In addition to the people who partnered with our team, some key people brought additional support and inspiration. Cloe Villalobos brought her multi-faceted skills as researcher, copy editor, and translator to support us and think with us. Three speakers, Mbali Ndandani ( Lelapa ) and Musa Omusi ( Made with Love Designi ) joined us for sessions and inspired us to think differently about language, AI, creativity, and partnership. We were also joined by Wissal Dargueche who helped us connect with our remote-weary bodies in a virtual Iyengar yoga session. And last but not least, La Propia Agencia (2020) who were our creative partners and designed this beautiful zine.
“Seeing connections emerge between folks really highlights how our individual curiosities can amplify and complement each other in unexpected ways. What's particularly energizing is how we can find harmony and inspire each other, creating bridges between our diverse explorations.”
" The team seems to be gravitating toward tools and methods that center community voices. There's a clear thread running through our work around making technology more participatory and culturally responsive."
“We're moving past the "what if" stage into "how might we" territory from sketching prototypes to testing policy frameworks and mapping implementation pathways. A highlight is how these deep dives are revealing shared themes around access, representation, and power dynamics.”
“Our deep dives started growing into something tangible. Our creative experts are now the gardeners who will help these ideas bloom into many different forms and we will see our explorations transform into interactive experiences, multimedia narratives, audio journeys, or visual art.”
“Today we close this chapter of Deep Dive Week with our minds buzzing with possibilities. What was striking was how our separate explorations have woven together into a tapestry of interconnected insights.”
DEEP DIVE WEEK HOME
In June 2025, The Engine Room held our second Deep Dive Week, a dedicated time for learning and exploration, away from our day-to-day work. We all carry around ideas, curiosities, and inspirations that often get pushed aside: articles we’ve been meaning to re-read, podcasts queued up, a mountain of open tabs to get through, art to experience, and the recommendations from friends and colleagues. Deep Dive Week gave us space to engage with those things.

Our aim was to weave lightness, curiosity, and playfulness into our minds, bodies, and connections with each other. These are challenging times for civil society organizations, which for us made it more important than ever to dive deeply into what motivates, inspires, and energizes us. We are publishing this zine so we can share the paths we explored with each other and the people in our world.

If you want to know more about how we planned for, structured, and executed this week, please refer to the “Approach” page of "our 2024 zine" . We updated a few things this year and one notable difference is that we worked in clusters around themes and patterns that emerged from our initial ideas. Each cluster paired with a creative partner who responded to our learning with a piece of original work. We found the ability to work more intentionally in small groups around new thinking was energizing. And if you are interested in learning more, please feel free to reach out to "hello@theengineroom.org"

Warmly,

Denisse, Gillian, Lesedi, and Paola

If you want to learn more about how the week went for us and what we got out of it, please listen to this audio.