BACK TO EVENTS

DATE: Wednesday 22

TIME: 2:30-4:30PM BST

LOCATION: The White Dome, The Folly

KEY CONTACTS: Ursula & Emily

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PURPOSE: An intimate riverside gathering for women leading across nature to pause, root into purpose, and explore what might bloom through shared imagination and leadership.

 

ATTENDEES:

Confirmed include

Gail Gallie, Project 17

Hafsat Abiola, Project Dandelion

Lark Lumbroso, UNICEF

Meagan Fallone, Mountain Path

Pat Mitchell, Project Dandelion

Ronda Carnegie, Project Dandelion

Sana Kapadia, Heading for Change

Sarah Schwimmer, B Lab

Vanessa Timmer, OneEarth Living

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Awaiting confirmation include

Carina Pimenta, Brazil Gov't

Celena Aponte, NASDAQ (no email)

Gine Reiss, Reiss2 Advisors

Heather Grady, RPA

Ina Bruer, NEID

Jackie Vanderbrug, Putnam Investments (no email)

Karen Paterson, Stone Steps Fdn (no email)

Kathleen Guis, KIVA

Kirsten Dunlop, Climate KIC

Lyndsay Handler, Delta40

Melissa Stevens, Milken Institute

Nidhi Sahni, Bridgespan

Rachel Rivera, Wild Lives Fdn

Yasmina Zaidman, Acumen

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SUGGESTED RUN OF SHOW:

Given the venue (a riverside setting in a striking White Dome) and the audience (senior women who have been in panels and at tables all day at Skoll), the most distinctive format is a living salon: a loosely structured, walking and standing gathering that mirrors the session's ecological theme. 

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2:30-2:45PM | Arrivals & Networking

Guests arrive to a warm, unstructured space with no seating assignments. Our opening question as guests arrive and take their tea: What are you growing right now and what does it need?

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2:45-3PM | Welcome & The Ecology of this Room

With Ronda Carnegie & Gail Gallie 

All gather standing or loosely clustered

A joint welcome from both co-hosts, brief and grounded. Each speaks for no more than 3–4 minutes.

Pat Suggested Talking Points:

• Set the spirit of the gathering

• Why today (Earth Day), why this group, why this theme.

• Frame Project Dandelion's belief that women's leadership is the accelerator — and that leadership, like nature, requires roots, relationship, and the right conditions.

Gail Suggested Talking Points:

• Introduce The NAT's mission — closing the nature finance gap, and the belief that culture and connection are as important as capital.

• Briefly name what you hope the afternoon holds.

• Close the welcome with a single framing question, offered to the room but not yet answered: "What does it mean to lead in and for nature — not just for it, but as part of it?"

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3-3:20PM | Open Salon

Unstructured conversation guided by Gail's question, facilitated gently by co-hosts.

Guests self-organize into conversations. Hosts circulate lightly and, if energy stalls, gently offer the prompt card as a conversation starter.

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3:20-3:30PM | Planting Moment

With Hafsat Abiola​

All gather — standing circle or loose cluster 

Hafsat draws the group together for a short, grounded provocation: not a speech, but a moment of shared attention. She invites two or three guests to offer one sentence each:

 

"The most important thing I know about nature-based leadership that doesn't get said in formal rooms is…"

Hafsat offers one closing observation, then releases the group back to conversation.

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3:30-3:50PM | Open Salon

Unstructured conversation guided by Hafsat's provocation, facilitated gently by co-hosts.​​

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3:50-4:05PM | Planting Moment

With Pat Mitchell & Gail Gallie

Pat and Gail hold a short, informal two-way exchange in front of the group — 8–10 minutes. Not a panel, not a Q&A. A visible conversation between two women who come at this from different angles: women's leadership and climate narrative (Pat) meets nature finance and cultural mobilization (Gail).

• Suggested thread: What will it actually take to close the nature finance gap — and where does women's leadership change the math?

• Open 2–3 minutes at the end for guests to add a single word or phrase. No speeches, just quick reactions before returning to conversation.

 

4:05-4:20PM | Final Open Salon

Unstructured conversation guided by Gail & Pat's provocation, facilitated gently by co-hosts.

This is the natural networking close. Hosts should begin gently signaling the gathering of the final circle around 4:15.

 

4:20-4:30PM | Closing Circle: What We're Carrying Out

With Hafsat, closed by Ronda

Standing circle, all guests. The gathering ends as it began: a circle, standing, together.

Hafsat invites each person to offer one word for what they're carrying out of the room. No explanation required. Moving around the circle, one word per person.

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After the last word, Ronda closes:

• Names the thread she heard across the afternoon

• Acknowledges the partnership with The NAT and what it represents

• Offers an invitation for continued connection (Project Dandelion network, The NAT community)

• Ends with something rooted in the Earth Day moment: "We came here today as part of nature. We leave as part of each other." (or her own words to that effect)

 

Guests are free to linger. No hard end, the circle closing signals the formal program is done.