Thank you!
Edge Esmeralda 2024 was more wonderful than we could have hoped. Our deepest gratitude goes to everyone who trusted us and participated in this weird and wonderful experiment. Check out the recap below.
Mark you calendars for Edge Esmeralda 2025, which will be May 24 - June 21!
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What was Edge Esmeralda?
Edge Esmeralda was a month-long popup village that brought together ~1,300 folks who believe the future can be better and are actively working to make it happen.
We gathered for a month of living, learning, and collaborating in Healdsburg, CA. Our design principles focused on emergence and co-creation so we didn’t actually know precisely what would happen — we created the container and then watched it unfold.
“Edge Esmeralda was one of the weirdest, wildest, most ambitious, most unexpected — and most fun — things I’ve ever watched unfold in Healdsburg.”
By the numbers:
1,300 people
joined us through the month of June, including 80 kids! Some folks stayed the whole time, while others came for just a weekend.
167 unique session hosts
from the community who decided to run workshops and sessions.
25 expert-led program tracks
throughout the month (more info below).
3x increase in Bird Bike usage
in the town during the event.
6 weeks old & 86 years old
The ages of the youngest and oldest attendees.
551 sessions
throughout the month! 93% were organized by attendees, with just 7% planned directly by the Edge Esmeralda organizing team.
Programming
Each of the 25 initial program tracks at Edge Esmeralda was organized by experts in their fields. These programs provided a solid structure to the month, but the bulk of the programming emerged organically from the community that joined us at Edge Esmeralda.
The community self-organized hundreds of activities, including AI-wearable soldering sessions, daily running clubs, sharing circles, impromptu lightning talks, night markets, and many others. If you’re curious, we left the full calendar up online so you can see what took place.
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Jeff Kay and David Kelley, the City Managers of Healdsburg & Cloverdale, came to talk about what it’s like day-to-day to run a city in Sonoma County. The conversation was part of Cities week at Edge Esmeralda which was facilitated by Devon Zuegel, one of EE’s lead organizers. Half of the audience included Sonoma County locals, who contributed great questions to the conversation.
The first weekend, some of the EE attendees collaborated with longtime Healdsburg local artist Jendala to throw a party for the community in her beautiful studio space.
Local historian Eric Drew teamed up with an EE attendee to host a walking tour of Healdsburg, with a focus on the Lost Buildings of Healdsburg.
Edge Esmeralda strongly encourages attendees to walk or bike as much as possible. The EE gathering is all about healthy living, protecting the environment, community connection, and reducing impacts on local communities; walking & biking enable all of these things by keeping us moving, not using fossil fuels, creating moments of connection as we cross paths with people we know, and minimizing parking and car traffic that could impact Healdsburg residents.
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Sunday through Thursday each evening, EE hosts community dinners designed to be family-friendly. The cost of dinner is included in the ticket price for out-of-town attendees, and locals are welcome to join if they purchase a meal ticket.
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One of the sessions that an attendee hosted was a workshop to learn how to make your own AI wearable.
Before EE began, the organizing team made a point of meeting with as many locals as possible to share what they were doing about EE, get their feedback, and welcome them to join in. One of the community outreach events was an open house where locals were invited to ask questions, and EE provided wine for everyone to enjoy together.
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Speakers & Attendees
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