I have to write after Carlos told you last week with all details what he lived in Arroyomolinos de León (Huelva) in this article: Harvesting community and human connections: MIES program .

As you can see, for both of what prevails are the connections and therefore we always talk about the "connected rurality" , which normally makes its stellar appearance in meetings like these. In any case, it is difficult to explain in words what I felt, and be at the same level as Carlos, who put the bar quite high. Still, I'm going to try.

At the end of this first rural talent meeting, which took place from February 2 to 4 in Aldeadávila de la Ribera (impossible I had the event so that nothing was forgotten. Then I tell you more about that.

But well, let's start at the beginning: what is this rural talent? And above all, what did we paint there? The culprits of all this story and that I am writing this post blog are our friends from Rural Citizen and, in particular, Iván del Caz and Jessica López . bikonsulting initiative , born in the spring of 2020 to connect agents, gather concerns, feed the collaboration, make visible and accompany projects in favor of the rural environment and disseminate knowledge.

What is rural talent?

According to the definition of Rural Citizen: “Rural talent is the ability to understand a region to, from passion and knowledge, be able to lead an innovative project that responds to a social challenge with a new look supported by collaboration and collective intelligence. "

Connecting rural leaders from Spain

A whole honor for me to be considered rural talent along with 70 other members (including Carlos) nationwide. In addition, we are all mapped on the rural talent map , another wonders that the Citizen Rural team has launched.

At the end of November we came to participate in this I Meeting (exclusive) of rural talent , whose objective was to connect in person, deepen collaborative leadership and put ourselves to co-create the foundations of this community of rural leaders. It sounds great, right? The only "but was that the maximum capacity were 30 people, so you had to decide quickly.

The square limit joined the stress of the closing of the year 2023, that we had to finance the displacement and part of the accommodation, since we had to choose well where we put our time and effort in 2024. It cost us what ours So much that we have decided to participate! Without a doubt, it was worth it. 

I keep telling you, and I take the opportunity to introduce you to the people who also came and say people because I am not going to talk about their projects today. Behind the projects are people and communities are built with people. Some already knew them and had the opportunity to work with them in some projects, or we had agreed in other meetings and it was a joy to meet them in person: 

• Fuensanta Martín, we were Acumen 2023 finalists and met her at the selection event in March last year, just touched us in the same group for team dynamics. In addition, she was the "Host" since she is from Aldeadávila.

• Laura Corchado, works with Fuen and we have agreed in video calls for a project that we have common, but I had not yet known her in person.

• María Rodríguez, participated with her organization in the project of The Break Fellowship in 2023 and we had seen ourselves online, but in person it was the first time in this meeting and I also went with her in the car.

• Javier Ruíz, also participated in The Break Fellowship project and this occasion was the first one that we agreed in person.

• Lucía González, we had had her guest on one of our webinars, fascinated me her story and made me very excited to be able to see her in person. In addition, I had also seen her in the program of flying I go from Jesús Calleja that visited her people, Allande. I leave here in case you want to see it, I recommend it a lot.

• Lucas Requejo, had also coincided with him in the Acuimo 2023 finalist event. We have enough contacts in common and it was great to see him again and be able to have conversations more depth.

• Olatz Huerta, we met for a long time ago as a video call and we are working on several projects with them, but finally we could hug in person.

• Ana María and Elisa Pelayo, I was lucky to meet them in the final event of the Ashoka Changemakers challenge in October 2023 in Zaragoza, it was a joy to see them again. 

With others I had not had the pleasure of dealing directly, but some had heard or already knew about social networks, common contacts, etc. And it made me very excited to put them face and know them more in depth. Once the people have been presented, I share what happened during those two days. 

Joining forces we get further

After talking about the rural talent map, how many of us were already interconnected by other circles and that our common vision is to value rural environments ... How can we continue talking about emptied Spain?

Every time I visit a town I am more convinced and more agree with what they promote from Rural Citizen: "Rural Spain is full of talent ." In addition, I add that what is missing is to join our strengths and strengths more, and give visibility, voice and vote to rural leaders. Precisely for that reason, I am writing this article.

We go to the mess, I leave you here the complete program in case you want to take a look and continue a summary of each day:

• Day 1: Friday, February 2

From Thursday I was already in Madrid, it is what has to be of the islands, which the displacements take a long time, and on Friday morning I headed for Aldeadávila along with Raúl and María. Ivan told me: "With you 3 in the car, many ideas will arise" and so, we did not stop talking to the first leg or the return (and that we had a good traffic jam with tractors). 

We arrived fair to join the route through the town of the Tourism Office, we went to see: the hermitage of the the Humillader made all the figures with tear pieces.

After the recognition ride we had the welcome session where each one presented through a “Totem¨ (an object that they always carry with them and that gives them good energy). I chose a keychain with the letter ¨E¨ (De Elsa 😉) that has been with me since I went to live for the first time to an apartment with my friends when we studied in Madrid back in 2005. One of them gave us each one Your keychain with the initial of your name for the key to our house. Since then he has traveled with me and has been my keychain of all the houses where I have lived around the world. Now that I have returned to Tenerife, it is still my keychain. For me it means that my house is where I (and my keychain), regardless of the place/country of the world in which it is. 

The most curious thing about all this is that at the end of dinner we share the gifts of the invisible friend to do with zero euros and with what we had at home. Patxi had to give me and know what he did to me ? A keychain with a stone from the river of his town, which later carved by hand. On one face he put the symbol of the Celtic sun and on the other side that of Basque culture, I loved it! Coincidence? I leave it there ...

The best thing about the night and to close the first day was to discover the super clear sky and with very good visibility from the hand of Lucia and its binoculars. Being astrophysics, he has decided to launch into the world of entrepreneurship with a beautiful project: Allande Stars . He dedicates himself precisely to connect the sky and earth and so we feel that night, very connected to the constellations, the stars and with everything that Lucia explained to us.

• Day 2: Saturday, February 3

On Saturday morning we started with Ivan introducing us and putting ourselves in a situation on the rural talent map that told you before and what was expected of us. Then we had Casilda and Ani who told us about Ashoka  and everything they are doing for the entrepreneurial ecosystem. There I had to leave and talk about our experience in the Ashoka Changemakers 2023 challenge in which we were finalists.

After a brief Coffee Break, where we tried to fill ourselves with vitamin C on the hotel terrace, we went to the most interesting session for me and where I took more self -knowledge: the workshop on collaborative leadership that Olatz carried out and that was super practical . Through a simple test, we could meet ourselves and the animal that represents our natural personality. In my case, I am a dolphin 🐬, and I have the ability to detect the best of each of the team and put it for the benefit of the group. In the teams you need a little of all profiles to be able to balance them. We learned to meet much more through these profiles and I liked it so much that it is something that we have already implemented with our team in a “toteambuilding” that we did recently.

In the afternoon we continue with a dynamic of creation of the rural talent community itself. We divided into groups and co-created the foundations of the different work areas that we also decide together: project generation, community, business model, positive influence (Lobby) and Rural Talent School. It was a demanding exercise where we had to listen to each other and select the best proposals to be able to define the objectives of each area and the lines of work. 

We end up the day having dinner in the town, having conversations and more connections that make you stop to think and ask you: Is all this accident or causality? What was no coincidence is that just that weekend were the town holidays (San Blas), so we took advantage and closed the night dancing in the town's verbena and integrating with the premises. I have to admit that I did not last long (I had a cultural shock of what verbena means on the vs. peninsula in the islands 😂), and back to the hotel with Iván and Maria we had a moment of laughter that I think I had not laughed for a long time So much (even tears came out!). 

• Day 3: Sunday, February 4

The end of the match arrived. We had a closing dynamic where each one shared their reflection and a word that summed up what had meant for us that weekend. I was clear, the first word that came to my head was: connection . I was the third to talk and I knew several of my colleagues who also had her in mind. They also resonated in me the words that others shared. Some got excited and made us get excited to others and there I saw it clear once again, blank and in bottle: the magic of connected rurality.  

Even with the emotion to the leather and with all those words dancing in our heads, we went to say goodbye to the rural environment that welcomed us with such love during these two days. From the Mirador del Fraile we were able to appreciate the Duero River cannon and greet Portugal that is right on the shore. There began the hugs and the "until later", we continue in safe contact. Raúl, Maria and I headed back to the capital and our reality, but not before promise to speak soon and point all the ideas we had so that we would not forget.

Generating connections that transform

If you have arrived here, I only have to summarize: What do I stay from this rural meeting? As I shared in my LinkedIn post: with the connection I felt in many moments. I summarize some of them below:

1. Conversations with people in whom my hair were put to me, like the ones I had with my dear Lucia and Lucas , marked me without a doubt!

2. Realizing that the "dolphins" are necessary for the teams to work as it happened to me with Laura .

3. The good vibes with my route compis: Maria and Raúl with which I shared several hours of car and inumerable anecdotes.

4. Jessica 's role as organizer and Ivan . Thanks to the work they did, fulfilling the times and generating an environment of trust I could enjoy and remind me that from time to time I have to put on the other side of the equation to connect with others and with myself

5. I could continue ... the gift that Patxi , the smiles and laughter with Pablo and Javier , the stories of Noelia and a long etc.

In the end it is the people who create this energy. Exactly the same encounter, in the same place but with other people it would surely have not been the same ... so a thousand thanks to all the people who made it possible. We continue with more desire than ever to return to rural the importance it deserves and telling the days for an upcoming meeting!