PAST EVENTS
The BLISS ecosystem has grown year after year, alongside the projects, tools, leaders, and collaborations that have defined its evolution. With each edition, our impact has expanded and our vision has sharpened, moving deliberately from idea, to infrastructure, to measurable global action.
2025
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2025 ≈
Making Freedom Investible
By 2025, BLISS narrowed in its focus on one key problem: only 1% of global philanthropy supports freedom and democracy causes. It had evolved into a global ecosystem with a clear conviction: freedom is investible. Building on the momentum of previous summits, BLISS aligned capital, strategy, and operators to confront authoritarianism through tangible, coordinated action. The gathering marked the transition from convening to execution, with measurable commitments and scalable tools to sustain freedom worldwide.
2024
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2024 ^
Building the Architecture
In 2024, BLISS matured into institutional strength. The Reynolds Foundation was officially launched at BLISS 2024: made a pivotal commitment, joined the Board, and became co-host of the summit. The focus expanded to a global assessment of freedom, with deep case studies from Latin America and beyond, alongside philanthropy, financial freedom, and capital strategy. BLISS was no longer a spark; it became architecture.
2023
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2023 ~
Light the Spark
The first BLISS Summit launched under the theme Light the Spark. Focused on freedom, democracy, human rights, rule of law and impact investing; the gathering exceeded every expectation. The room responded immediately. Alliances formed across NGOs, universities, think tanks, and private capital. New initiatives were born, BLISS members joined nonprofit boards, Costa Rica emerged as a hub for freedom leaders, and Demo Lab secured the funding needed to professionalize and scale. Following the summit, Tim Reynolds committed to supporting the convening of BLISS 2024 and joined the Demo Lab Board, cementing BLISS as a serious force in the freedom ecosystem.
2022
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2022 •
A Catalyst Joins
By June 2022, the first BLISS Summit was already fully envisioned and scheduled for February 2023, with one hundred leaders invited to gather. When Álvaro met Tim Reynolds at the Oslo Freedom Forum just months before the summit, he shared the full scope of the initiative. Intrigued by the ambition and clarity of the vision, Tim committed to attend and was immediately all in. His engagement marked a turning point, signaling that BLISS had the gravity to draw long-term partners at the highest level.
2021
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2021 -
The Vision Is Spoken
BLISS began not as an event, but as a conversation. On their very first dinner, Álvaro Salas-Castro shared a vision with Noemi Boyer, one shaped by years of witnessing freedom leaders and speakers in action, and by a clear understanding of what was missing from existing convenings. He described, in vivid detail, a gathering that would treat freedom not as an abstract ideal, but as something that could be strategically protected, funded, and scaled. That night marked the beginning of a disciplined effort to build civic infrastructure for freedom and democracy.