Dumbbells, Cocktails, and Abundance in DC

In early September, I went to Washington, DC for the Abundance Conference. It’s only in its second year, but the rooms were packed with people who care about making government work better– and not just policy wonks and think tank folks (though there were plenty of those :). Elected officials from both sides of the aisle, from local officials to governors to state representatives to Congresspeople, all showing up around a shared idea that government needs to do more, and do it better.

What Abundance in Government Really Means

At its core, the Abundance movement is about raising our expectations. Instead of shrugging and accepting that housing will always be scarce, energy projects will always get stuck, and infrastructure will always take decades, it asks: why not build more of what people actually need? We have a lot of resources but the policy choices, outdated rules, and cultures of bureaucracy make progress seemingly impossible.

At PPI, this is familiar territory. We like to say we’ve been “doing Abundance before it was cool.” Our work has always been about helping government teams deliver better– not by piling on new staff or expanding budgets, but by giving people the tools to solve problems, use data, cut through red tape, and make their processes actually work for them so that service delivery is easier, faster, and more efficient.

(If you’re curious to dig deeper, we held a webinar with our take on Abundance within government, which you can re-watch below or by clicking here. And there are several books on this topic, perhaps most notably  Abundance, by Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein, which captures the urgency (and the optimism!) of shifting from scarcity thinking to a mindset of building and delivering at scale.) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W861Rew91SA

Watch PPI's webinar, Operationalizing Abundance here

And this conference took these same themes and teased them out in panels and presentations, so that people could move beyond abstract theory and take up a real call to action.

Nailed It

One session really hit home for me: Philanthropy That Builds, with Matt Clancy, Brian Hooks, Seemay Chou, and Jennifer Pahlka moderating. Brian Hooks made the point that real change has to happen at the state and local level– that implementation on the ground matters as much as policy design. That’s exactly what we’ve been saying and doing at PPI for years! It was affirming to hear it said out loud in a room with lots of policy reform people, and then echoed throughout the conference.

The Best Conversations Happen Offstage

It wasn’t just the panels that stuck with me. The hallways, the gym, the happy hours– that’s where the people-side of abundance really came alive. Some of my most memorable parts of the conference happened outside the sessions, like talking about housing reform in Utah with the governor of Utah… in between sets at the gym. Or catching up with people I’d met at happy hours while working through the lunch line. Those small, human connections reminded me that abundance isn’t just about ideas or laws. It’s about people. The people who keep the machinery of government running every day, and the people who depend on it working.

From the Conference to the Mall

My 2 kids, along with Ryan's 2 kids, at the base of the Washington Monument

After the conference wrapped, my kids flew in to meet me (their first time flying on their own, and they crushed it!) and we spent the weekend walking the Mall, seeing the monuments, and hitting some incredible museums. It was their first trip to DC, and watching them take it all in made the whole week even more special.

It was a good reminder that abundance isn’t just something we talk about in conference rooms. It’s about building a world where our kids (and everyone’s kids) can grow up with more opportunities, more chances to thrive, and yes, more awe at what’s possible.

Let's Talk About What an Abundant Government Could Look Like