Airplane Mode On

Unplug
from the
feed.
Plug into
life.

A One Day Phone-Free Experience

"I showed up alone and all I felt was love."

One day. No phones. No performance. Just the people in the room — the conversation you've been putting off, and the reminder that the version of yourself you've been missing still exists.

You've built something real. You're capable of more. And somewhere along the way, the life you were building started to feel like it was happening to you instead of through you. This is the reset.

Choose Your City What Is Unplugged?
Airplane Mode On· The Future Is Human· Vancouver· Calgary· Phone-Free· Real Connection· Airplane Mode On· The Future Is Human· Vancouver· Calgary· Phone-Free· Real Connection·

You already know
something is
off.

You've built the career. Hit the targets. You're the person others point to. And yet there's a gap between how your life looks from the outside and how it actually feels to be living it.

It's not that you've lost your drive. It's that you're running hard toward the next thing without ever fully landing in this one. Every win comes with a quiet question: is this it?

The phone isn't the problem. But it's become the place you go to avoid the question. The scroll, the refresh, the constant low-grade hum of being reachable — it crowds out the signal you actually need.

Unplugged is one day without the noise. A room of people who are also building something real, who also want to do it without burning out, and who are ready to ask the harder questions out loud.

Not less ambitious. More alive.

1
Full day — phone-free from arrival to close. No exceptions, no excuses.
200
General Admission seats available per city. When they're gone, they're gone.
100
VIP seats — including the long-table Airplane Mode dinner and speakers at the table.
0
WiFi. Zero notifications. One room. The people who decided to show up.
Connection at Unplugged

Not anti-tech.
Pro-presence.

You're building something real

Founder, creator, executive, leader. You're doing meaningful work and you feel the cost of it. The pace is sustainable on paper. In your body, it's a different story.

Your attention is fractured

You sit down to do your best thinking and end up somewhere else entirely. The tab, the notification, the reflex reach for the phone. It's affecting your work, your relationships, and your clarity.

You're craving more depth

The conversations you actually want to have keep getting shorter. The connections that matter keep getting thinner. You want more — not more content, not more reach. More of the real thing.

This is not a digital detox. It is not a wellness retreat. It is one day with other people who are also building something, who also feel the pull, and who are ready to put the phone down long enough to remember what they're actually building toward.
The room, fully present

Two ways
to be there.

GA gets you into the room. VIP keeps you in it — through dinner, live entertainment, and a conversation that goes somewhere the daytime session can't.

General Admission
In the Room
$147
200 seats available per city
Your Day
1:00 PM Doors open, phones away
1:00–5:00 Full event — talks, connection, and embodied practice
5:00 PM Close + phones returned
  • Four hours of phone-free, immersive experience
  • Talks, firesides, and connection exercises with speakers
  • Curated conversations — designed to go somewhere real
  • Post-event integration call with the speaker team
Get Your Seat

The people
in the room.

Guest speakers vary by city and will be announced as each event opens. Every room has the same commitment: no slides, no branded decks, no performance. Just the real conversation.

Photo of Mandy Balak
Host
Mandy Balak
Experience Design · The Gathering

President of The Gathering and Author of Chasing Enough. 15 years designing experiences for well-resourced leaders. Her work centres on helping high achievers create sustainable success — and on what it actually costs to keep building without ever deciding what enough looks like.

Photo of Mark Groves
Host
Mark Groves
Human Connection

Relationship expert, author, and creator with over 1M global followers. Mark has spent his career teaching people how to show up for each other — and has spent the last two years studying exactly what our phones are doing to our ability to do that. He's not anti-technology. He's pro-human. There's a difference.

Guest Speaker
Branden Collinsworth
Embodiment · Standards

Nike trainer and embodiment coach. Branden's work brings you back into your body — which is exactly where constant connectivity pulls you out of.

Guest Speaker
Sarah Baldwin
Nervous System

If you've ever wondered why you keep reaching for your phone even when you don't want to, Sarah has the answer — and the way back. Regulation before everything.

Guest Speaker
Danielle LaPorte
Purpose · Creative Power

Bestselling author and speaker. Danielle's work on desire, values, and what it means to live and create from the inside out has shaped a generation of leaders.

Speakers vary by city
Announced as tickets open

What one
day actually
feels like.

The structure is intentional. Every moment is designed to bring the room somewhere it wouldn't go on its own. This isn't a conference. It's a conversation that escalates — and for VIPs, doesn't end until 9.

1:00 PM
Arrival

Phones locked away. The room quiets. You realise how uncomfortable silence actually is — and how quickly it becomes the most valuable thing in the room.

1:00–3:00
The Real Conversation

Talks and firesides with the speakers. No slides. Direct truth about what's happening to attention, relationships, and the nervous system — and what to do about it.

3:00–5:00
Connection in Practice

Structured conversation exercises designed to go somewhere real. Not icebreakers. The kind of questions you didn't know you needed to answer out loud until someone asked them.

5:00–7:00
VIP Cocktail Hour

Curated cocktails and mocktails. Speakers in the room. Still no phones. The conversations deepen.

VIP Only
7:00–9:00
Airplane Mode Dinner

Long table. Curated dinner. Live entertainment. Speakers seated with guests. The conversations that last years start here.

VIP Only
Real conversation
The long table
The full room

What people said
when they got
their phones back.

These are unscripted. From the integration call the week after LA. We kept them exactly as they were said.

"

I traveled from Newfoundland to be there. I showed up alone and all I felt was love. The whole time I was there, all I felt was love.

Leah · Flew solo from Newfoundland · First time in California

I've been told a lot in my life: you're too deep, too intense, too emotional. At this event, I didn't feel out of place.

Savannah · Los Angeles

I literally trained for it like a half marathon. Even having it on my calendar shifted my behavior in the weeks leading up.

Angela · Los Angeles

I felt so seen and so validated. This is the community I didn't know I needed.

Savannah · Los Angeles

Still processing the whole day. Brandon's poem about leveling down has been on repeat for me for the last week. I've thought about it and read it every day.

Michelle · Los Angeles

I felt so much spaciousness. I've been craving it, and everything just felt so rich and deep and good.

Savannah · Los Angeles

I started walking without my earbuds in, just letting the wind on my ears. I felt so mentally light at the end of the day.

Mike · Los Angeles

So many people were talking to me when I was out in the city after. Was it because my head was up? I was actually looking at people.

Leah · Newfoundland

When I got my phone back at the end of the night — it was a lot. But I felt good without it all day. Really good.

Attendee · Los Angeles

I went for a hike, didn't put my earbuds in, skipped the podcasts. I didn't realize until then how much I was filling every moment.

Mike · Los Angeles

"You are not addicted to something wrong with you. You are addicted to a thing specifically designed to make you addicted. That's a very different story."

Mark Groves · Unplugged

What we
mean by
phone-free.

We mean it. Not "phones on silent in your pocket." Not "just for photos." Phones are locked away on arrival and returned at the close. No exceptions. That's the entire point.

Phones locked away from arrival Secure storage provided. This is how you know everyone else in the room is as present as you are.
No photography during the event What happens in the room stays in the room. We have photographers — you don't need to document it. That's the point.
What you share stays here Conversations at Unplugged are not content. They are not podcasts. They are not LinkedIn posts. They are just real.
Leave your title at the door Founder, creator, executive — everyone is just a person in a room. That's what makes it work.

Good questions.

You've been telling yourself you need it for years. Spend five hours finding out if that's actually true. Emergency contact details are collected on arrival — anyone who needs to reach you in a genuine emergency will be able to.
Founders, creators, executives, coaches, practitioners, and builders. People who track their HRV and their steps and still can't figure out why they feel disconnected. People who've been told they're too much, too deep, too intense — and are tired of performing a smaller version of themselves. The kind of person who finds something meaningful about being in a room where everyone agreed to the same thing.
GA is 1–5 PM: the full event, speakers, and connection programming. VIP adds the evening — a curated cocktail and mocktail hour from 5–7, then the Airplane Mode long table dinner from 7–9 with live entertainment and speakers at the table. VIP runs from arrival to 9 PM, fully phone-free throughout.
No. This is a room of intelligent, discerning people having honest conversations about something that's affecting all of them. The embodiment and nervous system work from our speakers is practical — not woo. If you've been burned by wellness events before, this is not that.
Vancouver and Calgary are open now. Austin, New York, and additional cities will be announced through 2026. Join the waitlist on the cities page to get first access before public on-sale.
One Room. No Phones. Real People.

The most
important meeting
you'll take offline.

200 GA seats. 100 VIP seats. Each city. When they're gone, they're gone — and we don't add more.