Funding the Commons Conference

Funding the Commons has been around since 2021 and has taken place all over the world throughout Europe, Asia, South America and the US. FtC San Francisco took place this year on March 14th and 15th 2026 downtown at Frontier Tower. Funding the Commons is a conference, a coordination hub and also a convergence point between different people with various backgrounds and interests solving different pieces of the same puzzle that finally get to sit in a room with one another and discuss strategies.

Funding the Commons is a curated group of altruistic future-oriented people trying to figure out ways to support and grow public goods like clean air, climate research, open source apps and public knowledge figuring out how to support the systems that support all of us.

This year FtC was a gathering of 1,000 builders of tech, researchers, founders, funders, community organizations, artists and therapy-oriented people like myself. We talked, hosted, and sat in on each others talks to lend our voices to help solve these problems. I took part on the Flourishing Floor and was invited to facilitate the opening circle Sunday morning, collaborated in several other sessions, and helped finish the day by assisting the Closing Cacao Ceremony.

I’m incredibly grateful for the support of Ryan Rising - the Head of Operations + Site Lead, and David Casey - the CEO and leader of FtC encouraging me to bring my unique magic to this event.

Funding the Commons is a conference where every different floor focused on something else - Neurotech, Human Flourishing, Art & Music, d/acc Lounge, a Hackathon, Biopunk, Makerspace. All of the events held and hosted by these floors added depth to this vertical space by offering talks, workshops, lab spaces, healing session, DJ’s, art shows, music and performances, unconferences, as well as normal conference content presented on the Funding the Commons Main Stage which hosted talks, keynotes, sponsors, art and the tea house.

I was elated to not only host my own events, but to collab with others, make new friends, and see so many old friends from my constantly growing global network and from the Edge City’s I’ve attended! It was truly a gathering space that attracted an international crowd!

I am so happy to announce my collaboration with the Human Flourishing Floor (Floor 14) with the help and support of Zan, Ming & Judy!

My next upcoming event that you can find on here on Luma is on Tuesday April 14th 2026 from 6-8pm. My friend Zan and I are co-hosting a Sound Healing Session on the Flourishing Floor with Tea + Discussion afterwards on the roof of Frontier Tower for sunset.

From 6-7pm I will lead a Crystal Bowl Sound Healing Session on Floor 14 and then from 7-8pm Zan and I will host a gentle movement + Tea Ceremony for sunset on the roof of Frontier Tower!

Come join us!

Bring your loved ones and something cozy to wear :)

We can’t wait to see you!

Xoxo

Holistic Chamber of Commerce

I successfully managed to find this image from 2013? 2014? by combing all the way back through my Facebook photos. But here I am and here we were during a perfect spring morning in sunny San Diego - Encinitas to be exact. Featured is a few friends of mine and the president of the Holistic Chamber of Commerce (HCC) - Eileen Kurlander in the middle and me on the right as the Vice President of the HCC.

Eileen Kurlander had asked me to be her VP after she saw my desire to create change in my community. At the time I was the lab manager at Psy-Tek Subtle Energy Laborary, a student at the California Institute for Human Science and also becoming certified in Pranic Healing and Biofield Tuning - and also becoming a yoga teacher! I was hungry and I wanted more.

I was teaching classes all around Encinitas at various different places on different topics. Chiropractors and acupuncturists would invite me to their clinic to educate on Thermography, yoga studios would invite me to talk about energy healing, and sometimes cute and cozy coffee shops would invite me to talk about women’s health. At this point I had been teaching these topics since my early 20’s as it became a special interest of mine after a health crisis caused by allopathic medicine and pharmaceutical drugs.

I left college with my undergrad as I was too sick to continue pursing a Master’s. Around that time I had met a ND, MD and PhD (all the same guy) and had fallen magically into a Thermography career. With all these things combined - being mentored by someone versed in all angles of medicine, having a medical background myself, learning about prevention and preventive scans topped with a special interested in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, and entering the rabbit hole that is energy healing; I naturally started teaching locally as I figured if this information is helping me expand and grow, it would help others too.

I taught and traveled and ended up moving to Florida first before moving out west and taught across the United States. Once I got to California I had already been teaching holistic and sometimes obscure topics for many years which made me an incredibly well-rounded teacher and writer, as also at this time I was writing articles for various magazines like Natural Awakening, The Hour Detroit and for websites like The Gerson Therapy.

I taught for the Holistic Chamber of Commerce and met Amelia (pictured left in the image) and started writing for yet a local Encinitas magazine called The Life Connection.

I was Vice President of the HCC (Encinitas Chapter) for one year and worked alongside Eileen expanding our outreach and education programs.

I very much enjoyed my time with the HCC and under the mentorship of Eileen, and was pleased by all the things I was able to learn from and grow into!