A Participatory Model for Building Social Capital in Real Time
Facilitator/s:
John Crowley, Aqus Community Foundation
Workshop Description:
Conferences often bring together brilliant minds yet can leave participants disconnected, with most conversations confined to coffee breaks or small circles. This two-hour interactive session is designed to transform the Social Capital 2026 experience itself into a living laboratory of connection. Using the Aqus Gathering format, developed over a decade of practice in California, participants will directly experience how structured conversation fosters trust, belonging, collaboration and, ultimately, Social Capital.
The session unfolds in three parts:
1. Social Connect: Participants rotate in groups of three, guided by playful prompts. Each person has 90 seconds to introduce themselves before moving to a new group. In just 40 minutes, attendees will break down barriers and build dozens of new connections, discovering the power of even a two-minute exchange.
2, Hosted Conversations: Subject Matter Experts convene small circles on topics of their choice. Attendees join discussions aligned with their interests, enabling focused, peer-to-peer dialogue. This creates depth beyond the keynote hall, and participants leave with both fresh insights and new collaborators.
3. Pass-the-Mic: To close, every participant has the opportunity to get 12 seconds and one sentence to share something important—a new idea, an opportunity, a challenge, or a personal insight. This high-energy finale ensures every voice is heard and the room leaves buzzing with possibilities.
This session actively creates social capital—modeling practices participants can carry back to their own communities and institutions.
This video gives a good idea of the session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tavlFY9o6Ko
Objectives or Learning Outcomes:
The desired outcome of this workshop is a collective shift in mindset: participants leave feeling more connected and more willing to initiate conversation throughout the conference. Structured exchanges break down barriers quickly, showing how easy it is to form trust and spark collaboration. By starting the event this way, the conference transforms from a series of sessions into a living network where dialogue flows freely. The aim is for every attendee to carry forward a sense of freedom and expectation to approach others openly, ensuring that the brilliant ideas in the room meet, mix, and multiply.
Intended Audience:
The intended audience is all participants, attendees, and producers of the conference—anyone who wants to experience social capital being created in real time. This is where you meet the very person you came to the conference to find.
About the Facilitator/s:
John Crowley is an Irish-born community builder and founder of Aqus Café and the Aqus Community Foundation in Petaluma, California. He is also the co-founder of Cool Petaluma, a city-wide environmental action network. For over two decades he has designed and led innovative gatherings—from neighborhood resilience networks and civic conversations to large-scale cultural festivals—all aimed at strengthening trust, belonging, and collaboration. His work has made Petaluma a living laboratory for social capital in action.