Summer Forum

The Summer Forum is an ideas festival on a very small scale. It’s a weekend retreat in Italy. It’s an excuse to bring friends together from across the world.

Usually these types of gatherings happen for a birthday or a wedding, where the focus is on one person or a couple and the activity is centered on eating and drinking.

I want the Summer Forum to give more energy than it takes. Eating, drinking and celebrating are not ruled out, but the main focus will be on different types of content: films, discussions, lectures and workshops we will organize together. We will pick a theme together this spring that lightly connects everything we do. On the last night we can make a small party.

For anyone who comes, I want it to feel like we are making something new together: You would all be founding members. I also want it to be completely humble and open, without doctrine or dogma, aside from making it an adults-only event and minimizing the importance of screens.

A FEW KEY UPDATES

Our location: We have for the weekend a villa between Milan and Lake Como in Lombardy, Italy. It’s a hunting lodge built by an Italian Industrialist in the early 20th century set in a large park near three lakes. It’s also just a 40 minute drive from Milan Central Station or 50 minutes from Malpensa Airport. It is grand but not luxurious, and it seems like a pretty interesting and slightly eccentric place.

Our chef: We have been very lucky to get Michaela Frank to cook for us over the weekend. Michaela was recently featured as a Swiss chef to watch in 2025, by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the leading newspaper in Switzerland. Michaela cooks Chinese comfort food out of local ingredients sourced from top farms. She also brings some ideas from traditional Chinese medicine to her work. 

Our program:  The program will run from Friday evening, June 27, until Monday morning, June 30, and be a mix of films, discussions, workshops and lectures. There will also be a lot of down time to relax or explore the area. On Sunday night, we can have a small party. We will pick a theme this spring that will run through the weekend.



Who is coming: I invited friends from across Europe and America, from more than 10 different countries, with a mix of careers from architecture, design, music, literature, journalism and fashion to investing, business and technology, all generally around my age. I expected we will be around 10-15 people.

Partner in Crime: I’m working closely on the Summer Forum with a friend and longtime collaborator Michael Berger, a designer and photographer based in Berlin. Michael and I have been working together professionally over the last years. He is the reason everything looks so good, and we may publish something together after the event based on our experience.

Cost: I wanted to make the event as accessible as possible, especially in the first year. We’ll split the cost of room and board among whoever comes. I’m paying for any other overhead. If we turn this into an annual event, my longer term goal would be to apply for a grant or find a sponsor.