Field Notes from India #1: A convening idea is NOT a strategy for change

Since the AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, ideas for convenings have blown up. Every week, someone in the community reaches out with an idea to gather n stakeholders on x forum for y outcomes. They propose a retreat, a roundtable, a summit, a conference, a "conclave". "We should get the right people in a room." 

However, almost none of these proposals answer the key question: what will carry the agenda forward, presuming it is an impactful agenda in the first place, after the room empties? Could this have existed without your event?

India's community ecosystem, despite the country's size, is a village. Are we planning more meetups for the same people? This could be a good thing in general, but it's not a strategy for any cause. On the other hand, when convening ideas are directed toward high-stakes, influential figures, they rarely come up with a value proposition for why these figures would attend. 

These figures- the famous experts, scientists, engineers, founders, policymakers, economists, etc.- all already run into each other several times each month, in closed-door events, in Chatham House-rules workshops, in conferences they themselves curate, in media summits, in committees and consultations, and so on. Marginal introductions are roughly free for them. India's "events" density worsens this dynamic for us. These people already discuss among themselves, at the highest levels, problems riddling our world and how to solve them. A fieldbuilder's challenge is to curate with specificity and intention, or at an opportune time to spur action. 

Convening is the cheapest activity available, especially in the formative stage, and it tends to generate a feeling of momentum. So young ecosystems overproduce the idea without getting into the actual, unglamorous operational details needed for execution in a challenging environment. Most proposals then, don't aim for a high counterfactual convening idea. The purpose gets mistaken as themes ("aligning stakeholders," "building a shared vision", etc.) rather than specific output, such as a product/program to carry things forward, a research agenda, concrete commitments from influential stakeholders, and so on.

Where does this leave us:

1. Operational excellence is the bottleneck, not ideas, and it is often treated as beneath the ideas.
2. Curation is a critical skill. In a sensitive domain at a sensitive time, where sensitive topics are being discussed (or simply topics that are new to most), it is the skill that prevents any negative effects from spreading beyond the room.

More to come in this series over the coming months!