Let the Gifting Begin: Apply Now for OHM Gathering 2025
Join us 28–30 November for a radical experiment in community co-creation. This is your go-to guide on what to expect, who’s involved, and how to participate.
🎉 Save the date
It’s official — OHM Gathering 2025 is locked in for the end of November at a magical site on Kombumerri Country, Gold Coast hinterland.
🗓 28–30 November, 2025
📍 Natural Bridge, Gold Coast QLD (Kombumerri Country)
OHM Gatherings are living experiments in gifting, gratitude, and collective decision-making. Offer what you’d love to give, vote for what you value most, and earn your place in a weekend where every contribution counts. Read on to see how it all works — and why it matters.
🌱 A Gathering Grown from Gifts
This November, we’ll return to the lush site that hosted our 2021 pilot — complete with a spring-fed swimming hole, creekside hot tub, and stunning mountain views — to create something truly special: an event grown entirely from gifts, gratitude, and collective governance.
For three days, we’ll co-create a space where art, science, culture, and care flow freely. Every element you experience — from the stage lights to the food in your bowl — will come from the gifts we bring to each other. No tickets. No spectators. Just a shared commitment to co-creating something extraordinary.
Behind the scenes, we’ve been building the tools to bring this vision to life. After years of refining our model in spreadsheets, we now have a working app that opens the process to everyone.
For the first time, everyone will have the chance to offer their gifts, vote for what they value, and co-design the gathering — together.
OHM Gathering 2025 isn’t just another event — it’s our first full-scale test of the Wisdom system, and the moment we bring a gratitude-powered gift economy to life.
⛰️ Our Site
We’ll gather once again in Natural Bridge — flat camping space for 150 people, a spring-fed swimming hole, and a wood-fired hot tub for soaking under the stars. The site includes a communal kitchen, covered prep area, pizza oven, drinking water, and compost toilets — a comfortable base for three days of collective creation.
💡 What’s in Motion
Over the past month we’ve hosted our first two planning meetings, where several community members have stepped into key operational roles:
Laura — participants, site art, and more.
Mathew — project planning.
Shae — marketing.
Mel — kids’ space for play and creativity.
Damien & AJ — managing the music space.
Cooper — applications, reviews, and data analysis.
Sam — Wisdom prototype app.
We’ve begun shaping a collective vision for the gathering, including:
An effigy burn for ritual connection and release.
Shared meals, with at least two catered meals on Saturday.
Covered spaces for music, presentations, skillshares, lightning talks, performances, panels, and more.
A drug and alcohol policy to make this our most family-friendly gathering yet.
Our collective dreaming has just begun, and many key elements — from infrastructure to activities — will need multiple contributions to come alive. Your ideas, energy, resources, and skills can help shape what we create together.
🎁 What to Offer
We invite you to offer what’s in your heart — anything you believe the community will value.
There’s no single theme at OHM — diversity is our theme. Past gatherings have included art, music, science, wellbeing, ceremony, culture, and more (see snapshots from 2021, 2022 and 2023).
You’re welcome (and encouraged!) to submit multiple offerings — for example, a workshop, a kitchen shift, and a financial contribution. Each offering is reviewed independently, and your invite is based on the combined value of everything you contribute.
Need inspiration? Here are real examples from OHM 2023 (click the links to see the full list):
👐 Support Roles – Welcome tent, kitchen, build & packdown, stage, safety, décor.
👷 Lead roles – Production, comms, application & review, data science, space curation, site ops, media, kitchen, waste, and more.
🎶 Performances & Ceremony – Live acts, DJs, immersive art, and group rituals.
🧠 Talks & Workshops – Knowledge-sharing, wellbeing, creativity, and more.
⛺ Equipment & Infrastructure – Lighting, staging, shelter, tools, and other loaned items.
🥗 Food & Supplies – Cooked meals, ingredients, firewood, and donated items.
💸 Financial Contributions – To cover site rental, insurance, and other shared costs.
All offerings go through the same transparent review process, so whether you donate funds, give a talk, or build something epic — every contribution is valued through the same lens.
⏭️ Application Processing
The entire community is invited to review offerings, beginning with a Wisdom Workshop each Monday night. We’ll share full details on the review and selection process in our next post — but here’s the outline:
Everyone can review by doing simple pairwise comparisons.
Reviewers earn credit too — you can even earn your invite this way.
Results are shared at fortnightly planning meetings.
Invites are issued to applicants who offer sufficient value across all their offerings.
The selection threshold reflects our collective needs and rises over time — like “early bird” tickets, but where any kind of contribution can earn you a place.
Applicants who miss the mark can top up their offerings in the next round.
Some categories (e.g. performances, workshops, lead roles) are in limited supply and will close once filled — so get in early if you have something special in mind.
🌏 Why This Matters
OHM Gathering isn’t just a weekend escape — it’s a living experiment in how communities can self-organise, value contributions, and co-create extraordinary experiences.
By using Wisdom to guide invitations, we’re curating the gathering and prototyping a new model of gifting, gratitude, and participatory governance for adoption by other communities. Every offering and review adds to a commons of open data and collective knowledge.
The ripple effects may extend well beyond the event: connections, skills, and collaborations that grow into future gatherings and projects. We’re growing a gratitude-powered gifting network from the ground up — stay tuned for more details in coming weeks.
🙋 Keen to Join?
Applications are open! Places are limited (150 adults), and offerings will be reviewed fortnightly until spots are filled — so get in early for your best chance to participate:
🤲 Submit your offerings in the OHM Gathering portal
✅ Join the Facebook Event to receive updates and invite your friends
📝 Application Tips
Your offering may be reviewed by anyone in the community — so make sure it’s:
Clear – Use simple language anyone can understand
Separate – Submit each offering on its own (e.g. a workshop, a kitchen shift, a loaned tent)
Complete – Include everything someone would need to fairly assess your offer
Each offering has a single description field — so tailor it according to the type:
👷 Lead Roles – What will you take responsibility for? How much support do you need?
👐 Support Roles – How many hours are you offering? Any relevant experience? Any needs or limits?
🎶 Performances, Workshops, Ceremonies – Duration, experience, and any setup or tech needs
⛺ Equipment & Infrastructure – Will you install/deliver it? Do you need help?
🥗 Food & Supplies – What are you offering to donate, and how much? What equipment or other support do you need?
💸 Financial Contributions – Just list the amount. For context: the average cost per person is around $115 — calculated across everyone, including those receiving a free pass for major contributions (e.g. infrastructure, lead roles, feature acts). If you’re only offering money, consider contributing more to help balance the gift economy.
🙋 Need a Hand?
We aim to be inclusive to all, and believe everyone has something valuable to offer. If you need help submitting an application, understanding the process, or crafting an offering — reach out to our friendly applications team and let us know how we can help.
💝 Want to Get Involved?
We’d love to connect and learn what drives you! Here’s a few ways to get involved:
🗓️ Planning Meetings (online, fortnightly on Wednesdays) — ask questions, share ideas, and help steer the gathering.
🗓️ Wisdom Workshops (online, every Monday night) — ask questions, review offerings, and earn credit toward your own invite.
🍲 cOHMunity Potluck Dinners — connect over shared food and casual conversations.
(see our Calendar for all upcoming events)
Let’s grow something OHM-azing — together. 🌱
Love and OHMs,
Cooper and the cOHMunity ❤️
Open Heart + Mind (OHM) is an Australian charity advancing art, culture and education by prototyping new ways for communities to care, collaborate and coordinate.
🌐 Learn more at openheartmind.org
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