While I’m a bit late to the party with this post (resting and recharging with family took priority!), I’d love to share some highlights and lessons from 2025 — one of my most challenging and rewarding years yet.
🦄 Launching “Gatherings” and Facilitating Around the World
Together with Songyi, after years of organic collaboration and co-creation, we officially launched Gatherings — a facilitation and experience design studio supporting organizations to strengthen culture and connection, especially across remote and decentralized teams.
In 2025, we:
- Designed, produced and facilitated two bespoke company retreats in Portugal
- Hosted an Innovation Festival for an NGO & a 10-day residency program in Kenya for Web3 entrepreneurs
- Supported several organizations with experience design makeovers
It’s also been a joy and inspiration to witness my co-founder in her pregnancy journey while we built the business and facilitated work around the world together!
Looking ahead to 2026, we’re opening three bespoke event slots and continuing to offer our experience design makeovers - reach out if you’re curious to work with us.
🌏 First Year on the Impact Hub Global Network Board
2025 marked Impact Hub’s 20-year anniversary — and my first year serving on the Global Network Board. It’s been the start of an exciting four-year term, during which we began shaping the strategy and roadmap for the next three years.
Co-designing a strategy with input from 130+ hubs across diverse cultures and contexts was no small feat — challenging, complex, and deeply rewarding. The process included: 1 workshop at the Global Gathering, 12 working group calls, 1 strategy consolidation meeting in Vienna, 4 regional consultations, 2 collaboration workshops on Miro, several Advisory Board interviews & 88 one-on-one conversations with Hub founders. Wow.
The result: a 3-year Roadmap approved by the General Assembly - one that pushes us to innovate on our structure and leadership model toward more locally led innovation and decentralisation. As an alt-governance nerd, I’m incredibly excited about what this unlocks, but there’s still a lot of work to be done on implementation of course.
🇮🇩 A New Chapter at Impact Hub Jakarta
We founded Impact Hub Jakarta eight years ago, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem has evolved significantly since then. Post-COVID, we asked ourselves again: What does the ecosystem need now, and what are we uniquely positioned to offer?
The answer isn’t more coworking.
Instead, we’re doubling down on accessibility and inclusion, authentic and curated connections, and programs that drive systemic change (not just individual startup success). This shift led us to move into a smaller space in partnership with Anomali Café in Cipete - one of Indonesia’s leading sustainable specialty coffee roasters. Together, we redesigned the café and installed an elevator to be fully accessible for people with disabilities (thanks to Konekin & Nippon Foundation!), created a dedicated event/workshop space and established a members-only area.
We’ve also developed new programs enabling cross-sector collaboration and ecosystem-level outcomes - from sustainable supply chain innovation to shared resource development - while continuing to bridge local and global entrepreneurs through the Impact Hub network. I couldn’t be more proud of our growing team and the leadership of Sean and Nadilla during this evolution 👏
🫶 Personal Highlights (…and Lowlights)
On a personal level, 2025 was a year of both exploration and grounding. I traveled to four new countries (Albania, Armenia, Ireland and Taiwan), spoke at the International Circular Economy Forum in Armenia with the EU, the Social Enterprise World Forum in Taipei, and hosted Impact Pitch events as part of the Bayer Foundation Women Entrepreneurs Award.
There was also a bit of room for play, growth and rest too ;) I took a permaculture course at Gaia Ashram, joined a Plum Village meditation retreat, stayed at the Traditional Dream Factory, danced my way through music festivals in Albania and Thailand, celebrated Pride Weekend in Taipei, expanded my family in Ireland and spent precious time with my loved ones in Australia.
The harder truth: my health took a hit amid the constant travel - including hospital visits in multiple countries between events. So once again, I’m redesigning my boundaries, learning to honour the limits that keep me healthy and able to do the work I love.
🌿 Looking Ahead to 2026
As I move into 2026, my focus is on deepening roots — in my work, personal life, and the communities I’m part of. Those roots are currently growing in Bali (my home as I write this) and Portugal (where I’ll be based later in the summer).
I’m approaching this year with more intentionality and structure — while remembering that some of the best moments of 2025 were spontaneous and unplanned. If you have ideas for collaboration, or if our paths might cross, I’d love to hear from you!
