The r3.0 Conference kicks off Global Bioregional Month in September 2026 by gathering the bioregionally committed and the bioregional curious for three days online together. Each day will be anchored by a two-hour interactive panel, on the 3 central themes of Relational Kinship, Knowledge Commons, and Self-Governance. 

These will be bookended by cross-bioregional Reflection Sessions at diverse timings to bridge global time zones. 

And most of the audience will attend via in-person Confluences organized by bioregional groups globally – last year, more than 50 bioregional groups registered to host Confluences across 6 continents, and we expect even more this year! 

Conference Theme: Bioregional Regeneration as Collapse Resilience – Earth-centric Biocultural Kinship, Knowledge & Governance

The main title leads with a continuation of our primary focus from our 2025 Conference: Bioregional Regeneration. The remainder of the main title revitalizes the core focus of our 2024 Conference: Collapse Resilience.

We have been building out our definition of Collapse Resilience for several years. We see it as part of a Collapse Response Continuum. 

Collapse Ignorance: Unaware of the inevitable ecological and social systems collapses that are impending or already unfolding.

Collapse Awareness: Recognition of the potential for ecological and social systems collapses.

Collapse Denial: After becoming aware of the potential for ecological and social systems collapses, some respond with denial of this potential and/or denial of the impending or unfolding status of these collapses.

Collapse Avoidance: The belief that ecological and social collapses can be averted if we only work feverishly enough (often, within the very paradigms creating the collapses in the first place).

Collapse Acceptance: Coming to terms with the impending and unfolding inevitability of ecological and social collapses.

Collapse Resilience: Recognizing the inevitability of ecological and social collapse by enhancing resilience that can 1) mitigate the severity of collapses; 2) adapt to emergent post-collapse scenarios; and 3) de-pattern from collapse-reinforcing dynamics and re-pattern ways of being that reinforce social & ecological integrity.

A key aspect of Collapse Resilience is that it applies before, during & after collapse: 

• The first element (mitigate the severity of collapses) applies before & during collapse, without veering into collapse denialism; 
• The second element (adapt to emergent post-collapse scenarios) applies during & after collapse, without denying existential levels of risk; and 
• The third element (de-pattern & re-pattern) applies before, during & after collapse – it goes hand in hand with acceptance of the actual & potential states of collapse at any given moment. One key aspect of this 3rd element is power distribution, which Graeber & Wengrow’s Dawn of Everything validates as a successful strategy historically applied in some large-scale societies. (Turchin’s research identifies the opposite – power concentration through elite overproduction – as the single common denominator of all civilizational collapse.)

Note that our use of resilience taps into an emerging definitional shift for the term. Traditionally, resilience refers to a return to a previous equilibrium after a perturbation. But increasingly, folks employ the term resilience as using perturbation as an opportunity to shift from a dysfunctional status quo into a new state of being. (Hat tip to Shalanda Baker for her term “anti-resilience” that encompasses this emergent definition.)

The Conference subtitle leads with one of the key elements of Collapse Resilience: the way through the endemic cycles of civilizational collapse is to adopt Earth-centric design, where we model our own structures around how Gaia has “designed” earth systems throughout evolutionary history.

The next term, Biocultural, is a nod to the definition of bioregions, at the intersection between biological and cultural dimensions (think of Peter Berg’s “geographic terrain and terrain of consciousness”). 

The final 3 terms encapsulate the 3 focus areas of the 3 Panel Sessions in the Conference, predicated on the 3 “gardens” that we at r3.0 are cultivating: 

• Bioregional Convening, founded in kinship and relationality;
• Bioregional Knowledge Commons; and 
• Bioregional Governance.

The Conference Structure is centered each day on a two-hour Interactive Panel Session, focused on one of the focal themes: Relational Kinship (Day One), Knowledge Commons (Day Two), and Self-Governance (Day Three). You can read more about these thematic sessions on the Conference Agenda page.

Bookending these panel sessions are Bioregional Confluence Reflection sessions – opportunities for bioregional groups gathering in-person in Confluences to share both their reflections on the Conference content, and on developments in their own bioregional contexts as well as discussions unfolding in their Confluences. This mechanism supports cross-bioregional pollination within the Bioregional Confluencing Community, continuing this practice from the monthly Confluencing Community calls r3.0 hosts throughout the year. These sessions are scheduled well before and well after the Interactive Panel Sessions, allowing ample time for Confluences to engage internally in their own contexts, and also enabling participation across diverse time zones globally. 

To support time zone bridging, the r3.0 Tech Team will post Panel Recordings about two hours after, enabling Confluences that can’t view them in real time to view them in advance of Reflection Sessions.   

Building on the success of last year’s prototyping of the Bioregional Confluence format, with 50+ bioregional groups spread across 6 continents registering to host in-person Confluence gatherings alongside the Conference, we continue and expand this Confluencing process this year. 

See our 2026 Bioregional Confluence Expression of Interest Form here to register. 

To support bioregions in their autonomous Confluencing, we have launched a Confluencing Fund (direct your network here to donate) with a goal of raising $50k (more than double last year’s €21k) to support Bioregional Confluencing in equal shares across three scales: 

1. Living Room Confluence: small (5-10 people), self-hosted gatherings, geared toward the “bioregional curious” who are early in their journeys;
2. Bioregional Group Confluence: mid-sized (10-20 people) gatherings of emerging bioregional groups in need of logistical support to host in their own venues; and
3. Bioregional Team Confluence: larger (20+ people) gatherings of more established bioregional teams needing to rent venues and support more complex logistics.

Expressions of Interest received before May 31, 2026 qualify for portions of the Confluencing Fund. Expressions of Interest received after May 31, 2026 still qualify for free Conference Registration of all Confluence attendees, but not for portions of the Confluencing Fund.  

We will share codes for all Confluence participants to register for free, so that we can share recordings and other materials directly with them. 

All Confluence participants can also join the Confluencing Community, and thereby attend the monthly Confluencing Community Calls that spotlight specific bioregional groups and allow all attending bioregions to briefly update on their developments.