Stories in Flight. Connecting bird lovers worldwide through the path of migration and meaning.
An Invitation to Speak in a Global Gathering About Bird Migration
A curated gathering exploring bird migration through science, art, place, and story.
The Bird Migration Gathering brings together speakers and participants from across the world — connecting people, places, and cultures through the shared rhythm of migration.
The Story We’re Exploring
The Bird Migration Gathering is shaped around a shared inquiry:
What does bird migration reveal about connection, movement, and responsibility in a changing world?
Across flyways and seasons, migrating birds link distant landscapes, cultures, and human lives. This gathering brings together researchers, conservationists, artists, and storytellers whose work helps illuminate those connections—through science, creative practice, lived experience, and place-based knowledge.
As a speaker, you’re not being asked to instruct or perform. You’re invited to offer a perspective—one that helps the community orient more deeply to the meaning of migration and their relationship to it.
Why contribute as a speaker?
The Bird Migration Gathering is a curated, high-trust space shaped around shared inquiry, not instruction or performance.
As a speaker, you’re invited to contribute a perspective that helps illuminate the meaning of bird migration—across landscapes, cultures, and human lives—and to join a cross-disciplinary conversation with others who care deeply about this work.
Speakers often value this gathering for the opportunity to:
Participate in a global, interdisciplinary conversation spanning science, conservation, art, and lived experience
Share their work within a thoughtful, engaged community oriented toward meaning, not consumption
Build genuine relationships with other contributors, often leading to future collaborations
Create lasting visibility for their work through curated recordings and resources
Invite their own communities into a values-aligned gathering (with optional affiliate participation)
This is not an open call or a mass-market summit.
It’s a carefully held gathering where speakers are treated as collaborators, not content.
How your work is held
Follow the Birds takes care with contributors’ work.
You retain full ownership of your original content
Your session is hosted only within the Follow the Birds ecosystem — as part of the Gathering, paid Encore experiences, and the members space
Sessions are never sold as standalone products or licensed to third parties
Written materials may be lightly edited for clarity and shared with attribution
Speakers may request removal of their session from future offerings with reasonable notice. These requests are honored in good faith.
This is a long-form, relational container — not a one-time broadcast.
What a contribution typically looks like
Most speaker contributions are recorded sessions, created in advance and thoughtfully woven into the three-day Gathering.
In practice, this usually looks like:
A recorded session (most often 45–75 minutes), offered as a focused contribution rather than a polished performance
Your natural voice and perspective — scientific, creative, place-based, or lived
A format that fits your work: a talk, conversation, visual presentation, or guided reflection
Optional participation in a live Q&A during the Gathering, if timing and interest align (never required)
There is no single template. Some speakers arrive with a clear message. Others shape their contribution through conversation. Both are welcome.
Timing and seasonal rhythm
The Bird Migration Gathering is held twice each year, aligned with primary migration periods:
March Gathering — held mid-March (March 13-15, 2026)
October Gathering — held in early October (October 2-4, 2026)
Recording timelines are designed to be respectful of real schedules:
Sessions are typically recorded 3–6 weeks before the Gathering
Recordings may be created in conversation or submitted independently
Live participation during the Gathering is optional, and recordings are available across time zones
If travel, fieldwork, or seasonal commitments are in motion, we’ll orient together toward the right timing.
In a short introductory conversation, we’ll:
If this feels worth exploring, the next step is a brief, low-pressure conversation.
Together, we’ll:
Share the vision for the Gathering and how it’s taking shape this season
Explore what you feel most called to offer
Orient to timing, format, and audience fit
Decide together whether this is the right container — now or in a future season
No pitch. No expectation. Just a grounded conversation about whether your voice belongs in this shared field of attention.
You’d be in good company
Past contributors to the Bird Migration Gatherings include migration researchers, artists, conservation leaders, educators, guides, and storytellers from across the world.
Their work spans:
Global migration science and conservation
Place-based natural history and field practice
Art, storytelling, and creative inquiry
Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspectives
These are not promotional talks. They are recorded contributions offered with care, context, and respect for depth.
A short conversation to explore fit
If this feels worth exploring, the next step is a brief, low-pressure conversation.
Together, we’ll:
Share the vision for the Gathering and how it’s taking shape this season
Explore what you feel most called to offer
Orient to timing, format, and audience fit
Decide together whether this is the right container — now or in a future season
No pitch. No expectation. Just a grounded conversation about whether your voice belongs in this shared field of attention.
PO Box 3152
Durango, Colorado, 81303
United States
Contact Us
kelly@followthebirds.com
+1 (602) 291-7319
Mountain Daylight Time (UTC−07:00)
Follow the Birds is based in the southern Rocky Mountains of Durango, Colorado, USA.
We follow migration as a guide—across landscapes, cultures, and seasons.
~ Founder, Kelly Miller
