The 2018 Family Adventure Summit

WOW!!! What an incredible week it’s been at the Family Adventure Summit! Over 400 people joined us here in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for a week of inspiration, celebration, learning, friends, and so much fun! Here’s a video that shows some of the highlights:

It was totally the highlight of my year, and I shed many tears of joy, deepened friendships, and again came away feeling so grateful and honored to be a part of putting this event on for a community of families committed to following their hearts.

The kid’s program was out of this world. The kids were so kind to each other, and they were fully engaged in fun and educational activities like creating art projects, playing sports and board games, Minecrafting and making music videos, volunteering (over 40 of our teens volunteered along with the adults, and they set an amazing example of inclusion for the rest of the kids), and tear-jerking theater camp with one of the most touching and thoughtful kids musicals I’d ever seen – and all with just 10 hours of in-person rehearsal!

The adults were also engaged in talks, discussions, learning, sharing, and supporting and encouraging each other in living their dreams. It’s such a beautiful community to be a part of. The Halloween Dance party was also a blast! The picnics, dinners, performances, face painting and flower crown making, and excursions around San Miguel all made for a connecting and fun family event.

I’m also grateful that we’ve been able to work with Caminos de Agua and can donate our profits this year to improve the water situation for hundreds of people in a rural community (Pozo Hondo) near San Miguel de Allende. We’ll have our final numbers in soon around how much we were able to donate, and will be following the project over the next year to see how it goes. This is possible in large part because of our sponsors this year, who are also conscious companies doing good things in the world.

Every day, so many people came up to me expressing their gratitude for us putting on an event like this, and with this level of attention to detail. It feels good to be appreciated.

There were definitely some unexpected hiccups at this year’s event, though. At our opening social dinner, the food arrived 45 minutes late. Dancers in the morning arriving 30 minutes late, causing me to cut my keynote in half to keep us on schedule (which we also weren’t able to get recorded), a technologically insufficient AV system (requiring us to take over slide handling ourselves so our presenters could see their notes), one of our children’s program facilitator’s mothers becoming critically ill (and of course we wanted her to prioritize her family, so we sent her on her way and filled in the gaps), our photographers getting in a car crash and missing the first day (they’re ok), and many other challenges.

But we rolled with the punches, hopefully without most people noticing. And overall, the event ran smoothly and had all the positive energy, practical information, connecting emotion, and happy attendees that we hoped. Our team has worked so hard and put so much heart into this event, and we feel so grateful and fulfilled to have it go so well. It feels like a huge success!

During the conference, we also announced next year’s event in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia! The dates are Oct 2-6, 2019, and over 200 people have already bought their tickets! We have to cap it at 400 due to the size of next year’s venue and to make sure we don’t compromise on the quality of the experience. With 200 in attendance last year, 400 this year, and more than half our tickets already sold, we’re expecting to sell out before too long.

If you or someone you know is interested in coming, you can get your tickets now at the super early bird rate (20% off). If you need to cancel, we offer a full 100% refund as long as you cancel more than 90 days before the event starts.

One thing I’ve learned is that putting on events of this scale truly take a team. And a dedicated group of skilled, passionate, and heart-led people can do SO much good when focused on a task together. It is such an honor to be working with such a great group for such a great cause, and to be with so many awesome families who came to speak, volunteer, and attend. I’m filled with so much gratitude this week. It’s been crazy busy and had many stressful moments, but I’m already excited and ready to continue planning next year’s event.

The people you surround yourself with make all the difference in how much you enjoy your life and what you can create. And I couldn’t be more happy with the amazing people in my life. If you want to surround yourself with more inspiring and inspired people too, then I hope to see you at Family Adventure Summit 2019 in Bali!