From the seeds we planted in Athens to the roots we nurtured in Ljubljana, the journey of restoration, regeneration, and reimagining continues to unfold.
This summer, At the Hearth Summit 2025, nestled in the Slovenian landscape, we joined a growing network of weavers, artists, activists, foundations, and changermakers. From Bhutan to Eritrea, New Zealand to Peru, South Africa to Alaska, Brazil to Japan.
Athens, Ljubljana, and the World
Following a provocative, eye-opening, and deeply connective Regional Summit in Athens, we took part in the Global Hearth Summit in Ljubljana wearing many hats: as Regional Summit Organizers, Co-creators of the Wellbeing Project, Core Community Members of the Wellbeing Project Network, and as hosts welcoming 20 fellow participants into our extended family. We opened workshops on critical and timely issues and actively contributed to the conference agenda, making our days in Ljubljana intense, yet profoundly rewarding.
The Global Hearth Summit offered a rich rhythm of emotional and intellectual stimulation. Mornings began with music and art that evoked a deep sense of ecological belonging and cultural unity. Meals were unhurried, allowing conversations to unfold organically. Keynotes and panels were deeply personal, often emotional. In this spacious atmosphere, trust grew.
Workshops delved into a wide array of transformative topics: regenerative landscape interventions in urban and rural settings; intergenerational trauma among both colonizers and the colonized; the cycle of food as a carrier of stories, traditions, and identities; technology and urban design fostering ecological belonging; pathways toward a wellbeing economy; and the centrality of care as a guiding principle for action.
Each session reaffirmed a core belief we hold at Impact Hub Athens: we must learn from the past to unlock the future; we must make space for the emergent to arise; and we must bring together unlikely allies to co-create a good life for our local communities.
Throughout the summit, our work in Athens echoed clearly. For example, Marina Paraskevaidi, our Director of Fundraising & Partnerships, opened a powerful panel on Shaping AI for Ecological Belonging, drawing from our AI Skills Training for social entrepreneurs in rural Greece. Another highlight was a case study on transforming a struggling neighborhood in Taiwan into a thriving, nature-based circular zone through urban acupuncture, strikingly similar to our work in Kozani, where we are co-creating urban interventions with citizens to accelerate the city’s transition to zero waste, zero emissions, and zero exclusion.
The conversations were not always easy, but they were honest.
And in that honesty, they became fertile ground for collective visioning.
Looking Ahead: Hearth Summit Returns to Greece
In one of the Global Summit’s most special moments, Sophie Lamprou, co-founder & managing director of Impact Hub Athens, took the floor to announce the return of the Hearth Summit to Greece.
In Autumn 2026, we’ll rekindle the fire on a Greek Cycladic island, inviting changemakers from across Europe to gather once more, this time shaped by the Mediterranean sea and sun, and inspired by the traditions of the Aegean.
The Hearth in Slovenia may have ended, but its warmth endures. The fire travels through conversations, through action, and through the promise of what we’ll create next.
Take care we will see you in 2026.
