Harwood Summit

 A Space for renewed Possibility and Hope

We started the Harwood Summit more than 15 years ago because leaders said they needed a safe space where they could wrestle with tough challenges without the need to perform. It’s unique—there are no speeches or presentations. It’s a carefully crafted, rolling conversation over three days that enables attendees to think deeply about current topics and authentically engage with a highly diverse group of people.

A cross-section of leaders

We invite 50 leaders to come together and work through issues that sit at the intersection of their professional and personal lives—issues that are critical but often left unaddressed. This is a group you won’t normally see together at other professional conferences: local and national leaders, including CEOs of major nonprofits, college and university administrators, faith leaders, foundation executives, private consultants, heads of community-based organizations, journalists, and business professionals. Many Summit attendees form lasting personal and professional relationships

People tell us that the Summit helps them to stay grounded. It’s the place they come every year to rejuvenate. It helps them get “unstuck” in their work and it’s the boost they often need to engage on their professional challenges with more vigor.

A Meaningful Location

Each year, the Harwood Summit takes place at a unique and meaningful location. In the past, we have convened at President Lincoln’s Summer Cottage in Washington, DC, in the very room where he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. We have hosted the two most recent Summits at The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA, which served as a great setting to discuss the ideals and principles our nation was founded on. This year, the Harwood Summit took place at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond, VA on October 12-14.

In October 2023, nearly 60 community leaders from across the United States gathered in Richmond, VA for our annual Harwood Summit. At this year’s Summit, we delved into intimate discussions to help us better understand the deep challenges before us and how we can move forward. Our physical space for the gathering—the Virginia Museum of History & Culture—provided a reminder that we must face the stains of our past and confront their implications for our present. Only then can we explore how to build a brighter future.

Each year, the Summit is centered on a word that we believe must be reclaimed as part of creating a new public lexicon. This year’s word was grief. The Summit offered leaders a safe space for in-depth, serious, provocative discussions on how we address and process grief in public life. We chose this year’s word because so many leaders we work with are experiencing numerous forms of unacknowledged grief in public life. When we fail to acknowledge and process our grief, we become stuck, even aggrieved. It becomes impossible for us to go together. In order to step forward and lead, we must come to terms with grief and the way it intersects with our public lives.

Across the Summit’s three days, attendees experienced small group discussions, common sessions, and personal reflections over shared meals. The experience culminated with discussion around a quote from Arthur Ashe, a Richmond native and world-renowned tennis player, civil rights activist, and humanitarian, designed to help participants reconnect with their personal “why” for doing community work. Ashe said, “I know I could never forgive myself if I elected to live without humane purpose, without trying to help the poor and unfortunate, without recognizing that perhaps the purest joy in life comes with trying to help others.”

We are grateful for everyone who joined us in Richmond for this year’s Summit. We look forward to gathering again in 2024 and wrestling together with how we continue to move forward as individuals, as communities, and as a country.