Leaders at the entrance of Impacta Mais
Impacta Mais is one of Brazil’s main events dedicated to the impact economy, bringing together leaders, organisations, investors and entrepreneurs who drive social and environmental transformation. It took place in São Paulo on 20 and 21 May 2026. On the 20th, the Campinas caravan was made up of 40 leaders, through the organising work of the Hubs Quebrada em Movimento, Ozipa Criativa and Conexão Quilombo Amarais, in partnership with the Coletivo Movimento Rosalina.
The day after Impacta Mais, I heard something that moved me more than any talk.
People were commenting on the presence of Campinas at the event. They spoke about the caravan we had managed to mobilise, about the group of leaders and about how important it was to see a territory organising itself to make sure more people had access to that space.
In that moment, I thought about everything that did not appear in the photos.
I thought about the attempts that had not worked the year before. About the conversations to make transport, food and registrations possible. About the coordination between different organisations and territories. About the leaders who were only able to take part because someone believed that access to knowledge should not be a privilege.
That was when I realised all the effort had been worth it.
Beyond taking people to an event, we managed to widen possibilities.
Widening horizons requires movement
I have been reflecting more and more on how we build our references.
Often, when we stay only within our own territory, we see possibilities that look very much like our own reality. That does not mean a lack of creativity or initiative; it means that our experiences also set the limits of what we are able to imagine.
When a leader takes part in an event, gets to know other initiatives, listens to experiences from different regions of the country and talks with people facing similar challenges, their repertoire widens. New ideas emerge. Paths that once seemed distant start to seem possible.
Seeing other realities is training too
During Impacta Mais, leaders from Campinas came into contact with entrepreneurs, social organisations, publishers, impact businesses and initiatives from different parts of the country.
More than watching talks, they were able to observe solutions already being applied in other contexts, meet people who share similar challenges and realise that many of the transformations happening in their territories are also happening in other regions.
This recognition strengthens the confidence of those working locally and widens their understanding of their own work.
The experiences that stayed with the participants show the diversity of learning built up over the course of the event.
For Daniella Aparecida Carvalho, of the Hub Ozipa Criativa, one of the most meaningful moments was the chance to talk directly with social entrepreneurial initiatives and to follow the talk on productive inclusion held on the main stage. The experience reinforced the importance of bringing concrete practices closer to the debates about development and the creation of opportunities.
Silvia Regina Domingues da Fonseca, of the Coletivo Movimento Rosalina, highlighted the talks on investment in the peripheries, but stressed a reflection that stayed with her after the event: the need to understand that not all poverty is financial. Her observation widens the debate about territorial development and invites us to look also at the inequalities related to access, opportunities, connections and knowledge.
The invisible barriers to access
There is an issue that does not always appear in discussions about training and territorial development: access.
Taking part in an event has costs. Transport, food, registration, travel time and, often, the need to organise who will be responsible for looking after the home or the children during the absence.
For many community leaders, these barriers make participation unfeasible, even when the interest and willingness are there.
Leaders in the food court
The challenge goes beyond the ticket
Securing a place is only part of the process.
Conditions have to be created so that people can actually occupy these spaces. That involves resources, planning, partnerships and a deep understanding of the realities lived by leaders in the territories.
That is why coordination between organisations, collectives and local initiatives matters so much. It turns individual opportunities into collective ones.
It was precisely this coordination that allowed leaders from different territories of Campinas to take part in Impacta Mais, strengthening not only individual trajectories but also networks of collaboration that carry on working after the event.
When one person learns, many people learn
One of the scenes that struck me most happened during the event itself.
While I was following the activities, I saw leaders sharing in real time what they were learning with their groups and communities.
Among them was Deiliane do Carmo de Araujo Nascimento, a leader connected to the Hub Quebrada em Movimento, who was recording the content and sending messages to her group.
In one of those messages, she wrote:
“I’m here learning so I can take it back to you.”
Deiliane do Carmo de Araujo Nascimento.
That sentence captures much of what I believe about developing leaders.
Knowledge does not stay with whoever took part. It returns to the community in the form of conversation, inspiration, learning, projects and new possibilities.
When we make sure that a leader can access a space for training, connection and exchange, we are not investing in one person alone. We are strengthening whole networks of relationships, organisations and communities that will be affected by what she learned.
The impact continues after the event
Nobody comes back the same after accessing new experiences.
When a leader widens her repertoire, she influences her peers. When her peers grow stronger, their initiatives grow stronger too. And when the initiatives grow stronger, the whole territory benefits.
The impact does not end when the event ends.
It carries on in the meetings, in the WhatsApp groups, in the workshops, in the projects and in the new connections built from that experience.
A caravan that inspired other territories
What moved me most did not happen during a talk.
It happened when I heard people commenting on the presence of the Campinas caravan at Impacta Mais.
Realising that our mobilisation had caught the attention of other territories made me understand something important: when we manage to build routes that widen access, we show that this can be done by other people and organisations too.
This feeling also came up among the participating leaders. Ana Marília Cândido Lima, a leader connected to the Hub Quilombo Amarais, shared how the experience increased her sense of the possibilities for collective action and of how important it is to occupy spaces where different territories, histories and solutions meet.
More than a trip, the caravan represented an opportunity for exchange, learning and the strengthening of bonds between people committed to social transformation in their territories.
Leaders at the entrance panel
Our presence there did not represent only the participants of that trip. It represented a collective construction, made by many hands, by people who believed that access to knowledge needs to be democratised.
When one territory moves, other territories move too
What began as a local mobilisation ended up inspiring other groups present at the event.
On realising that leaders from Campinas had managed to organise themselves collectively to take part in Impacta Mais, representatives of other territories began to consider building similar initiatives in their own regions.
This is perhaps one of the greatest impacts of experiences like this one: showing that routes can be shared, adapted and multiplied.
The movement that transforms
More and more, I believe that territorial development runs through the capacity to build bridges.
Bridges between people, territories, experiences and opportunities.
When a leader moves, she does not move alone. She carries with her the stories, the challenges and the dreams of her community.
And when she returns, she brings new references, new learning and new possibilities.
That is why I continue to believe that investing in the circulation of leaders is investing in the transformation of territories.
Because, in the end, when a leader moves, the territory moves with them.
And when a territory moves, it inspires other territories to move too.
The Coletivo NaViela went along and recorded the participation — see it here!
Karla Alexandra (Project manager) with her son at a table with Celso (Impact Adviser) the following day — 21/05/26
