Recap: PGM Community London Meetup!

Our first face-to-face event took place in the Story Garden, ‘the garden of a thousand hands’, an incredible community-run oasis in the heart of a hectic city.

Rather similarly, the PGM Community gathers nearly a thousand minds that think alike and strive to shift traditional philanthropy towards more participatory, community-led approaches.

After two years of hoping for a stable Internet connection in meetings, staring at the screens, muting and unmuting ourselves at a wrong time, we’ve finally experienced the sheer joy of meeting in the flesh! It was incredible to get together both with people you’ve virtually known for several years, and with new friends you’d met online for the first time only the day before. The excitement was palpable, a flurry of PGM stories could be heard from all corners of the garden, accompanied in the background by some great live music by the phenomenal Maff Potts.

The garden shed was also bustling with activity as PGMers helped themselves to refreshments while getting to know each other and sharing what brought them to the PGM Community. Quite a few people were wonderfully creative and took part in writing, drawing and screen printing their motivational messages and slogans on t-shirts and canvas bags — great mementos from our first in-person gathering!

It was an opportunity to come together, make connections and have conversations that could expand your horizons, help build your networks, and improve the work we are all doing to shift power to communities.

Oh to hang out with friends in real life, what an emotional day full of smiles! Ideas were flowing, intense joy abundant, new friendships were made, old ones strengthened, new collaborations were fostered, leaving our hearts full and planting the seeds in our own PGM garden for future gatherings.

Learn about the PGM Community here. And make sure to follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Slack.