Reflections from the Anthropy25 Bubble

For three days, I was in a bubble - quite literally, nestled within the domes of the Eden Project at Anthropy25. But this wasn’t a retreat from reality, instead, it was a space to imagine a better one. A space filled with purpose, provocation, and possibility. 

Inside the bubble – everyone was equals. You could strike up conversation with anyone, over coffee, in a session, or walking between talks and be met with openness and curiosity. There was a shared passion that united us across sectors, job titles and numerous hats. It felt like a levelling moment, where what mattered most was the ideas we brought and the futures we wanted to shape. 

The conversations were energising and deeply reflective. A recurring theme was the urgent need to build a society for all ages - one that’s not just designed for the future, but for how people are living now. There was an understanding that intergenerational thinking isn’t a “nice to have” but, a necessity to how we shift the social structures and how we build connection, drive change, and shape our systems. 

Across the three days, it became clear: we are now paying for the community we want, the kind we once had. That means reimagining infrastructure - built, natural, and social - to support belonging and wellbeing throughout the life course. But it also means recognising a deeper shift: power is moving.

The centre of gravity is no longer government alone. It's communities - networks of people mobilising around shared values and shared challenges. 

One of the most powerful discussions centred on the future of collaboration – with a focus on the role that businesses have to play in the wider social ecosystem. We are facing huge levels of youth unemployment and growing health inequalities and there is a competitive nature to our responses - one that misses that point entirely. We cannot create lasting change without the public, private, and third sectors working together. We need to move from siloed action to collective responsibility - building trust across institutions and holding space for collaboration and the complexities that brings.  

We talked about the missing pillar in our education system - critical thinking - and how without it, we can’t challenge misinformation or build resilient communities. We explored how trust in institutions is at a low, and yet the antidote lies in brave leadership, long-term vision, and shared values. And we wrestled with how to hold space for nuance in a world that too often demands binaries. 

Anthropy25 didn’t offer all the answers, but it asked the right questions. It reminded me how essential emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and kindness are to our humanness and to the systems we want to create. And it left me wondering, when the bubble bursts, when we leave this concentrated space of hope and connection - what next? 

There was a sense that the future must be intergenerational, intersectional, and integrated. The challenge now is to carry this energy forward. To act on what we heard, to build on what we felt.