Seventeen organizational leaders. Two and a half days. New Orleans, Louisiana. The Values Summit is an intimate cohort experience led by Robert X. Fogarty and Dear World. $5,000 per seat. 17 seats total.
A Dear World Experience
This is not a conference. Not a workshop. It is a reckoning with what your organization actually believes — and a two-and-a-half-day commitment to making those beliefs visible.
The Dear World Values Summit is an intimate two-and-a-half-day cohort experience for seventeen organizational leaders, hosted in New Orleans and led by founder Robert X. Fogarty. Each participant declares a core value, writes it on their skin, sits for their Dear World portrait, and leaves with a Brain Tattoo sentence and a 90-day plan for embedding those values back inside their organization. Investment is $5,000 per seat, with a second seat from the same organization at $4,000.
What This Is
Do your values actually live in your organization, or do they live on a wall?
The Values Summit brings seventeen organizational leaders together in New Orleans for two and a half days with Robert X. Fogarty — founder of Dear World, photojournalist, and one of the world's most recognized practitioners of story-driven culture work.
You will write your value on your skin. You will sit for your portrait. You will leave with language that is unmistakably yours — and a plan for taking it back to the people who need to live it.
Who This Is For
This room is not for everyone. Seventeen seats means we are selective — not exclusive. If this list describes you, there is a seat with your name on it.
You lead a team of 50 or more and feel the gap between your stated values and your daily culture.
You've just gone through a merger, leadership change, or strategic reset — and the old language still lingers.
You're about to launch new values, a new mission, or a rebrand, and you need people to feel it, not just hear it.
You've done the all-hands and the slide deck. You know something has to be different.
You believe stories are the most durable form of organizational truth.
The Experience / October 2026
Day 1
what you actually believe
Arrive in New Orleans. Meet your cohort of seventeen leaders. Robert opens with a single question: when something went wrong — really wrong — did your values show up? Each leader declares one story they have never told in a professional setting. The room shifts.
Day 2
it on your skin
The core of the Dear World experience. You write your value — one word, two words, a phrase — on your arm. You sit for your portrait. Robert leads the Brain Tattoo session: one sentence that captures what you believe, workshopped live until it is unmistakably yours. You leave Day 2 different.
Day 3
to taking it home
What changes when you walk back into your organization? Each participant builds a 90-day values embed plan. Your cohort witnesses it — and holds you to it. Robert closes with a charge. The work that began in this room now has to live in yours.
What You Leave With
The portrait experience is not an add-on. It is the core of what Dear World does — and why the work lasts.
Your Dear World portrait — a professional photograph with the value you wrote on your skin.
Your Brain Tattoo: one sentence that encapsulates what you believe, built live with Robert.
A 90-day organizational values embed plan, built in the room and witnessed by your cohort.
Language for your next all-hands, board presentation, or values launch — tested and yours.
Access to the Dear World Values Summit alumni network.
A values narrative your team can repeat, not just recite.
“Culture doesn't break at the all-hands. It breaks in the hallway, the email chain, and the meeting after the meeting. That's where values have to live.”
Robert X. Fogarty — Founder, Dear World
Why Dear World
Trusted by Google, PayPal, Harvard, Stanford, and hundreds of organizations that need culture to become visible under pressure — not just inspirational at kickoff. Featured in The New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, and ESPN.
94%
of attendees feel more connected to core values immediately after the experience.
30%
reduction in departmental turnover reported after Dear World engagements.
500+
organizations have trusted Dear World to move people, not just message them.
17
seats. That is not a marketing number. It is a design choice.
Investment
Per Seat
All programming — Day 1 through Day 3
Meals throughout the summit
The Dear World portrait session (your photograph)
Brain Tattoo workshop with Robert X. Fogarty
90-day values embed planning session
Values Summit alumni network access
Bringing a +1?
Second seat from the same organization. Same inclusions. We recommend bringing your Chief People Officer, Head of Culture, or the person responsible for your values rollout. The cohort work is stronger when two people from the same organization are in the room together.
Hotel
Not included in the programming fee. We have negotiated a room block at a partner property in New Orleans. Details shared after your application is accepted.
Availability
17 seats. Some are already spoken for.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Seats are confirmed with a 50% deposit.
Apply for a SeatFAQ
17 Seats / October 2026 / New Orleans
Seventeen seats. Two and a half days. One question. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis — when the seats are gone, they are gone.