We Follow Rivers: The Path from the Summit

As we close the Pinecone Leadership Summit 2025, we cherish moments of connection, friendship, and a felt sense of hope that continues to ripple outward. Fourty leaders gathered in the mountains at Voss Mountain Lodge to listen to the waters and set wholesome intentions for the year to come—embracing "The Soft Power of Water" as our guiding theme throughout this transformative journey.

A Return to the Heart of Nature

This is not your average leadership programme; this is a return to the beating heart of nature. A return to reciprocity and a deeper relationship to the currents of life itself. We tuned into our Value Compass, offered our limiting beliefs to the fire, and opened space for breath to flow freely in our inner and outer surroundings.

We immersed ourselves in the language of rivers—listening to flows, understanding currents and energy in motion, learning from water's patient persistence that shapes even the hardest stone.

We shared meals made by Roots & Culture, rose together at dawn, embraced our shadows under the light of the lunar eclipse, and deepened our relationship to nature's cycles while beginning to tune into our bodies as a whole.

And most importantly, we practiced together - acknowledging that the journey towards deep-rooted systems change will unfold completely differently for each of us, and thus - honouring each others courage and perseverance as warriors on the path.

Water as Teacher

When we view water as teacher rather than commodity to be extracted from and used, we begin to understand true leadership: flowing around obstacles, nurturing all it touches, and connecting communities across time and space. These insights emerged as we shared stories by the fire, allowing both tears and laughter to be felt, making space for new questions to arise.

Our Summit culminated in a Water Ritual, blending waters from our homelands and springs across Europe and even the Himalayas! Each drop carried the wisdom of 9 generations past and hopes for 9 generations ahead—honoring the sacred numerology of Norse tradition where 9 represents completion and transformation.

Connecting Leadership with Legacy

Through this gathering, we raised 10,000 NOK for Vannets Fremtid and their pioneering work to secure legal rights for Akerselva, Oslo's lifeblood river. This cause has become the North of our Value Compass. Like New Zealand's Whanganui River which gained personhood in 2017, Colombia's Atrato River recognized as having rights to "protection, conservation, maintenance and restoration," Ecuador's Vilcabamba River, and India's Ganges and Yamuna Rivers—Akerselva deserves recognition as a living entity that sustains our wider village of Oslo.

By protecting our waters today, we aim to understand the connection between leadership practice and environmental regeneration, inspire businesses to follow by example, and bring about a crystal clear future for generations to come.

Joining Our Next Journey

There's a lot more to be said, but we'll keep the stories to ourselves for now so that they can burst into flowering in the right moments and conversations. Thank you to everyone who made this possible, to guests from near and far, and to the team for channeling forth the flow.

If you are interested in joining our next journey, sign up to the mailing list on www.pinecone.as or contact us directly.