Introducing the Second Brain Summit

I’m unbelievably proud to announce the inaugural Second Brain Summit, taking place October 3–4, 2024, in Los Angeles, California!

We’re gathering 500 of the most dedicated experts and practitioners of personal knowledge management in the world’s creative capital with three goals in mind:

1. To meet other like-minded people and see that we’re not alone
2. To celebrate the explosion of digital creativity we’re living through
3. To share and learn from each other the most powerful tools and techniques for personal knowledge management and productivity

For the last few years, we’ve hosted an annual virtual summit attended by thousands of people. The excitement and enthusiasm around those virtual gatherings has been so palpable, that we’ve decided to bring it into the physical world for the first time this year.

The Backstory: Where It All Started

I arrived in San Francisco in the spring of 2012, a wide-eyed and innocent kid hoping to start my career in the big city.

I wanted to break into the tech industry I’d heard so many amazing stories about, and to be part of the digital revolution that was brewing. 

I eventually succeeded in finding a job in consulting, but soon realized that while technically I was close to the beating heart of Silicon Valley, in reality, I was far from being part of it. I witnessed people succeeding spectacularly in their careers and even starting companies all around me, and started asking myself, “Why can’t I do the same?”

But without coding or design skills, or a strong network, or any particular insights into important markets, there was no clear way to get in the door. 

It was around this time that I began to attend various events around the San Francisco Bay Area. 

• I became a regular attendee of the local Quantified Self meetup, in which people shared how they were using technology to track their step count, productivity, health, or other aspects of their lives. 
• I attended the Evernote conference in 2014 to watch David Allen speak and meet other notetaking enthusiasts for the first time. 
• I volunteered at the Inbox Love conference, an event dedicated solely to email software. 
• I went to Maker Faire, where I saw people from all walks of life hacking together hardware and software into everything from beer fridge robots to exquisite art projects. 
• I participated in various hackathons, where I was stunned to see useful apps whipped up in a matter of hours.

Looking back, being part of these events was a formative education for everything I’ve done and accomplished since. Some of the people I met became pivotal collaborators or mentors. Ideas I heard in passing ended up being cornerstones of my work. The mindset and perspectives I absorbed from successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders changed who I am at a deep level. Walking through those doors was one of the most important decisions I’ve ever made, opening up new horizons for me to this very day.

It’s been 10 years, and I did eventually succeed in breaking into tech, just not in the way I imagined. I discovered that I am at heart a teacher and that the most valuable thing I have to teach is how to succeed at the intersection of productivity and creativity. More specifically, how to effectively leverage digital notetaking apps in one’s day-to-day life, using a system I call a Second Brain.

When I began teaching this topic in 2016, there was no established term for what I was doing. One day I came across an obscure Wikipedia article mentioning a discipline called PKM, for Personal Knowledge Management. I had never heard of it before, but it perfectly described what I was doing. Since then, I’ve been amazed to watch PKM blossom into a full-fledged movement and industry encompassing huge companies, millions of people, and an endless stream of educational content appearing online every day.

PKM has become a global community, but I’ve long noticed there is something missing: there is no clear time and place where that community comes together in person. Seemingly every emerging trend and fledgling industry has its own in-person gathering, except us. There are numerous online courses, virtual summits, and social media feeds we can be part of, but if there’s one thing my path has taught me, it’s that there is no substitute for gathering in the flesh.

As always, I started this project by looking through years of my notes and observations on what I liked (and didn’t like) about conferences, summits, meetups, and other events I’d been to. A few things clearly stood out:

• Speeches and keynotes aren’t the only draw anymore, since it’s easy to consume that kind of content online
• Hands-on workshops and interactive Q&As are more valuable since they are hard to conduct online
• The facilitators of these workshops shouldn’t be theoretical experts nor media pundits – they should be real-world practitioners putting their knowledge to the test in the trenches
• Everyone knows the best part of conferences are the serendipitous “hallway conversations” and evening happy hours, so we should allow time for those and make them a central part of the experience
• Attendees have a lot of knowledge and experience themselves, so we should have  dedicated time for “self-organized” sessions led by attendees on any topic they choose

A Pop-Up University for Digital Creativity

As our plans and thinking around this summit slowly took shape over the last year, it dawned on me that what we’re really creating is a “pop-up university” for a skill not found in any college or university: how to leverage digital tools for creativity.

Productivity is an essential starting point – without a firm foundation of knowing how to get things done, there’s little chance any of your creative endeavors will bear fruit. But productivity also isn’t enough on its own. It’s always just a means to an end, and that end is manifesting your creative dreams and visions into reality. Technology has become so powerful and accessible that it can help there as well!

Imagine if all your favorite online teachers and experts assembled in one place, at one time, to merge their knowledge and experience together into one cohesive experience.

Imagine if you had the chance to see them in action using their tools and techniques of choice, and ask questions that get answered on the spot.

Imagine if you had the chance to find others who are on the same wavelength, and assemble a custom breakout session that very day to dive deeper into what you’re obsessed with.

Imagine if you could do all this just by walking around a beautiful space perfectly designed to activate all your senses, instead of clicking around fussy screens in your web browser and squinting at a tiny Zoom thumbnail.

That’s what we’re creating with the Second Brain Summit: an all-in-one, immersive, multi-sensory, choose-your-own-adventure learning experience designed to change your mind, touch your heart, and maybe even stir your soul.

Here’s a sneak peek of what we’re planning: