. Her work has been featured in The New York Times and on NPR.

Ankit Shah founded Tea With Strangers, an organization which brought strangers together over tea. He is currently at Facebook. Focusing on supporting community builders, social infrastructure, empathy building technology, improving the health of public discourse, and depolarization.

Scott Heiferman is Co-Founder and Chair of Meetup, the world's largest network of local community groups. Over 100 million people signed up to "use the internet to get off the internet" - with over 10,000 Meetup gatherings happening each day. Scott believes bringing people together will make a better world.

Saron has an amazing and inspirational journey to share! CodeNewbie started as a weekly TwitterChat to connect people learning to code by Saron. Since then it's grown into a supportive, international community of people learning to code.

Kursat is a designer and an innovation consultant. He teaches and runs research on rituals at Stanford d.school. His first book, Rituals for Work, is ready for pre-ordering!

Rabbi Elan Babchuck is a rabbi and an entrepreneur, and spends much of his time exploring the rich intersections between these two traditions, and the abundant possibilities therein. He's committed to leaving behind a world that is more compassionate, connected, and just than the one he found, and—in pursuit of that commitment—he is the Founding Director of Glean Network, an incubator and network for entrepreneurs who are building new models of faith in action, and Director of Innovation at Clal, a think-tank focused on the future of faith in America.

Charles Vogl is an executive consultant and award winning author. He works with leaders in tech, finance, media, government and social change organizations to make them more effective in creating change.

His book "The Art of Community" won the Nautilus Silver Award in Business & Leadership.

Jacki Hillios is the Deputy Executive Director at Phoenix Multisport, a free sober active community that started in Colorado in 2006. She has a background in social work.

Having matchmade thousands of people in New York City over the past 10+ years, Amy knows as much as anyone what it takes for people to find lasting love in the modern world.

Jill started the Founding Moms, a collective of over 12,000 members. Those members connect through offline meetups and online resources where mom entrepreneurs can exchange, connect and learn from one another.

Founder of one of the world's longest-running, world-renowned, and beloved coworking spaces, Alex has been a passionate leader in the global coworking movement as well as an advocate for authentic, meaningful communities.

He's educated countless thousands of community orgnaizers through his forum contributions, blog posts, podcasts, consulting offerings and more.

Lennon is the Executive Director of The Dinner Party, an organization that is upsetting the current clinical approach that pathologizes grief with a universal, humanizing model that empowers deeper community and personal growth. Through The Dinner Party, people who've lost a loved one are transforming life after loss from a deeply isolating experience and culturally taboo topic to an extraordinary tool for connection and community-building.

Sanderson Jones is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Sunday Assembly, the worldwide movement of secular congregations that celebrate life.

His mission is to spread Lifefulness, the practice of building secular and inclusive communities, to create a world rich in meaning and belonging.

Katie is passionate about creating avenues for intentional community among fellow non-religious millennials and across traditions. In Grand Rapids, MI first and now based in Boston, MA, Katie helped create and continue to coordinate Nuns & Nones, a growing movement of Catholic Sisters and unaffiliated millennials coming together to explore questions of spirituality, community, and justice.

Additionally, Katie is the Ministry Innovation Coordinator for How We Gather, which builds networks and resources for spiritual innovators and entrepreneurial community leaders across the country.

Previously, Katie spent several years organizing interfaith community programs, campus initiatives, and leadership programs, with the Kaufman Interfaith Institute in west Michigan as well as the national organization Interfaith Youth Core.

Katie is currently getting an MTS in religion, politics and ethics at Harvard Divinity School. She also holds an MA of Interfaith Action from Claremont Lincoln University, and a BA in Religious Studies and Political Science from Alma College.

Nicole Christensen started CrossFit Roots out of her one-car garage in 2008. Since that time, she and her husband Eric have grown Roots into a 10,000 square foot facility with an accomplished and passionate team of eight full-time coaches and staff. She got her coaching start as a swim coach in the Northern Virginia Swim League. When she found CrossFit, 10 years later, she knew that CrossFit combined her passion for coaching with her belief in a lifelong pursuit of fitness and health.

Kristine is a trained public speaker and facilitator who holds a Masters of International Studies specializing in Rural Development.

Prior to joining StartingBloc, she worked in international development for six years, founding and leading teams across the African continent and in India. Kristine is also the Raleigh-Durham facilitator for Tide Risers: a year-long, cohort experience for women leaders committed to social good.

Aaron is a father, husband, outdoorsman and Special Forces Veteran. After nearly fifteen years of service he moved to Montana. He co-leads men's retreats and expeditions alongside Evryman CEO and founder Dan Doty. The combination of military service, love for the wilderness and personal healing has prepared him for this work. He led men in combat. Now he leads them into the wilderness for connection and purpose.

Kyle is the founder of Innerglow, which brings people together to meditate and connect. He's passionate about bringing diversity to wellness and building community that helps people step into their power, while connecting deeper with themselves and others.

Rabbi Amichai has been hailed as "an iconoclastic mystic" by Time Out New York, a "rock star" by the New York Times, a "Judaic Pied Piper" by the Denver Westword, a "maverick spiritual leader" by The Times of Israel and "one of the most interesting thinkers in the Jewish world" by the Jewish Week.

In 2016 The Forward named him one of the thirty-two "Most Inspiring Rabbis" in America, and in 2017 he was top five on "The Forward 50," their annual list of the most influential and accomplished Jews in America.

Ida C. Benedetto is an experience designer who sparks new insight through adventure and play. Major projects include the Night Heron Speakeasy and Starbuck's National Anti-Bias Training. She has researched the design of transformative social experiences by comparing sex parties, funerals, and wilderness trips. Her work has been featured in Businessweek, The New York Times, Fast Company, NPR, and The New Yorker. She is a Senior Experience Designer at SYPartners in New York City.

Kevin in a Founding Partner at People and Company, a community consultancy. Previously, he was the first COO of Creative Mornings, where he worked for almost 4 years.

Mitch Altman is a hacker and inventor who co-founded Noisebridge, one of the first hackerspaces. He is also known for inventing TV-B-Gone, is a featured speaker at hacker conferences, an international expert on the hackerspace movement, teaches introductory electronics workshops.

Brad is the Executive Director of Remiagine, an organization that works to spark public conversations that transform our approach to life.

Their first broad initiative is Reimagine End of Life, a citywide festival and conversation that explores death and celebrates life.

Jon is a co-founder of Major League Hacking, National Director of the StartupBus and was formerly a Developer Evangelist at Twilio.

Jeremy Redleaf is Daytime Emmy Award winning artist and entrepreneur. He creates original content and experiences through all platforms via his shingle, Brackets Creative.

He is the co-founder of CAVEDAY, a company dedicated to re-defining our relationship with work through events, products and services.

Follow him on the platforms as @Theleafisred, but don't distract yourself in doing so.

A relentless entrepreneur and passionate advocate for helping others get their start, Felecia went from starting a popsicle business to running one of Miami's premiere code schools, Code Fever, as well as Black Tech Week, and Space Called Tribe.

In addition to founding Prescott, Airzona's coworking space, Wing Space, Melanie is a Holistic Health Coach, Author, Artist, Workshop Facilitator, Community Builder.

A champion of decentralized organizations, Richard's experience with Occupy, Enspiral, Loomio, and now his new consultancy, the Hum, will offer us tremendous insights into what it takes to cultivate leaderful culture.

David is Founder of CMX & VP of Community at Bevy. Above all else, David seeks to help and empower community builders. He started CMX Summit and CMX Hub after he noticed that the thousands of community builders in the world weren't talking to one another.

Before CMX, David co-founded an online cooking school called Feast (part of 500 Startups) and BlogDash, a platform to help businesses with blogger outreach.

As a consultant and employee, David has worked with some amazing companies such as Zaarly, LeWeb, Udemy, Seatgeek, Binpress, and more.

Hailing from New York originally, he now lives in the Mission District of San Francisco.

Jaudia's been helping grow Launchhouse to multiple locations across the Cleveland area, supporting new businesses and spinoff communities along the way.

In addition to having started Startup Weekend and Startup Week, both of which have grown to global-scale gatherings, Andrew has also been an active local organizer in his current home town of Boulder, Colorado.

There, he has been leading Ignite, TEDx, and other similar community events.

Jillian is a professional community builder, public speaker and writer. She's most known for being the founder of The Joy List, a weekly newsletter with the mission of reducing loneliness. She's been sending it out every Monday morning for two years in New York City. Her new book, Unlonely Planet, hits the bookshelves March 2019.

Kyle is a community designer with a decade of hands-on experience and expertise in the fields of distributed networks, grassroots organizing, civic engagement and creative exploration.

His work in these fields has been amplified by a national student network of 10,000 international development advocates at Engineers Without Borders Canada while serving as their first Creative Director, a city-wide volunteer community of 150+ grassroots park community groups in Toronto as Park People's Communications, Events & Community Manager, and nearly 200 chapters of the global creative speaker series CreativeMornings, where he serves as COO.

As a host and facilitator of 1000+ events that have welcomed over 500,000 people, Kyle is fascinated by the connections people make with each other and the opportunity that forms around each of those connections.

Nick turned a personal passion for giving great museum tours into a thriving business. Now, he's organizing amazing cocktail parties that incorporate all sorts of handy best practices. He has much wisdom to share!

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association (AMYA) is a nationwide youth group that works with young Muslim men and boys around the country. The association is also known internationally by the name Majlis Khuddamul Ahmadiyya, which literally means "Association of Servants of the True Islam." The international organization was founded in 1938 and serves as the young men and boys auxiliary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Officially established in the United States in 1939, AMYA is one of the earliest Muslim Youth organizations in the United States.

Devin is an artist and experience designer, currently designing immersive experiences that bring together high schoolers across lines of difference to contemplate life's big questions and explore their life purpose. Previously, she founded communiT Boston, an organization that strived to use art and play in public spaces to foster empathy and create micro-connections between people who might otherwise never interact and may never meet again.

Douglas was the founder of PUGS (Portland Underground Graduate School), and ran it from 2014-2018. He then sold that organization and founded Mycelium and The School of Financial Freedom.