You don't have to be in crisis to be ready for meaningful change.
Something in your life has changed — or is about to. Maybe a role ended. Maybe a relationship did. Maybe the life you worked so hard to build finally arrived, and it's not what you expected. Maybe you're more successful than ever, and more restless than ever, and you're smart enough to know those two things are related.
You are high-functioning. You are capable. And somewhere underneath all that capability is a question you haven't had time to answer:
"Is this the life I actually want to be living?"
The Second Harvest Spring Summit is for anyone at an inflection point — professional or personal, chosen or unexpected.
→ Exiting a company or selling a business they've built
→ Stepping back from a leadership role after decades
→ Navigating divorce or the end of a long relationship
→ Finding the house empty after the last kid leaves
→ Losing a partner, a parent, or a version of themselves
→ Moving countries, cities, or careers
→ Succeeding at everything — and wondering why it still feels like something's missing
If you’re looking for a keynote lineup of celebrity speakers, productivity hacks, or a networking event with business cards — this isn’t it.
Our first summit is modeled on our signature retreats. If you want to go deeper after the summit, retreat spaces will be available to select Spring Summit attendees. Applications can be made on the relevant retreat pages.
Led by people who've been there
Richard Banfield
Entrepreneur, author, and artist. Richard is a recovering CEO who has built companies, launched 100's of products, helped teams find purpose, and now helps people design the second act of their lives with intention and creativity.
Devon McDonald
Venture capitalist turned catalyst for connection, clarity, and courageous living. Devon brings grace, energy, and a gift for creating space where real transformation can happen. She’s raising three kids and building a life rooted in authenticity.
Together, they bring real-life experience, warmth, and wisdom to every part of this retreat. As Richard says, "Our approach is to create a classroom where everyone is the student. No gurus, nor masters, just curious minds that are open to possibility."
Richard Banfield
For decades, I lived by the metrics of achievement: startups founded, books published, clients served. Ticking the boxes of the American Dream. And for a while, it worked, until it didn’t. Losing my wife to cancer and being forced to shut down a business soon after stripped everything down to essentials. What emerged from the smoldering mess was a remembering of what it means to build something from love, not fear. Of how creativity, relationships, and purpose can rebuild a life.
Second Harvest began as a question I needed to answer for myself: What if the second half of life could be better than the first? It’s now become my answer to that question. A living, breathing experiment in meaning-making.
Devon McDonald
I spent decades backing founders building companies worth hundreds of millions. It took a while to realize the most important thing I could build was a life I actually wanted to be living. My transformation wasn’t a single moment, but a collection of them: the realization that being fully alive means being fully present. That real leadership starts with the humility to truly listen to others, and to myself.
Second Harvest is where all of that experience comes home. My work is to create environments of belonging—places where people can safely drop the masks, meet themselves again, and rediscover the joy of being seen
For leaders of families, companies and communities—
seeking purpose.
Facilitated
Sessions
that blend practical habit and behavioral plans, cognitive reset, & identity work
Personal Workshops
that help you detach from performance-based identity & reconnect with purpose
Small Group Discussions
designed for clarity, direction and away from cliché
Shared Experiences
with like-minded peers navigating similar transitions and building alliances and connections
What people say after they leave the retreats
This summit is designed for:
Anyone that is currently experiencing or planning a significant transformation. This is for those entering an exciting new chapter in their lives, whether that's personal or professional change.
Community, family, and business leaders stepping out of their current roles into new roles. These can also be creative or personal journeys.
Executives and individual contributors in mid- or late-career transitions seeking more than status in their lives. They are seeking deeper meaning, not just new goals.
Before the Retreat: Your Starting Point
Participants receive a short intake form designed to spark pre-day introspection:
Sample Questions:
- What do you feel you’re walking away from?
- What do you feel drawn toward?
- Where do you feel stuck?
This isn’t just intake—it’s a starting point for the transformation.
Morning Session: Taking Inventory & Finding New Paths
9:30am: Arrival & Welcome
- Delicious coffee or tea, introductions, and context-setting. Arrive with an open mind.
- Optional full-body and cognitive warm-up to open the nervous system, awaken attention, and prime our bodies for deeper engagement. Part physical reset, part mind tune-up.
10:10am: Opening Remarks
- Building new lives on old foundations
10:30am - 11:15pm: Fireside Conversations
- Inspiring stories from people just like you
11:15am - 12:15pm: Workshop or Small Group Discussion Options
- Either join Richard for a "Personal Story and Identity Workshop," for reflecting on what stories got you here and shaping the next chapter through conscious narrative building and practical habit forming.
- Or, join one of the small group discussions lead by out facilitators. Themes will include navigating career change, grief, divorce, empty nesting, visualization and embodiment tools.
12:15pm-1:15pm: Lunch
- Over a delicious lunch we split into small groups around the grounds of the magnificent deCordova Museum sculpture park.
Afternoon Session: Designing Your New Life
1:15pm: Refocus time
- Take a walk around the sculpture park, or journal to clear your minds.
- Optional full-body stretch and meditation to ground you for the next session.
1:40pm: Thin Slice Experiments Workshop & Testing Your Experiments
- Readiness isn’t a guess. We can take action on our ideas immediately if we know how to break things into manageable slices and test them. In this session we'll learn how to break big goals and ideas into small bite-sized experiments. Using design thinking and cohort-based alliances, you'll learn a life skill you'll use over and over again.
- Small group sessions where we thake your thin slice experiments and start to implement them.
3:30pm: Building Support for Your Experiments
- Everyone needs a team around them. Exploring the support and alliances you build around you, creating a powerful and trusting advisory board that aligns with your purpose and journey. We'll lead facilitated conversation with focused groups to uncover purpose, define values, and explore personal frameworks for what’s next.
4:30pm: Final Fireside Chat & Wrap-up
- We'll close with one last inspiring story from Jon McNeill
- Closing remarks followed by casual conversation with other participants.
5:10pm: Hometime & Goodbyes!
- We hope you use this time to exchange information and deepen the connections you've made. This is just the beginning.
Evening Session: VIP Dinner
6:00pm: Dinner
- Good food, real talk. An intimate meal where participants reflect on their day, create alliances, deepen connections, and begin to articulate what they’re building next.
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“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.”
— Joel Arthur Barker Ratcliffe
FAQs
Yes, we have discounted rates for groups over 5 people. Please contact us directly on info@secondharvest.co with details of your group size.
Second Harvest creates the space and structure for people to step out of their routines and look clearly at where their energy, time, and attention are going. Through small groups, honest conversations, and carefully chosen experiences, we help participants reconnect to what actually matters to them now, not who they used to be or who they think they should be. The outcome isn’t a dramatic reinvention or a list of goals. It’s clarity, steadiness, and a grounded sense of direction they can take back into their real life and act on immediately.
A select group of fascinating humans—think successful professionals, creative powerhouses, and resilient souls in search of what’s next. We spend a lot of time curating the groups and making sure everyone there is showing up for the best reasons. If you’re hoping for trust-falls and firewalking with a crowd of corporate suits or midlife crisis clichés, you’re in the wrong place.
Because this isn’t about making you a better cog in someone else’s machine—it’s about reclaiming your creativity, agency, and purpose. No slide decks. No corporate jargon. Just real conversations, bold ideas, support, and experiences that actually change how you show up in your life and work. Your hosts and guides have been through some tough times themselves so they know what it means to build a new life out of the ashes.
If you’re asking that, you probably need this more than anyone. The people who attend aren’t the ones with extra time—they’re the ones who finally decided to prioritize themselves. Life will always be busy. The real question is: Are you ready to make space for what actually matters?
We know life happens. If you need to cancel 60 days or more before the day of the event, we’ll refund your payment minus a 25% fee to cover our advance booking costs. If you cancel within 30 days of the retreat start, we’ll do our best to transfer your spot to a future event if openings are available, but no refund will be provided.