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Now more than ever, Earth and all her inhabitants are endangered in multiple, interconnected ways. Tragically, most of the threats we face are manmade and stem from political corruption, corporate greed, and cultural learned helplessness. In fact, the situation has become so dire that it may be too late to reform our broken institutions. Instead, our time may be better spent building the New World we seek by utilizing the best and brightest 21st Century solutions.

Kurt Johnson, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Laura George, Philip Hellmich at BTNW 2015

This year’s Building the New World Conference (“BTNW”) is based on the premise that we must quickly manifest a new timeline by making and modeling the world we seek. The BTNW 2020 organizers are not starry-eyed idealists, however. We’re a collaborative team of Second Tier humans who comprehend the big picture and take to heart the sage advice of Buckminster Fuller: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” 

We also wish to continue the legacy of futurist and friend Barbara Marx Hubbard, who was the keynote speaker at BTNW 2015 in Virginia. She believed a New World was synthesizing and organizing, still nascent but preparing to explode!

Barbara dedicated her life to spreading this New Story of planetary and human evolution, and she activated Cultural Creatives around the world. We are proud to honor and continue her life’s work. 

Once again, BTNW is structured around the Wheel of Co-Creation. This iconic image is a potent, synergistic tool, as it represents all Sectors of Society.

In addition to the Sectors, we’ve added the HUB to showcase successful Intentional Communities and Indigenous Cultures. The HUB highlights ancient wisdom and groups that are committed to purpose-driven lifestyles, deep collaboration, collective ascension, and other cultural experiments.  

David Korten & Riane Eisler

Originally planned as an event at the Peace Pentagon in Independence, Virginia, BTNW is now a virtual event due to the pandemic. It will launch International Peace Weekend on Saturday, September 19, and the summit will run for seven weeks, concluding with Round Table Discussions on November 1 – just two days before the U.S. Presidential election.

The Opening Celebration features Riane Eisler and David Korten as Keynote Speakers. Yuval Ron, the Oscar-winning “Peace Musician,” will perform live on his oud.

Thereafter, the summit will feature two presentations in each Sector, delivered by experts and social architects from around the world. Speakers will advocate for transformative change using a Systems Theory approach. As organizers of the event, we encourage participants to attend the entire series of live lectures, which will include Q&A time. Also, the sessions will be recorded, so if you miss one, you can catch it later.

Importantly, the presentations in Sector 6 – Justice & Governance – will focus on the Constitution for the Federation of the Earth – a concrete proposal for an integrated world. Here is a sampling of the other BTNW 2020 Speakers: 

Yuval Ron

Please join us for this transformational summit, network with colleagues, and make some new friends. You can help Shift the Paradigm from: imperialism to Social Democracy; materialism to Altruism; a debt-based monetary system to local-based Coops and Economies; a global war system to a worldwide Culture of Peace; unsustainable environmental destruction to Resilient Organic Networks; religious separation to the redeeming state of Spiritual Unity!