Fall '25 Bay Delta Bioregional Unconference

Co-Creating a Thriving Future for the Bay Area

After a dynamic spring gathering that brought together over 140 changemakers from across the Bay Delta bioregion, we’re excited to invite you to our Fall 2025 Unconference—a space for deepening connections, sparking collaboration, and weaving together the wisdom of our diverse communities.

Our Calling Question:

How do we activate our communities across the Bay Delta bioregion and watersheds to co-create a thriving future for all life? 

Why Unconference?
This event is shaped by you. Using Open Space Technology, participants co-create the agenda, proposing and leading sessions that matter most—whether a hands on demonstration, sharing artistic expression, considering bioregional governance, regenerative agriculture, social justice, affordable housing, Indigenous leadership, or creative community-building. The result? A vibrant, emergent space where new ideas, friendships, and partnerships flourish.

What’s New This Time?
We’ve listened closely to your feedback. This fall, we’re building on what worked—the warmth, the diversity, the collaborative spirit—while addressing challenges like session timing, accessibility, and inclusive outreach. We’ll offer orientations for newcomers, more action-oriented sessions, and intentional space for BIPOC and frontline voices. Our goal is to create a container where everyone feels welcome and empowered to contribute.

Who Should Come?
Whether you’re a gardener, organizer, artist, land steward, technologist, permaculturist, or simply curious about building a thriving, regenerative future, this is your invitation. Join a growing network of people committed to co-creating solutions that honor the land, uplift communities, and inspire action.

What to Expect

• Collaborative Sessions: Propose and lead discussions on the topics you’re passionate about.

• Community Connections: Meet like-minded people, share resources, and discover new allies.

• Action Planning: Move from ideas to action with support from the wider network.

A Note on Governance & Structure
We’re experimenting with decentralized, chaordic approaches to organizing—prioritizing purpose, principles, and shared agreements over rigid hierarchies. Our goal is to foster a “pulse” of activity that supports, rather than competes with, existing groups and movements across the region.

Join Us!
Come help shape the future of our bioregion. Bring your questions, your dreams, and your willingness to listen and learn. Together, we can cultivate a more just, resilient, and regenerative Bay Area. If ticket price is an issue for you, please reach out for volunteer/work-trade or scholarship options.

Let’s keep weaving the web of connection and possibility.

Keep the conversations going

Join us on the non-corporate social media website, Hylo, on our group for the Bay Delta Bioregion!

Sponsor the Event!

If you are interested in learning about sponsorship opportunities we want to hear from you. Please reach out at baydeltabioregion@gmail.com

Collaborating Organizations...

• east bay permaculture guild

• Global Regeneration CoLab

• The Bay Delta Trust

• Alameda Native History Project

• Hylo

• Terran Collective

• East Bay Cohousing

• Slow Money Northern California

• a PLACE for sustainable living

• Bay Area Green Tours 

• Collective Resilience 

• Inquiring Systems Inc

• Flourishing Systems Foundation

• Tessa Vita Levine Marriage and Family Inc.

• SF Permaculture Guild

• LIFT Economy

• Bioregional Explorers Club 

• Bloom.pm: Impact Accelerator Platform & Programs

If you want to be a collaborating organization or sponsor reach out to us baydeltabioregion@gmail.com.

List of Proposed Topics

• How to build a small business while centering accessibility and community building

• Doughnut Economics

• Indigenous Food Sovereignty; 

• Decolonizing Cartography, 

• Data Sovereignty and Liberating TEK and Culture from Academic Institutions

• Gaming for EJ, 

• building an Oakland Food Forest

• What challenges are people having around finances and their work? And how can I help as a fractional-CFO/finances coach?

• Human connection in the age of AI

• digital marketing for regenerative livelihoods

• Bioregional finance, how to grow and scale the movement, looking at case studies such as common land

• Narrative & supporting storytellers

• Systemic flourishing indicators, how bioregional health relate to human flourishing, 

• How the tech sector has responsibility to care for local and global bioregion and can utilize the resources and skills that we have to help respect / restore bioregional boundaries, taking into account ancient/ native wisdom

• Indigenous Food Sovereignty and the Obstacles Indigenous People Face in Sustenance Gathering

• Indigenous Data Sovereignty, Cartography, and Liberating Indigenous TEK and Culture from Academic Institutions

• What Native American Tribes Look Like, How to Identify the First People of this Place and some Tips for Approaching and Collaborating with Sovereign Tribes and Organizations

• The doughnut accelerator, and more broadly the idea of helping more projects come alive and get the support they need to grow.

Participant List

• Kevin Bayuk

• Con Yeh

• Sara Blenkhorn

• Gabriel Duncan, Recognized Descendant of the Utu Utu Gwaitu Benton Paiute Tribe

• Mingzhu He

• Lauren Van Harm

• Austin Chamberlin

• Stanley Wu

• Daniel Goldberg

• Indy Rishi Singh

• Gabriel Duncan

• Phoenix Armenta

• Jordan Jo

• Eliza McKenna

• Marc O’Brien

• Faith Flanigan

• Charles Upton

• Shu Liu

• Dan Noble

• Dave Miles

• David Abramson

• Gabirel Berman

• David Witzel

• David Munir Nabti

9/9: Aligning with r3.0 and Beyond

This unconference is part of a growing movement for bioregional regeneration. We warmly invite you to explore the r3.0 Confluence happening September 9-11th—a global network of changemakers working toward a regenerative and inclusive economy. Whether you’re new to r3.0 or already involved, this is your chance to connect with local and international allies, share your work, and learn from others..

I can't make this event - can you let me know about the next event?

Yes! Please leave your information in this form and we will e-mail you when we set our next unconference. 

So...What's an UnConference?

We use Open Space Technology to support participants co-creating the agenda live the day of the event at the event.

When the day begins we will have a blank agenda with open rooms and time slots. Anyone will be able to put name a session they would like to host and pick a time and place for it.

The schedule remains open to additions all day long - Had a really good conversation that you want to continue? Feel free to make a new session on the spot and stick it in any available timeslot!

You don't need to have anything prepared to lead a session - just a topic that you are interested in facilitating a discussion around.

What's a "bioregion"? And what is "bioregionalism"?

Bioregion is shorthand for ‘bio-cultural region’. Bioregions reflect natural boundaries, such as watersheds, mountain ranges, or ecological zones, rather than abstract political borders.

The concept of bioregion emphasizes the interconnectedness of all life in a place, and promotes the idea that human communities should adapt their lifestyles and practices to align with the specific ecological characteristics of their bioregion.

Bioregionalism  is a philosophy that connects people and ideas into place, which work watershed by watershed, in ways that are sustainable, democratic and just.

Current Schedule

This may be modified as we do our collaborative planning.

9:00 -9:30am Check-in and Registration

9:30 - 10:15 Welcome and Land Acknowledgement

10:15 - 11:15am Agenda Creation

11:30-12:30 Session 1

12:30-1:30 Lunch

1:30-2:30 Session 2

2:30-3:30 Session 3

3:30-4:30 Session 4

4:30-5:30 Closing

5:30 onwards - post event socializing at location TBD