Nomad Summit 2020 Review
This past weekend in Chiang Mai, Thailand, was the 8th Nomad Summit: a conference for digital nomads, by digital nomads.
I taught a writing workshop on Monday and attended all the events of the weekend, and if you know anything about me, you won’t be surprised to know that I took prolific notes & am sharing them here with you :)
I also went to the 2017 Nomad Summit in Chiang Mai, which was their 3rd event. Johnny (the organizer) clearly cares a lot about this conference, and I’ve been impressed both times by his dedication to the community & his thoughtfulness overall.
High-Level Review
On the whole, I was impressed by the summit and felt like I got a lot of value from the weekend, even as a well-established digital nomad.
Venue
All of the official events were hosted at the Shangri La, a nice 5 star hotel with all the conference amenities, which made it easy for attendees not to have to find new locations.
I’m staying in the Nimman area for the month, and it was about 90 THB ($3 USD) by car and took about 20 minutes each way.
Event
7 speakers gave presentations on Saturday, the main conference day, and there were 8 workshops on Monday (30–40 attendees each, separate tickets).
For all attendees, there was an afterparty on Saturday night, and Sunday had a speed networking event, speaker panel, and pool party in the afternoon.
(Side note: that slide was so fun and it has been forever since I played like a little kid in a pool.)
Of course, not everything was directly relevant to what I currently do, but I learned something valuable from each presentation & workshop.
I am a firm believer that having a bit more information & better insight can yield beneficial results even if it’s not your area of expertise or focus.
A few of the main takeaways I got from the weekend:
- Even if it seems like people were quickly successful, everyone invested years into learning skills & finding niche / business
- Hard work, research, organization, and clear processes pay off
- High ROI still requires smart investment of time & money
- Saving (and investing) money is critically important
Results
I really enjoyed getting to learn so much all weekend & make note of how I wanted to apply certain takeaways to my upcoming projects.
Plus, a bunch of books to add to my reading list (which I have shared at the end of this post).
I also met some great people — for future friendships, to continue learning from, and hopefully some potential future collaborations.
I’m an introvert & travel solo for months at a time, so socializing & meeting new people is something I have to actively plan for & make myself do. This weekend was a great reminder about how wonderful it is to (also) have offline connections & step outside my comfort zone.
From the speaker side of the experience, I was excited for the weekend because getting back into speaking & teaching is a major 2020 goal.
The attendees at my workshop seemed engaged, and quite a few told me they enjoyed my talk & learned a lot, which I’m always glad to hear!
A lot of people asked if I had an online course, so that’s great encouragement for me to keep developing that project as a resource that has market demand.
Detailed Notes
I created a post for each speaker from the main day:
The sponsors also briefly spoke, and Darren Joseph of the tax firm Moores Rowland also gave a workshop on taxes for international entrepreneurs.
On Monday, I gave my workshop at 11 and then went to Jesse Forrest’s workshop, Copywriting Landing Pages that Convert, and Bori Vigh’s *amazing* Deep Connections “workshop” so I’ve made posts for those as well:
Books Referenced
- The 4 Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss
- Atomic Habits, James Clear
- Jocko Willink
- The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg
- Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, Mark Manson
- Profit First, Mike Michalowicz
- Travel to China, Josh Summers (speaker)
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki
- The Road Less Stupid, Keith Cunningham
- The One Thing, Gary Keller
- The Who Method of Hiring, Geoff Smart and Randy Street
- The Digital Nomad Survival Guide, Peter Knudson and Katherine Conaway (I’d be remiss if I didn’t include my own book!)
As part of an honest review, I think it’s fair to note a few things I felt would have been nice to have mentioned at least a bit — issues that I think are increasingly important in the digital nomad community & world as a whole.
- Focus on “cheap” places to go / live — without acknowledging the complexities of that & checking our privilege
- Encouraging hiring VAs and other help at very low rates — without making sure we’re not taking advantage of other people & perpetuating inequalities
- Who do we want to be? Empowering & making the world better through each individual that we encounter and work with? OR just better for ourselves personally and maybe the people who pay us?
- Our community focuses a lot on avoiding paying taxes, not wanting to pay for visas, etc, but also need to acknowledge flip side of paying in to support a country & local public services. We benefit from social services & systems around the world, but are we contributing to it?
- Pursuing groups of “like minded people” = what are the benefits and what are the consequences / downsides of surrounding ourselves in groups of people like us (whatever that commonality is)?
That said, I know one conference can’t possibly cover everything. And some speakers did challenge various beliefs & assumed values, which I appreciated a lot.
Also, when it comes to taxes, most of our incomes are at a level where the tax savings really enables us to live better & pay off debt or save money, and as a self-employed single person, I know how beneficial that can be because I don’t have other safety nets.
Plus, it’s probably the taxes from millionaires & billionaires that would really make the big difference in helping support important social services & better income distribution.
Regarding the emphasis on “like-minded people” when looking at a group like digital nomads, who are often pretty isolated individuals traveling around on their own, then I know firsthand that finding ways into communities can be especially important.
So I take my own critiques with a grain of salt, though I still think it’s important to at least acknowledge the complexities on any topic.
In conclusion
Johnny and the staff who ran the event clearly care a lot about the conference & digital nomad community, and they got together a really solid group of speakers to talk about a range of topics.
Everything felt really inclusive to everyone in attendance, which I think is so important. And they offered a range of options (large speaking venue, meals, panels, smaller workshops, social events) so that there were a variety of ways for people to engage with information & each other.
So, yes, it was a wonderful weekend where I learned a lot, met some great people, and felt inspired & better informed. Very glad & grateful to have been part of it!
Katherine Conaway is a digital nomad, working remotely while she travels the world — on the road since June 2014.
