Find out ways you can Participate in our Programs! While time spent providing input or advice through the World Building Council is voluntary, all other program participation is compensated.
In preparation for our inaugural, 2-year, Inspiration to Distribution arc, WBI is bringing together Thought Leaders, Creatives, Luminaries, Community Members, and Decision Makers from the narrative arts & entertainment industries.
Transition from despair to hopeful visioning
Learn informed solutions
Create solutions-inspired stories
Support stories from inspiration to mass distribution
Provide a hub for audience learning & action
In the autumn of 2023, we will build the Wheel of Possibilities and select the first cadre of story creation Teams. The Teams will gather in the spring of 2024 to begin their projects; new cadres will be added every spring thereafter. World-changing, solutions-inspired movies, tv, books, plays, and video games will then be released every year starting in 2025!
Using our 6 Program Building Blocks, WBI will support stories from inspiration to distribution over a two-year arc: the story creation year and the production/publication year. If you would like to learn more about our detailed program plans and timeline, please contact us!
At the heart of the arc is the World Building Council coalition. Council members provide the expertise and networks needed to ensure that these world-changing stories are engaging, excellent, and widely seen as quickly as possible. Coalition members have voluntary, no-obligation opportunities to nominate story creation Team members, participate in the Team selection process, and/or to participate in the programs themselves.
Full continuum, 3-member Teams are designed to ensure a project can move smoothly from inspiration to distribution. Teams can create in any genre and narrative medium, such as: TV, Books, Film, Theater, Video Games, Interactive Stories, etc. The members of each Team will vary by medium, but are most commonly: 1 writer, 1 collaborator, and 1 decision maker. As an example, a literary team might have a novelist, an agent, and a buying editor or publisher. Team members can be existing collaborators or brought together purely for this project. A cadre of 5-7 Teams will be chosen for every 2-year arc, and a new cadre will be added every year.
Once Teams have been chosen, the Wheel of Possibilities will serve as a first point of inspiration about solutions for global issues, impacts on daily life, and interconnections between issues. The Wheel will be available to the public and can be used for a cursory glance or a deep dive. Team members will begin their arc with the Wheel of Possibilities to find topics they want to explore for their project. WBI will then invite Thought Leaders connected to their topic of interest to speak at the Visioning Retreat.
The one-year story creation arc begins with a 3-day Visioning Retreat. Partners provide trainings, Thought Leaders share information and answer questions, and Teams create a short project treatment. Teams then have a full year and commission to create their stories. The year includes brief, monthly, online chats with WBI to check in on any resources the individual Teams may need (such as actors, more time with Thought Leaders, or space for gathering with collaborators), and quarterly online writers’ group meetings with all Teams to share progress and get feedback.
At the end of the story creation year, we transition to the production/publication year with a 3-day Pitch Retreat. Teams gather in person, share their projects, and get feedback from the other Teams. The retreat culminates with pitches, demos, and readings for industry professionals and funders. After the Pitch Retreat, the Teams move into production or publication with the expectation that the project will be published or produced within 1 year. During this second year, WBI provides supports tailored to each medium’s needs, such as actors, readers, beta testers, fundraising assistance, or more time with Thought Leaders.
As each project nears distribution, WBI will create a section of our online Resource Hub tied to that project and the solution(s) shown in the story. This may include: options for individual/group actions to achieve implementation of the solution(s), reading guides, lesson plans, sources of additional information, organizations to join/support, or affinity groups.
Thank you for your interest; we would love to talk with you! WBI strongly believes in compensating people for their time, expertise, and creativity. While time spent providing input or advice through the World Building Council is voluntary, all other program participation is compensated.
See below for ways you can participate!
As we launch the Beta Phase of our organization, we will be building the Wheel of Possibilities — an interactive, narrative tool that details attainable and aspirational solutions for global issues. Thought Leaders will be funded to provide information in their areas of expertise for the Wheel and all other project participation. Please contact us if you’re interested in: participating in the building of the Wheel of Possibilities, attending retreats to talk with project teams, helping with follow-up information as teams create their projects, and/or providing information for the Resource Hub.
Please join the Coalition or fill out this contact form for more information!
If you’re involved in the creation of Books, Plays, Movies, Television, Video Games, Interactive Stories, or Graphic Novels, we would love to talk with you about our detailed program plans, get your input, and discuss if you or someone you know would like to participate.
Please join the Coalition or fill out this contact form for more information!
With the exception of our awesome Wheel of Possibilities, we have no interest in reinventing the wheel! We’re bringing together great nonprofits and community organizations to partner in this work. Are you doing similar work focused on a specific issue area? Do you have a fun way to inspire writers? Are you an expert in helping people move from despair to visioning? Is there something else we’re doing that fits your expertise? We would love to talk with you about joining this effort.
Please join the Coalition or fill out this contact form for more information!
You can make a world of difference by adding your name!
World Builders Institute (WBI) is centered around a large, multi-sector, volunteer Coalition: the World Building Council.
Coalition members don’t have any legal responsibility for the organization, and there are no meetings. We only ask that members endorse this work by allowing us to publicly include their name as part of the coalition. Members also have the option to provide input, and/or receive funding to participate in our programs.
