Today, we’ll kick off our third annual gathering of a community we started in 2011 called Up to All of Us. It is an invitation-only summit of thinkers, makers and doers from all over the world. The event is not the community — it’s just one way we come together. This community is filled with brilliant people spanning several disciplines, helping each other focus on what matters in their work and in their lives, making each of us better together.

With a small gathering of about fifty people, we stack the deck (so to speak) with people who both work and play hard. Where a traditional conference is rigidly structured, what we’ve done (and continue to do) is simply create the space and time to explore what’s really challenging to people who are the best practitioners in their field, removing the conventional assumptions baked into trade conferences that push people to pursue someone else’s expectations or priorities. At Up to All of Us, the participants are the authority who knows best on what, and with whom, is most valuable to spend both time and energy.

As Megan put it last year, “Queuing people, topics, and mind bending ideas in small doses. Planning holes in space and time for people to absorb and play with the ideas. Naps are important, [too].”

With who’s coming this year, and the projects and investigations that we’ve seen start in the previous years now just starting to bloom, we are REALLY excited about what we’ll be able to share out from this gathering in the weeks to come.

For now, if you’re at all intrigued, here’s what Jay, Wendy and Dave have said about the experience.