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Stories: the Lego blocks of culture

“People telling stories on a bus”

This how we framed Funconf over a decade ago. At the time, we probably didn’t spend too long thinking about it. It just felt right. We knew it worked as a tagline because we sold out three events (on a bus, in a castle, on an island). It also worked as an approach: setting the tone for the whole experience.

This year, for This Next Thing, we want to get back to those story-telling foundations that we laid at Funconf.

Stories are like the Lego blocks of culture. I don’t mean a startup or corporate culture, I mean human culture. All of it. Everywhere. For as long as humans have been humans. Stories are how things have happened, everything from skill transfer, to organised human hierarchies. It all has historically relied on stories to be both the building block and currency.

Stories are natural and innate. They promote social cohesion, personal growth, creation of movements, commercial transactions, and even how we operate in our daily lives.

Stories are so powerful. They help us forge new relationships, share knowledge with one person or thousands of people. They help us learn about ourselves and each other.

Everything important to us has a story.

The best stories are memorable for people who hear them, and easy for them to share with others who weren’t there. Even if the subject matter is specialised, stories are often relatable because the focus is on the human’s experience, their feelings, and lessons learned. Stories are a conduit for empathy, they help bonds to form, and are a very human way to build connection.

We were reminded of the joy of storytelling during our food + drink + stories evenings, but more than that, the collective moments of those evenings are now stories in themselves, just like stories are still told of Funconf from 14 years ago, and our first event last June.

That principle: gathering to share stories, and creating new stories in the process, is so exciting, and it sums up exactly what we’re trying to do with This Next Thing.

And of course, we’d love for you to be part of that story.