When two networks meet, something shifts 🎢

By Brendon Johnson and Francesca Pick

One network is powerful.

Two or more working in deep partnership? That’s a whole new level.

In a year hungry for hope and connection, the Networks Festival dares to imagine something different. 🌱

2025 is a living experiment in what happens when networks don’t just gather — but collaborate for systemic change.

Networks-of-networks is the panacea the whole world has been chasing for the last 10 years. Many have tried and failed.

Alberto Masetti-Zannini, Impact Hub

The era of working alone is over

To shift systems, networks must collaborate — not just in theory, but in practice.

In the past, to deliver the widely celebrated Networks Festival, the Fito Network convened co-creation teams of “global field-shapers” to design and facilitate the festival together.

We called these our “Festival Composers”. 🎶

But we were still the hosts—holding the overall process.

This year, we’re shifting by bringing two networks into true partnership, to deliver the festival side-by-side:

• The Fito Network is a network-of-networks working to strengthen practice and support the field of impact networks.
• Greaterthan is a collective of consultants that supports organizations and businesses to pioneer new ways of working.

Across our ecosystems, we hear the same chorus in different keys: How do we collaborate? How do we sustain? How do we share power — and scale? 🪜

Our Recipe for Collaboration

This partnership didn’t start from zero.

We’ve spent years getting to know each other first. 🫸🏽 🫷🏾

(Fun fact: the Networks Festival itself was originally inspired by greaterthan’s Solstice Jamboree!)

The result is a set of ingredients that have enabled us to work together effectively — and fast:

• ✨ Deep trust
• 🪢 Shared culture, values and vision for the future
• 🌀 Clear understanding of what each side offers
• 🧩 Different prototypes for gatherings
• 🎭 Clear roles that balance each other
• ⚙️ Complementary internal processes already ready to go

We also have a creative team that enjoys working together.

What We Enable Together

We are combining knowledge, systems, talent, and resources to:

• 🫧 Break out of our bubbles, cross-pollinating ideas and reaching new people together
• 🖇️ Complement our diverse communities’ needs, as they look for answers we cannot provide on our own
• 🔁 Merge different operating systems we’ve each developed for decision-making, facilitation, mapping, communications, and money management
• ⏱️ Pool our time and energy so we can work at a more sustainable rhythm

Together, this allows us to do much more — with much less — helping us get closer to the broad-scale change we each envision.

What else will emerge from this partnership? We don’t know!

But we know that by “doing” something together, we create new links, ideas, and relationships — only setting the stage for deepened collaboration in the future. 🔗

We are also creating a new model for the Networks Festival itself, where other networks can join in the future to lead together.

And, beyond simply expressing the idea of cross-network collaboration, we’re embodying it for others to learn from and replicate.

The future won’t be found in any one strategy, model, or movement.

It will be discovered where networks and movements meet. 🏃🏽‍♀️‍➡️🏃🏾

The dance floor is open. Will you join? Register today.