Dealing with NY Climate Week FOMO (from someone who wasn’t there)

I live in San Francisco now, but New York still tugs at me. There, I've lived in four neighborhoods, adopted a cat, welcomed a niece, buried my grandmother. Deep down I still love it and return often. But this year during New York Climate Week, a mix of personal priorities kept me in San Francisco, where I supported our Solutions House livestreams from afar.

Before Futerra, I had never attended a climate week or major conference, despite working in sustainability my whole career. Entering the workforce seven months pre-pandemic didn’t help, and not all companies prioritize opportunities to pause, absorb fresh ideas, and build connections.

But Futerra does, and I’m grateful for it! Over the past 21 months, I’ve been privileged to co-host events at two SF Climate Weeks, been boots-on-the-ground at Solutions House 2024 and supported Solutions House 2025 – Futerra’s biggest yet – virtually.

And as grateful as I am for the peace, energy, and emissions I saved by skipping a cross-country flight, I have FOMO!

Not only from the photos of colleagues bonding over happy hours, adrenaline crashes and caffeine headaches, but from what I know filled the space in between: deep learning, connection, and dreaming that might manifest as something useful to society.

So, my goal for the next few weeks will be catching up on NY Climate Week. Below are a few ideas for squeezing out the best bits without feeling overwhelmed or too much FOMO.

If you’re like me and didn’t go (or even if you did, but couldn’t bend quantum physics to catch all the events you wanted to) maybe you’ll find value in them too.

1. Focus the LinkedIn scrolling.

Everyone is posting and will be for weeks. Follow-up lists have a long tail. Are there a few voices you trust? Others who grind your gears that you’ve decided to engage with in the pursuit of growth? You have a starter list. Try limiting LinkedIn consumption to targeted tracking of your list (search the people you want to hear from! LinkedIn’s algorithm is still a mystery to me, but I miss posts from people I care about ALL the time). Curious if something specific came out about a topic you love? Search works great for that too: try #NYCW, #climateweek, #sustainability, #netzero, #resilience, #energyjustice, whatever piques your interest.

2. Be specific and ask for relevant downloads.

Everyone who went has an opinion, but what they’re excited to share might have no relevance to you. Their raw enthusiasm (or worse, apathy) will rub off either way. At best, it’s positive and exacerbates FOMO. Leaving a conversation with “damn, I knew I should have gone!” might motivate next year’s planning but won’t help now.

So, ask specifically about the topics you would have engaged with had you gone. Not sure what was there? Pick a topic out of a hat – in over 1,000 events, it was likely represented. Or check the calendar.

If your topic of choice leads to a dead-end, decide 1) whether you have enough in common to continue, and if so, 2) whether to open it up to “well, what DID you find interesting?”

3. Ask what people plan to do with their learnings – and how you can help.

My biggest critique of big conferences is that we put on fancy outfits, sit in cushy chairs, and converse with like-minded folks in the pursuit of everything at once: collaborators, funders, networks, brands. With so many priorities, outcomes and accountability scatter. My past follow-ups lists range from broad ideas to never-ending minute tasks such as “email X, read Y, sleep Z hours.” Neither approach has been effective. This year I want to change that.

A mini facilitation can go a long way:

4. Re-watch the content you care about, not just what everyone is talking about.

Futerra hosted 30 events over 3 days at Solutions House, and most were livestreamed and will be on our YouTube channel. While I think you should care about every one of our events, protect your attention by starting with the topics most relevant to you. Focus helps. Every bit of content launches you down a different rabbit hole of new climate solutions and leaders. Don't worry, our videos will be up forever. You can take your time.

5. Remember that NY Climate Week is one week of the year. Engage locally the other 51.

An increasing number of cities host their own climate weeks, often with free events. Born and raised in San Diego, I’m thrilled that the first San Diego Climate Week just kicked off. A friend brought my attention to Stanford Climate Week happening later this month. And ClimateBase just unveiled its new Climate Week Network to scale their model more broadly.

Even beyond formal conferences, I’ve been seeing local opportunities everywhere: community gardens looking for volunteers, smartly-convened lunch & learns on tricky topics like packaging, and climate-centered book clubs, poetry readings and art shows. It might be a Bay Area thing, but it feels like climate is seeping into more parts of more people’s lives every day. The conversation is everywhere, even if different language is used. It’s up to all of us to listen well and share our ideas, energy and care wherever we can.

Writing this soothed some of my FOMO. But it also cemented that next year, I must get myself to New York for Climate Week.

Maybe I’ll see you there, or somewhere else sooner. (I'll be at Sustainable Brands in San Diego Oct 13-16. Come say hi!)