Participant Expectations
The Spirit of Asilomar is a summit where differing opinions are a source of productivity, strength, and collaboration. The summit welcomes and supports participants of all backgrounds, identities, and opinions. By attending participants agree to act in good faith to maintain an environment of open dialogue and collective work.
We expect all participants to work hard for the greater good. As a working summit we are seeking to make significant progress during our limited time together in person. We ask for everyone’s kindness, patience, and respect throughout presentations, discussions, working sessions, meals, and beyond.
We greatly value members of the press who are observing, participating, or reporting on the summit. All press must be registered with the summit organizers. We expect participating journalists who choose to report on the summit will identify themselves as such and will not record or film others without first seeking and obtaining permission. We encourage journalists to take advantage of the participatory and reflective aspects of the summit, and – as in 1975 – to consider not reporting on the summit until after its conclusion.
For all participants, any individual working discussion can be declared as “off the record” by agreement of the participants in that specific discussion; even during otherwise open discussions, individuals or specific comments offered by individuals can be noted as “off the record.”
The summit’s working discussions themselves and plenaries are only accessible to registered participants. However, because the Asilomar campus is open to the public, others may be nearby. Also, in a spirit of openness, we are collaborating with the California State Parks system to offer public programming during limited parts of the summit. Specifically, the Sunday “historical perspectives” event is open to the public, as well as the artistic and historical installations in Grace Chapel outside of plenary sessions. Members of the public, in small groups, may also be invited to join walking tours of the campus led by Asilomar rangers during the summit; these groups may stand outside workshop rooms while a discussion is in progress to learn for a few minutes from next-generation leaders about the important issues being considered.
We know the summit will be an improbable assembly of diverse and powerful voices and actors. We hope the summit will create vibrant and sustaining communities of practice who can sculpt, shape, and renew the future of biotechnology in new and better ways having been connected here.
If something is not right please let the organizers know via spiritofasilomar@sciencehistory.org or by contacting one of the summit staff in person.