Honestly, the future never felt this good!

This group was uninhibited enough to talk about the stress and strain of facing up to the climate and nature crisis on a daily basis, or producing ethically in a marketplace on a race to the bottom, but empowered enough to face up to that. In fact, the theme of the night could well have been honesty. There were no secrets here and no shame. Livia Firth, wearing a 1970s dress of her mother’s (who was sadly not in attendance though would have loved it), introduced the conversation explaining how she had learned to check her own complacency and assumptions. It is not every evening you sit next to someone you just met and do breath work, but a guided exercise by Oge Egbuonu felt natural and completely convivial. Can we start every dinner this way?

 We were supposed to move tables now and again in a flow of networking, but in practice conversations were so absorbing that many finished the evening in the same chair they began. I was one of the static diners. I was all ready to move when my table was joined by the jeweller and entrepreneur, Shilpa Yarlagadda who tells a beguiling tale of beginning her brand in her college dorm room. We were all bewitched. I assumed her late arrival was down to the fact she had been at another event (some attendees came straight from the Time 100 Women red carpet) but she had been working non stop, pulling crazy hours to make sure the beautiful GCFA brooches were ready for honorees the following night. Like a magician, she opened up her hand to give us an exclusive look at the dandelion brooch award, and exquisite detailed silver representation of the plant’s flower, with an ethical diamond from the Lucara mine in Botswana in the centre.

 The air crackled with stories and personalities. 1 Hotel’s executive chef, Ginger Pierce sent out delicious plant based dish after dish to the long wooden tables. Then Shirley Krenak, from the Krenak Nation, made her way to the centre. Without amplification, and through her interpreter she spoke of the ancestral forests she has dedicated her life to try and protect. She told us clearly about our interconnectedness and she gave us clear instruction to follow the lead of indigenous women activists, because they must lead the revolution to earth first policies and action. It was a supremely powerful and authentic intervention that defined our collective purpose and our potential.

 In other company I might have doubted that humanity was up to the job. But here, among these young leaders, it felt like anything was possible.

I’m going to finish by borrowing a couple of motifs from the 1960s, perhaps the last time that collective action and culture had this charge. This is the age of the dawning of the activist (rather than Aquarius). In a period when brands with real coherent sustainability strategies are moving from the rent-a-smile influencer, activists are rightly being asked to deliver authentic messages. But they need all of our support and guidance. In essence we need to throw a protective ring around them so that they can feel supported and able to test their ideas and strategies among people who are about them and believe in their work. That was what we did during this evening. I hope my explanation is doing it justice. After all it had a mood and flow that is hard to describe. Again back to the 1960s, ‘To understand Woodstock was impossible if you weren't there’. This probably had a similar undefinable quality, but at the same time we should recreate it whenever possible. Next time make sure you’re on the invite list.

Written by Lucy Siegle