​In Ayutthaya (ancient capital of Thailand) following the APFN gathering in Bangkok - Pre-retreat activities in Bangkok 5 September in partnership with SEAPunk

​WHY · TO BE RE-SOURCED

​From poly-crisis to poly-opportunity

​The world keeps handing us terms like poly-crisis and meta-crisis. But what if we could meet it as poly-opportunity or meta-opportunity? Foresight work is demanding. It takes a lot from us. This is time set aside with peers, friends and colleagues to be re-sourced, i.e., to gather sustenance, reframe what feels daunting, and leave energised and empowered. How do we sustain ourselves even as the world hands us challenge after challenge. How do we frame crisis into opportunity? Everyone arrives holding a piece of the puzzle. None of us yet knows the whole picture. We assemble it together.

​HOW · THE POWER OF WU WEI

​Creating the conditions, not controlling the outcome

​We will create the conditions for something to emerge through conversation, stillness, movement, reflection, intuition, embodiment and co-creation. The retreat will draw on the principle of wu wei: creating the conditions for something to emerge without forcing or over-directing the outcome. Each person brings something different into the space, while remaining open to what takes shape collectively. There will be enough structure to create safety and intention—and enough spaciousness to allow insight, connection and surprise to arise naturally. Rather than forcing productivity, we will trust the process by allowing insights, relationships and collective intelligence to arise organically. The aim is not necessarily to produce something together, but to experience co-creation as a form of collective resourcing.

​WHAT · A GATHERING SHAPED BY WHO IS IN THE ROOM

​Harvest, open space, stillness, weaving

​A small, post-APFN convergence of fellow travellers in participatory futures. We begin by harvesting the conference — what really stood out, where you're sensing seeds of the future — then move through shared meals, open space, stillness and weaving. Deliberately flexible…the shape emerges from those who show up.

​WHO · FELLOW TRAVELLERS

​A small circle of peers

​For fellow travellers in participatory futures who feel the weight of the world and the work, and who want to set it down for a while, among peers — foresight facilitators and educators, capacity builders and futures consultants, and the community healers, artists and peacebuilders who share this space. Come if you were at APFN, or arrived in its orbit. Invitation-only, and deliberately small: a circle of 10–15.

​WHERE · DEEP TIME IN THE OLD CAPITAL CITY

​Ayutthaya — deepening time in ancient Thailand

​The setting matters. Moving from the intensity of the conference into the sensory and temporal landscape of Ayutthaya gives us an opportunity to experience futures differently—not only intellectually, but through sights, sounds, smells, place and relationship. Within the old city, we can step into deeper time, encountering layers of history, culture and continuity while reflecting on futures yet to emerge. The journey itself becomes part of the retreat, creating distance from the conference environment and opening space for a different rhythm of attention. (See below for details on costs/logistics)

​Flow of Activities

​5 September (Saturday)

​Participate in SEAPunk activities (see description below) | Group dinner in Bangkok | Informal transition from conference to retreat mode

​6 September – Attunement & Affective Foresight

​Travel by train to Ayutthaya (1–2 hours depending on train). Departure mid-morning | Lunch, arrival circle, setting intentions and shared agreements | Signals, Surprises & Seeds: reflecting on what we heard, felt and sensed during APFN | Embodied and affective sensing: attending to intuition, emotion, bodily knowing and what the future feels like rather than only what we think about it | Riverboat cruise to historical sites — entering deeper time through place, history and embodied experience | Space for stories, witnessing and emergent conversation | Group dinner (Optional prompts around what brought us to this work, what sustains us, and what we are moving toward)

​7 September – Descend & Deepening

​Breakfast on your own | Gentle check-in: What arrived overnight? Reflections, questions, dreams or shifts in perspective | Ongoing collective re-sourcing, sensing and co-creation | Participant-led conversations, small circles or emergent sessions following the energy and interests of the group | Space to explore "the futures we carry" — personal questions, stories, projects or tensions participants are holding | Lunch followed by meditative/silent walks and rhythms of non-doing | Time for rest, reflection, journaling or informal conversation | Re-gathering: What seems to be emerging among us? | Group dinner

​8 September – Weaving and Closing

​Breakfast on your own | Morning check-in and collective sensing | Weaving the narrative: What have we heard, felt and experienced across the retreat? | Finding patterns, connections and collective insight without forcing consensus | Exploring poly-opportunity/meta-opportunity: what possibilities become visible when we reframe the challenges we face? | What wants to travel forward? Emerging relationships, questions, collaborations, experiments or intentions | Group lunch, weaving the narrative and finding collective insight | Individual closing reflection: What am I leaving with? What has been re-sourced, reframed or realigned? | Return to Bangkok via early afternoon train

​NB: The exact agenda and activities will be determined by the group, the venue will depend on the weather.

​Accommodations and Venues

​Accommodations are arranged by participants but communal gatherings will centre around Sala Ayutthaya, a riverside hotel with a café and dock for river cruises on the Chao Phraya River. Public venues throughout the city will be used for other activities. These could be parks, open air cafes, historical sites, river cruises, etc. The hotel has a large indoor bar area/seating if the weather is not conducive for outdoor meetings.

​Recommended Accommodations:

​1) Sala Ayutthaya (~USD165 per night)

​2) Baan Veanglhek Residence (~USD90 per night)

​3) Athithara Homestay (~USD39 to 100 per night)

​4) Nicha at Ayutthaya (~USD48 to 65 per night)

​5) Baan Keang Chon Ayutthaya (~USD39 per night)

​These hotels are all walking distance from Sala Ayutthaya and selected for a range of budget options. Ayutthaya has many other options.

​Costs (all in $USD)

​The retreat has no formal cost, other than personal expenses related to accommodation, train fare, meals, and other incidentals. The train is approximately $3 to $15 one-way (depending on class). Meals/drinks will likely range from $15 to $35 per day. Local transportation and the river cruise would be an extra (~$20). Entrance fees for historical sites (wats, temples, and stupas) is no more than $3 per site. For more information, contact steven@realconsultinggroup.com

​5 September – RIVERBANKS PLAYSHOP

​A Climate-Fiction Ecoarchic-Institution Design Jam about imaginary Banks, owned by Rivers

​SEP 5 (SAT) 10AM-5PM BANGKOK (with rumours of riverboat afterparty)

​Hosted by Seapunk Studios

​Seapunk Studios is hosting a daylong RIVERBANKS PLAYSHOP on Sep 5, the day just after APFN, in Bangkok, and you are all invited.

​RIVERBANKS is a climate fiction initiative (in conjunction with Bangkok Climate Action Week 2026) exploring the idea of ecoarchic, or nature-first, institutions, where nature is not just a resource or a stakeholder, but the boss. The RIVERBANKS PLAYSHOP will be a one day (10am-5pm) imagination jam where we will playfully, imaginatively, but also nearfiction-rigorously explore speculative institution designs for banks in service of rivers. Part speculative institutional futures, part theater workshop, part fiction worldbuilding, and part more-than-human inhabitation-imagination, the day will be a chance to co-imagine, populate, enliven, and inhabit a world our rivers would want — and the banks they might employ and deploy to enact it.

​Details will be released in mid-August. For now, please save the date, and feel free to follow Seapunk for updates via Substack (seapunk.substack.com) or Telegram (t.me/seapunks).