What we most desire when we reflect on a better future can already be found in communities around the world that are doing community-led change. This became especially clear through the eight Butterfly Talks at the Day of Transition Practice (DoTP) 2026, where people shared how they are moving toward more connection, healing, and positive impact in their contexts.

Speakers joined from Brazil, California, Nigeria, Mexico, and different parts of the UK. Each person offered a story grounded in real work. One example is Trathen Heckman, who shared how his organization, Daily Acts, organized a campaign to plant 350 gardens in a single day in their region, and then doubled and tripled that effort in the years that followed. Each speaker brought a similarly practical story of reimagining how we can live in more harmony with life.

We need these stories. They help counter the constant stream of difficult news and offer something steady and tangible to hold onto. They support us in cultivating imagination for better futures. When we hear what is already happening, it becomes easier to see how we might shift our own lives and the contexts we are part of.

There is something powerful in combining storytelling with regular imagination practice. Rob Hopkins speaks to this in his book How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveller’s Guide to Changing the World. He shares tools for working with the imagination and also highlights stories of people and places that have made meaningful change. There are examples of cities redesigned to make cycling the dominant mode of transportation, urban spaces where concrete is being removed, truly local food systems being rebuilt, and even commercial restaurants that cook just with the heat of the sun! These stories make it easier to loosen the limits of what we think is possible.

The idea of adjusting our limiting beliefs becomes very real when we hear about changes that have already happened, by ordinary people, just like us. It can be surprisingly simple to shift from doubt into possibility when we are grounded in lived examples.

Below, you will find short descriptions and links to the eight Butterfly Talks shared during the Day of Transition Practice 2026 (DoTP2026). The themes include biocentric governance, life-affirming economies, learning with love, just transition, urban gardening and more! Each video is about ten minutes long.

After the talks, at the end of this blog, there is a practical imagination exercise inspired by the imagination workshop that Filipa Pimentel (with support from Rob Hopkins) led at DoTP 2026. You might choose to watch one or more of the talks and then move into the imagination practice for best results. 

In a way these stories can be seen like oil for a rusty bike chain or, more fit for this context, fuel for your time travel machine. Getting the emotions and inspiration flowing. 

Town Anywhere - The power of collective imagining

with Lily Lowe-Myers & Lucy Neal 

'Town Anywhere’ brings the future to life through time travel, visioning, actual making and co-creating then coming back ‘home’ to harvest the learning. The process playfully opens up inspirational thinking in communities to help them create and rehearse the future communities they long for.

From Grassroots to Regeneration: Learning Through Transition Warri

with Yvonne Omatseye

Transition Warri is a community-led response to climate, social, and ecological challenges in the Niger Delta. This Butterfly Talk will share key learnings from building local transition practices rooted in education, youth engagement, food systems, and cultural context. It will reflect on what it means to adapt global Transition principles within a riverine, resource-rich yet vulnerable environment, and how local wisdom strengthens the wider movement.

Life at the Center: Biocentric Governance for Regeneration (ESP)

with Roberto Spano

Modern decision-making systems often place efficiency and the economy above life. Drawing from Indigenous governance traditions, this talk explores what becomes possible when life — human and more-than-human — is recognised as a subject of rights. Roberto invites us to imagine and practice biocentric governance as a pathway to regenerate communities and territories.

Take Heart, Take Action: The Transformative Power of Small Acts, Groups and Gardens

with Trathen Heckman

In a world on fire with crisis, how do we nurture hope, build power and create the personal and collective transformations this planetary moment calls for? Rooted in Permaculture and the Transition ethos, for 23 years Daily Acts Organization has shown the power of community and nature-based solutions, of small acts of courage and conviction, small groups of unstoppable world changers and even small gardens of regenerative delight. You’ll hear inspiring examples of how scaling small solutions, growing and sustaining financially-viable groups and partnering widely can be a pathway to transforming our communities and beyond.

The Journey of Life-Affirming Economies in Rio de Janeiro, Vale das Videiras, and São Paulo (PORT)

with Ana Lavaquial

This talk presents the Life-Affirming Economics Journey, a collaborative experience led by UMMA – Hub of Regenerative Businesses, in partnership with Transition movements in Rio de Janeiro, Vale das Videiras, and São Paulo, alongside Schumacher College (UK). The journey brought together diverse actors to explore how local territories are reimagining economic practices rooted in care, collaboration, and regeneration. The process was enriched by international perspectives through the participation of Jay Tompt, Professor of Regenerative Economies at Schumacher College.

Multiversidad Mastay: Learning Journeys for a Higher Education in Colombia (ESP)

with Andrea Giraldo

The “Mastay Multiversity” (MUMAY) is a weaving of relationships and alliances between people, projects and territories that articulate and integrate the collaborative exchange of holistic knowledge based on the merging of ancestral and modern regenerative practices through the co-creation of transformative experiences in order to learn how to live in community, peace and harmony within ourselves, with each other and with Mother Earth.

Learning with Love, Transforming the Future (PORT)

with Malu Criar

What if education were not just about transmitting content, but about creating experiences that transform lives? Grounded in the Pedagogy of Love, this talk places the human being at the centre of learning, empowering participants to become protagonists of their own evolution. Drawing from learning communities such as Collab Jovem, Malu explores how education can become a laboratory for creativity, connection, and real transformation — where emotion, action, and purpose walk hand in hand.

Just Transition Cards: Supporting Inclusion in the Transition Movement

with Amanda Jones & Rakesh "Rootsman Rak" 

This talk introduces the Just Transition Cards, an open-source and growing resource created to support more inclusive practice within the Transition movement. Grounded in the perspectives of marginalised groups, the cards prompt reflection on who is excluded and why, helping groups plan events and projects that include more people from the outset. We will also share how to access, use and adapt the cards for your own local context.

Short Imagination Practice

Close your eyes and imagine, after a trip in your time machine, that you are walking through your neighbourhood 10–20 years from now in a future where things have gone well.

Gently explore:

  • What do you notice first?
  • What has changed in how people live, move, and gather?
  • What does your day-to-day activities look like? 
  • What do you hear, smell?
  • What small details tell you this place is more caring or resilient?
  • How do you feel? 

Then ask: What happened to help this future come into being? And free-write or capture your reflections in any way that is most accessible for you. 

__________________________

If you feel like sharing your reflections or experiences with the practice or watching the Butterfly Talks, you are invited to leave a comment. 

As always, we would love to hear from you!