By Kumari Kunti Dasi
There is only one word to describe the Next Generation Leadership conference - excitement. There was a buzz felt throughout the two-day virtual conference, by youth and youth leaders that lingered on after in group chats and social media.
Over Valentine’s holiday weekend, February 13-14th, 2021, just under 100 devotee youth leaders and youth workers gathered for the ISKCON 3.0 Next Generation Leadership Conference to share their realizations, stories, and goals for building the “house” of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), together. Led by a second-generation devotee team of Gopinath Bloch, Rama Govinda Das, and Janaki Bloch as well as Vraja Bihari Das facilitating. The two-day event was full of love, faith-affirming stories, and networking shared amongst the North American group.
The title “ISKCON 3.0” encapsulates the stage ISKCON is in; in its third-generation of devotees, as well as the organization's stage of evolution. This conference explored the best features of ISKCON’s past and present and gave a framework for creating its future. The conference moved the topics forward through the use of stories and experience, encouraging participants to look deeper at themselves to understand that there are often solutions to even difficult situations, right in front of them. They encouraged that these experiences and stories are all worth sharing, as a way of reminding and inspiring each other as individual leaders of the society.
“Embedded in this approach is the choice to focus on our future through an appreciative lens,” said Gopinatha Bloch. “For us on the organizing team, this means finding gratitude for each person’s unique contribution and service they have offered, trusting that Krishna has pulled us together into this service for an important reason, and remaining in a learning space to emerging wisdom, resources, and guidance towards our future,” he said.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/sharing-the-love-iskcon-30-leadership-conference-series,7701/
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