Art and transformative experiences are central to Burning Man culture, and as event organizers, we work to cultivate opportunities for both. Yet balancing these creative energies with the practical needs of event management can be challenging, and the ways we approach that balance can have far-reaching impacts on our events and the communities that support them.

At SOAK, the Portland Regional event, we have recently concluded that solid-fuel fire is no longer a viable artistic medium given the location and season in which our event occurs. We are using this as an opportunity to reassess not only how we create transformational experiences that have historically centered around large-scale burnable art, but also what role event leadership should play in the artistic process itself. We'll begin by sharing our experiences from the past year and the questions that emerged from that work.

From there, we'll transition into a facilitated conversation exploring how other Regional communities approach these challenges and discuss topics such as governance models, resourcing, volunteer management, artist support, and artistic autonomy. Our goal is not to identify a single "right" approach, but to develop a broader understanding of the solutions being used across the Regional network and to expand the toolkit available to our communities as we navigate these complex and evolving questions.