Burn After Meeting is a conference for regional burn event organizers to share practical concerns and solutions, to learn from each other rather than learning the hard way, and to build an environment of mutual support. This short conference format provides the opportunity for organizers to expand both their knowledge base and their networks with valuable face-to-face interaction.

In the spirit of burn events, BAM is participant-driven. Attendees are invited to be speakers and moderators, and to present on topics of experience and expertise. BAM includes a mix of traditional presentations and moderated roundtable discussions involving all present.

The inspiration for Burn After Meeting was an event that the Burning Man organization used to produce, the Global Leadership Conference. This was a conference for BMORG’s regional contacts (local representatives for the organization around the world), and “community leaders,” which in practice often meant people in leadership roles of regional burn events.

The GLC was valuable: it brought together a lot of like-minded people trying to solve similar problems, and created a lively, collaborative atmosphere. It was great for morale. It was also a lot of fun—a lot of friendships grew out of the GLC. It was also a massive undertaking for BMORG—it was expensive, logistically difficult, and consumed a huge number of work hours. The last year of the GLC was 2017.

Burn After Meeting aims to recreate part of what the GLC was, specifically as a conference for organizers of regional burns. It aims to be smaller, cheaper, and more participant-driven in the hopes that it will be more sustainable.