Santorini | 23–25 October 2026
A 2.5-day immersive experience at the intersection of wellbeing and regeneration of landscape and ecological belonging.
Programme & ticket details coming soon
A gathering rooted in place
Impact Hub Athens, in collaboration with the Wellbeing Project, is hosting the Hearth Summit Aegean 2026: a place-based gathering in Santorini, bringing together people, ideas and practices to explore how places and communities can thrive through ecological, social and economic regeneration.
Engaging the wider Aegean bioregion as a living system, the Summit approaches Santorini not as a backdrop, but as a place shaped by volcanic land, water scarcity, tourism, climate pressure, ancient knowledge, cycladic culture and diverse communities.
For two and a half days, researchers, scientists, technologists, policymakers, public sector representatives, entrepreneurs, artists, cultural institutions, local business owners and members of island communities, from farmers and fishers to gallery owners and civic organisations, will come together to explore new approaches to resilience, ecological belonging and regeneration.
Through conversations, debates, hands on workshops, field visits, shared meals, artistic moments and collective experiences, participants will encounter Santorini through a regenerative lens, connecting with its landscapes, local produce, stories, practices, biodiversity and people while exploring what places shaped by adaptation and resilience can teach us about ecological belonging and regeneration.
Hearth Summit Aegean 2026 explores how regeneration and wellbeing can be practiced in real places, here and now.
The starting point
From Athens to the Aegean islands
In 2024, Hearth Summit Athens brought together 243 participants and 81 speakers from Greece, Europe and the United States to explore how life in cities and villages can become more liveable, resilient and rooted in wellbeing.
The Summit opened conversations around wellbeing and impact economies, housing, sustainable tourism, water circularity, biodiversity restoration, community energy, decentralisation and the role of industries and civic actors in shaping this transition.
What emerged was a shared exploration of what might be possible if wellbeing was placed at the centre of how we design our communities, economies and our relationship with our habitat- the land, the sea, biodiversity and each other.
Hearth Summit Aegean 2026 continues this journey, shifting the lens to bioregional regeneration.
From Cities to Bioregions
A Bioregional Approach to Wellbeing
Hearth Summit Aegean explores how villages, islands and cities are embedded within broader living systems shaped by land, water, culture, ecology and local economies.
Moving beyond administrative boundaries, the Summit approaches the Aegean islands as an interconnected bioregion shaped by interdependence, limits, resilience and possibility.
Through regeneration, place-based thinking and bioregioning practices, it examines how wellbeing can emerge through stronger relationships between people and place.
Wellbeing is shaped across systems.
What becomes possible when we truly listen to a place?
What can we learn from territories shaped by resilience?
What does it mean to live well today?
Why Santorini?
A living system in transition
Taking the Hearth Summit to Santorini is an intentional act.
Overtourism, water scarcity, ecosystem fragility, biodiversity loss, rural communities and cultural strain are not abstract challenges here. They are daily realities shaping how communities live, adapt, and survive.
The Summit enters this landscape to explore what these realities can teach us about resilience, ecological belonging and place-based regeneration, and where new possibilities for living, working and caring for place may emerge.
The Experience
An immersive 2.5-day journey
The Summit unfolds over two and a half days across multiple locations on the island of Santorini.
Designed as an immersive journey, it moves between dialogue, landscape and cultural experience, co-creation and proximity, inviting participants to engage intellectually, physically and emotionally with the place.
Through conversations, workshops, artistic interventions and field experiences, the programme connects systems thinking with the lived realities of island life and the wider Cycladic and Aegean region.
Learning from Place
Conversations, debates, walks and exchanges that explore what different places can teach us about resilience, adaptation and regeneration.
Strategic Exchange & Networking
Curated moments for participants to connect across sectors, build relationships, exchange knowledge and explore future collaborations.
Art & Culture as a Way of Understanding
Installations, screenings, performances, music and collective cultural moments that open up different ways of engaging with the Summit themes beyond words.
From Ideas to Practice
Workshops, regenerative practices, designed experiences and place-based explorations that bring participants closer to the land, nature, local produce, materials, food systems and community knowledge.
Shared Experiences
A collective feast, shared meals, walks and informal moments of connection that create space for trust, exchange and new relationships across geographies and communities.
Who joins the Summit
A living ecosystem of voices
Local communities of Santorini, Cyclades and the Aegean coastal areas and islands
Residents, farmers, fishers, winemakers, tourism professionals, local businesses, cultural actors and civic organisations.
Policymakers & public sector representatives
Local, regional and national authorities, public administration representatives and institutional actors.
Researchers, startups, networks & professionals
Innovation ecosystem practitioners working across regeneration, tourism, innovation, circularity and sustainability.
Entrepreneurs, investors, business owners
Who create a new kind of business, where economy and impact intertwine.
Artists & creative practitioners
Musicians, designers, curators and cultural practitioners working with place, ecology, heritage and community.
Civil society organisation and philanthropic institutions representatives
Organisations and institutions working on regeneration, environmental restoration, placemaking, participation and community empowerment.
Be part of Hearth Summit Aegean
Hearth Summit Aegean 2026 is an open invitation to step into a different way of thinking and experiencing.
We invite practitioners, community leaders, policymakers, and creatives to come together to explore and shape what it means to live and act regeneratively embedded into the landscape.
Support the Summit
Why Partner with Hearth Summit Aegean?
Support a curated, place-based gathering that brings together people, ideas and practices shaping regenerative futures for the Aegean and beyond.
Whether as a sponsor, partner or in-kind supporter, your organisation can:
Connect with a cross-sector ecosystem
Meet practitioners, institutions, entrepreneurs, cultural actors, local communities and changemakers.
Adopt or co-create a session
Co-create a keynote, workshop, field experience, artistic moment or curated dialogue connected to your mission and expertise.
Create visibility through experience
Go beyond logo placement by becoming part of the participant journey, from shared meals and hospitality to storytelling, culture and local encounters.
Support place-based impact
Help root the Summit in Santorini’s communities, landscapes, knowledge and realities.
Amplify stories that matter
Help the ideas, people and practices emerging from the Summit travel beyond the island.