This year, in order to increase our collective impact we are transforming the BIF Summit to make it more intimate, focused and experiential to help our self-organized networks become more purposeful. On October 22-24, for the first time in the summit’s history, the experience will explore a specific theme that aligns with our current design focus at BIF. This year’s summit will engage the BIF community experientially to explore wellbeing.

Storytelling Sessions
Genuine personal stories heal, inspire, and call us to action

Co-Creation Sessions
Opportunities to collaboratively craft the future of wellbeing 

RCUS Breaks and Meals
Interstitial spaces between sessions to mine the gold in the grey space between us and to feed our bodies and souls

The #BIF2019 Wellbeing experience begins with an incredible theatrical performance at Providence’s Tony-award winning Trinity Rep theatre. America Too: It’s Our Health will immerse us in the voice and wellbeing experience of local residents rendered beautifully through performance art, movement and storytelling. The stage performance followed by a lively town hall discussion will lay the foundation for our following two days of co-creation. See the teaser video here.

Following the performance at Trinity Rep, let the RCUS making begin over a beverage or two at our annual Innobeer mixer, a casual event designed to help us break the ice for our next two days of co-design. Don’t stay out too late though, as you’re going to need your rest before embarking on the rest of our summit journey starting bright and early the following morning.

Rise and shine as we gather at District Hall in the Jewelry District of Providence in the new Wexford Innovation Center building. Breakfast will accompany registration and RCUS making before Saul Kaplan, BIF’s Chief Catalyst, offers his words of welcome and introduces the opening session storytellers.

If we want to imagine and co-create a new future together we have to start by uncovering the unwritten rules of wellbeing. Unwritten rules are remarkably powerful, informal suggestions about how we’re expected to behave in social settings. They are the single biggest influence on our daily behaviors, setting the norms for how we interact with each other. In our first BIF2019 co-creation session Jeff Leitner will lead us in a fast-paced and inspiring group exploration of the current unwritten rules of wellbeing and help us to imagine new unwritten rules that will provide us with an actionable foundation to co-create a new wellbeing future together.

We’re all storytellers. Now it’s time to express our personal wellbeing stories by making art, writing songs and getting on our feet to dance together. Let’s experience for ourselves that art heals. Choose one of these three expressive art activities to participate in. Let’s go! 

Get up and dance with movement artist Quentin Robinson. Physical movement has a grounding effect on our body, emotions, thoughts and spirits. Intentional movement fully focuses us in the moment and attend to the personal space we are moving through. 

It’s time to unwind, reflect and to nourish our bodies and souls together at a perfect venue for our summit theme of wellbeing at the Grace Episcopal Church in downtown Providence. 

In between our reception and dinner, we will be graced with the performance of poet, and spoken word artist Yolanda Wisher, who was named Philadelphia’s third-ever poet laureate and is the Curator of Spoken Word at the Philadelphia Contemporary Museum. Yolanda will deliver a message of creative wellbeing through poetry and prose.  

A fractal is a pattern that the laws of nature repeat at different scales. In this co-creation session artist Aithan Shapira will enable us to imagine and shape new fractals of wellbeing aligned with our shared vision of the future. Aithan will help us understand and experience the power of fractals setting the stage for group co-creation. How do each of us show up in service of improving the wellbeing of those around us? How can we form personal networks of support for each other? How can institutions change to enable our personalized wellbeing vision? How can society and culture change to align with our purpose?