#LongNow20: Celebrating Our Members and Twenty Years of Long Now
Long Now has produced hundreds of events in the last two decades.
But we’ve never created anything quite like the Member Summit that we are hosting in San Francisco on October 4th, 02016.
In celebration of our 20th anniversary, #LongNow20 will be a day dedicated to long-term thinking. There will be updates on our projects (including the 10,000 Year Clock), presentations by our founders and Board side-by-side with talks & discussions led by Long Now members, hundreds of whom will travel to our San Francisco headquarters for this event.
We’re excited to share more details about the Summit below…
In 01996: The Long Now Foundation was established to foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.
In 02007: The Long Now Foundation’s Membership program was launched on March 9th. The list of our 1,000 Charter Members is here.
On October 4th, 02016 we will host the first ever global gathering of Long Now members. In nine years our membership has grown to nearly 8,000 people around the world. It’s time we got together.
Long Now members: this is your event
The Long Now Member Summit will include many things including a keynote lecture by David Eagleman; updates on our projects (including the 10,000 Year Clock); and a party to celebrate the first 20 years of Long Now. Most important this event is all about our members, a unique group of long-term thinkers who make everything that we do possible.
The Summit is our first event that’s only for Long Now members. Members will gather from around the world to meet the Long Now team and each other. This event was designed for members to participate and share their ideas. But more than that, we want to pass our members the mic…
More than half the Summit’s programming will feature our members. During the day there will be Ignite Talks by members and an “unconference” where members set the agenda and drive the sessions. Response has been fantastic — we received nearly a hundred proposals for our Ignite talk slots. The lineup is finalized and we will announce our Ignite speakers here, soon.
We’ll also feature Long Now’s projects, including our biggest one of all…
The Clock of the Long Now: in person
Long Now was founded around the idea of building a 10,000 Year Clock:
a monumental scale metaphor for long-term thinking. The Clock project is how many of our members first learned about us. For some it was the reason they became members.
We will have components of the 10,000 Year Clock on display at the Summit. The components will be on display only during the Summit for our members to see. Eventually these pieces will travel to be installed in West Texas where the Clock is under construction.
There are also Clock prototypes and other Long Now artifacts on permanent display at The Interval our bar/cafe which will be open during the Summit.
Summit Updates: Long Now Project News
Our evening program will include Long Now staff presenting updates on our major projects including the 10,000 Year Clock, the Rosetta Project, and Revive & Restore. This portion of the Summit and our keynote will be livestreamed for our members around the world.
The Summit programming culminates with a keynote by neuroscientist and best-selling author David Eagleman on “The Brain and The Now”. David is a previous Long Now speaker and a Board member. We are thrilled to have him speak about his research on time perception for our members.
David will be joined after his talk by Long Now co-founders Stewart Brand and Danny Hillis for a special Q&A. Most of Long Now’s Board will be in attendance including Kevin Kelly, Ping Fu, and Kim Polese.
We’ll end the day with a party featuring drinks from the Interval menu, live music, and a chance for Long Now’s members, staff and Board to meet each other and celebrate two decades of Long Now together.
The Summit will take place on the Fort Mason Center campus: a National Historic Landmark on the north shore of San Francisco. Fort Mason has been Long Now’s home for the last decade; it has been the site where many Seminars About Long-term Thinking have taken place over the years.
Hundreds of long-term thinkers from around the world will assemble on October 4th in San Francisco for the first Long Now Member Summit. It’s the perfect culmination of two decades of fostering long-term thinking: a chance to meet and confer with our membership whose support makes everything that we do possible and to celebrate 20 years of Long Now!
If you are a Long Now member you can buy a ticket to Long Now’s Member Summit. The ticket includes a food truck dinner (thanks to our neighbors Off The Grid) and an Interval cocktail at the event.
If you aren’t a member yet, we hope you will join us! Membership levels start at $8/month. Once you have a member number you can buy a ticket!
Join by October 4th, 02016 to be a part of our first ever global gathering!
Follow #LongNow20 on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for news about the 02016 Long Now Member Summit.
