September 8 2025 Agenda

Day one of the 2025 Global Gathering Agenda | Next Day >

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Join us for good food and music

12:00 to 13:00

Global Gathering Meet and Greet Brunch

Complimentary brunch bites, networking, and opening remarks. Join us for good food, music, and make connections!

	Self-Organized Socials
	Arrange or check out the list of Self-Organized Socials taking place off-site (but close by) locations, ranging from meetups to numerous activities. https://pad.riseup.net/p/GGSocials
	A Sample of Today's Socials:

	Circles and Villages You can find detailed Circle descriptions the end of this page. You can also organize your own self-organized Circle or Booth in the empty spaces (marked SOC TBD) by following these instructions.
Circles, September 8
Location	13:30 - 14:30	15:00 - 16:00	16:30 - 17:30
Circle 1		Digital Rights X Climate Justice: Meet Up!	Digital rights in Portugal: Where do we go from here?
Circle 2
Circle 3	Africa Meetup	Security Practioners Meetup	AI Accountability in Practice: Centering Community Voices
Circle 4	Western Europe Meetup	Gathering the Gatherers	Tackling Misinformation Through Open Tools and Civic Literacy
Circle 5	Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus (EECAC) Meetup	Policy Advocates Meetup	Bridging Borders: Building Resilience Against Cross-Border Cyber Threats
Circle 6		Journalism Meetup	Remote Team Cohesion Best Practices
Villages, September 8
Location	13:30 - 14:30	15:00 - 16:00	16:30 - 17:30
Regional Topics A	Latin America Meetup
Regional Topics B	Asia Meetup
Name to Come	Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus (EECAC) Meetup
Digital Rights Sustainability Village		Imaginaries Futures (Part 1)	Brainstorm on Alternative Funding Models (part 1)
SWANA Cafe	SWANA Meetup
APC Village
Calyx Village	North America Meetup	Researchers Meetup	ED Meetup
Circumvention Tech Village		Technologist Meetup	Update on Censorship Circumvention Methods at Tor
Open Measurement Village
Queer Rights Village

	Booths Each booth has a number, which can be found on top, center above a booth's "window". You can find detailed Booths & Villages descriptions at the bottom of this page.
Booths, September 8
	13:00 - 15:00			15:30 - 17:30
Location	Name	Run by		Name	Run by
Booth 4a
Booth 4b
Booth 5
Booth 6
Booth 7
Booth 8
Booth 9
Booth 10
Booth 11
Booth 12
Booth 13
Booth 14
Booth 15
Booth 16
Booth 17
Booth 18
Booth 19
Booth 21
Booth 22
Booth 78
Booth 79
Booth 80
Booth 81
Booth 82

	Global Gathering After Hours
18:00 - 21:00	Join us for music and socializing in our beautiful venue.

Partners

Thank you to all of the partners and sponsors that have made the 2025 Global Gathering possible!

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Circle Descriptions

Circle Title	Circle Description
Africa Meetup	Connect with individuals and organizations actively working in the African region. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn from diverse African projects, gain valuable insights, and expand your professional network. This meetup is designed to foster meaningful connections and enrich the Africa digital rights community.
AI Accountability in Practice: Centering Community Voices	Understanding and evaluating AI systems and their downstream societal impact is rarely grounded in and/or takes account of experiences, perspectives, and concerns of impacted communities or advocacy and rights groups. This circle would be a collaborative space with advocacy experts and civil and digital rights activists to exchange ideas and practices around accountability and harm reduction in digital systems for their communities. Our aim is to learn from the techniques and strategies used in advocacy work to contest and hold tech systems to account and protect affected communities.
Asia Meetup	Connect with individuals and organizations actively working in the Asia region. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn from diverse Asian projects, gain valuable insights, and expand your professional network. This meetup is designed to foster meaningful connections and enrich the Asian digital rights community.
Bridging Borders: Building Resilience Against Cross-Border Cyber Threats	In recent years, coordinated cybercriminal groups have exploited regional vulnerabilities, such as weak intergovernmental cybersecurity policies and inconsistent threat monitoring, to launch sophisticated, multi-jurisdictional attacks. Cross-border cyberattacks, from ransomware campaigns to state-sponsored espionage, are increasingly targeting critical systems, institutions, and civil society organizations (CSOs) globally. Cross-border alliances can enable real-time intelligence sharing, coordinated incident response, and optimistically, harmonised cybersecurity frameworks, ensuring that cyber defenses remain as interconnected as the threats they face. This session brings together security practitioners to discuss how cross-border cyberattacks and data breaches impact CSOs and explore the potential of regional alliances to bolster regional resilience.
Brainstorm on Alternative Funding Models (part 1)	This is part 1 of a three part circle series. As the digital rights field faces a historic funding crisis, many of us are asking: What now? We all are looking for alternative funding, but how do we organize for that? How do we prepare our organization to become more agile on fundraising? What options of alternative funding exist—from reimagined grantmaking models to untapped donors, ethical partnerships, and community-powered support. Together, we’ll surface bold ideas, share examples from adjacent movements, and identify who might be ready to fund this work—even if they haven’t yet. This session is about expanding our collective imagination and beginning to chart a path toward financial resilience rooted in solidarity, innovation, and justice.
Digital Rights in Portugal: Where do We go from Here?	This circle is a precious opportunity to touch base and network among all Portugal-based activists, share updates regarding our collective agendas, and start conversations about our priorities in the near future.
Digital Rights X Climate Justice: Meet Up!	What's happening in the digital rights and climate justice space(s)? Who is doing what, and how can we better collaborate in the future? In this meet up, we'll connect and highlight initiatives at the intersection of digital rights and climate justice, look at what has happened globally, and where we want to go from here. It's a space for networking, celebrating the wins, exchanging ideas for what could happen next and deciding how to better collaborate across continents and movements.||We welcome all those working on digital climate justice issues, including but not limited to those working on combating climate disinformation, sustainable digital infrastructure and tech, protecting climate and digital rights experts and migration rights issues due to climate change.
ED Meetup	Connect with other EDs managing organizations in the digital rights field. This is a fantastic opportunity to foster meaningful connections, share your concerns and seek support, and expand your professional network.
Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus Meetup (EECC) Meetup	Connect with individuals and organizations actively working in the EECCA region. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn from diverse EECCA projects, gain valuable insights, and expand your professional network. This meetup is designed to foster meaningful connections and enrich the EECCA digital rights community.
Gathering the Gatherers	This Circle is for those who play facilitation roles in their communities and movements -- community organisers, trainers, facilitators, people who often themselves being asked to hold space for others, to negotiate conflict in their groups. In this Circle, we will share experiences, discuss challenges we face, and ways we are adapting to accommodate the ever-changing realities of our communities and movements. And hopefully, find meaningful ways we can sustain and support each other.
Imaginaries Futures (Part 1)	This is part 1 of a two part series. Imaginaries Futures explores how the current financial system shapes both possibilities and limitations for funding in the digital rights space. Through guided collective inquiry and speculative ideation, participants will examine structural barriers, map dependencies, and reflect on the governance of financial flows. Rather than offering ready-made solutions, the session creates space for imagining new funding architectures grounded in solidarity, care, and resistance that could support more just and resilient futures. This is an exploratory phase for developing a shared language, identifying questions, and exploring potential directions for building alternative financial realities.
Journalism Meetup	Connect with other journalists and media professionals in the digital rights field. This is a fantastic opportunity to foster meaningful connections, share your concerns and seek support, and expand your professional network.
Latin America Meetup	Connect with individuals and organizations actively working in the Latin America region. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn from diverse Latin American projects, gain valuable insights, and expand your professional network. This meetup is designed to foster meaningful connections and enrich the Latin America digital rights community.
North America Meetup	Connect with individuals and organizations actively working in the North American region. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn from diverse North American projects, gain valuable insights, and expand your professional network. This meetup is designed to foster meaningful connections and enrich the North American digital rights community.
Policy Advocates Meetup	Join this meetup tailored specifically for individuals working at the intersection of digital rights and policy. This event offers a unique opportunity to connect with fellow experts and advocates dedicated to shaping the future of digital rights and internet governance. Learn from real-world experiences and policy initiatives related to the impact of technology on human rights.
Remote Team Cohesion Best Practices	We will surface the challenges we face in working in a remote team, and then also discuss what's worked in facing those challenges before working together to compile a best practices list for participants to utilise in the future.
Researchers Meetup	Connect with fellow researchers at this circle meetup designed specifically for those investigating topics and subjects in digital rights, internet freedom, security and technology. This space offers a space to share insights, discuss recent findings, and explore emerging trends in the field. Whether you're a seasoned researcher or new to the field, this meetup provides a supportive environment to enhance your work and impact.
Security Practioners Meetup	This practioner meetup brings together security workers. Whether you are a cybersecurity professional conducting audits, or a digital security trainer, this is a great opportunity to meet security enthusiasts from around the world, and get updated  on new trends and issues in the field, while sharing your knowledge.
SWANA Meetup	Connect with individuals and organizations actively working in the SWANA region. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn from diverse SWANA projects, gain valuable insights, and expand your professional network. This meetup is designed to foster meaningful connections and enrich the SWANA digital rights community.
Tackling Misinformation Through Open Tools and Civic Literacy	Explore how open source tools can empower communities to combat misinformation, deepen media literacy, and foster civic collaboration. Together, we’ll + Share open-source applications that identify message similarity, detect false content, and support real-time response coordination across regions. +Analyze how different media outlets present information, and build practical skills in fact-checking and critical reading—especially in the context of emerging platforms. + Explore strategies for civic engagement using cooperative platforms that support collaborative image and text analysis, inviting participants to practice co-creating knowledge with strangers. This session is for technologists, activists, educators, and everyday citizens who believe in the power of transparency, critical thinking, and collaboration in defending truth.
Technologist Meetup	Join the Technologists Circle meetup, tailored for individuals at the forefront of technology and digital rights. This is an excellent opportunity to engage with technology leaders, developers, and tech enthusiasts who are shaping the future of digital infrastructure with cutting-edge solutions. Whether you’re looking to share your expertise or learn from others, this meetup is a hub for advancing tech-driven solutions in the realm of digital rights.
Update on Censorship Circumvention Methods at Tor	Tor Project will share about how our circumvention tools are performing and the latest updates on censorship trends we are seeing around the world in countries like China and Russia. Our goal with this session is to have a conversation with the community regarding these latest events we are seeing to discuss how we can work together to continue to fight censorship online
Western Europe Meetup	Connect with individuals and organizations actively working in the Western European region. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn from diverse Western European projects, gain valuable insights, and expand your professional network. This meetup is designed to foster meaningful connections and enrich the Western European digital rights community.

Booth & Village Descriptions

Village	Run by	Village Description