
Synopsis:
The article centers on the author’s regret over not securing a lasting legacy for CongRegation, a distinctive event now in its 13th year. While its digital footprint and attendee memories offer some legacy, they are fragile and impermanent. The author fears that without formal structures, CongRegation could vanish quickly if they step away. Despite its potential to influence how people connect and learn globally, its continuity is threatened by the author’s solo management. To protect and grow its legacy, they now plan to document processes, build a team, and enable others to lead—transforming a personal project into a shared legacy. The article centers on the author’s regret over not securing a lasting legacy for CongRegation, a distinctive event now in its 13th year. While its digital footprint and attendee memories offer some legacy, they are fragile and impermanent. The author fears that without formal structures, CongRegation could vanish quickly if they step away. Despite its potential to influence how people connect and learn globally, its continuity is threatened by the author’s solo management. To protect and grow its legacy, they now plan to document processes, build a team, and enable others to lead—transforming a personal project into a shared legacy.
Total Words
Reading Time in Minutes
4
Key Takeaways:
- A lasting legacy requires more than memories and digital records—it needs structure and shared ownership.
- Sole responsibility can limit an initiative’s future; sustainability depends on collaboration and succession.
- Capturing knowledge and processes is essential to turning an event into a repeatable, scalable model.
- Letting go of control can empower others to evolve and expand the original vision.
About Eoin Kennedy:
Ex teacher, marketing lecturer, startup founder, PR professional, events organiser, digital marketing head and currently working as a content strategist. The slave behind CongRegation.
Contacting Eoin Kennedy

During an interview in 2024 with serial CongRegation attendee Alec Taylor, he asked me what was my biggest regret with CongRegation.
My reaction was more immediate than I expected. I regret that I have not created a sustainable structure for CongRegation to ensure it continued future – in effect its enduring Legacy.
CongRegation enters its 13th year and although each year it has evolved, from a single one day event to 9 events over three days, the single biggest point of failure still remain with me.
If I decide to running CongRegation that it is extremely unlikely to continue.
Yes there will be a legacy.
The digital footprint is deep, with 12 years of fascinating submissions and social media posts but these can disappear in one search engine algorithm change or hosting crash. Attendees memories will also fade – how many of us struggle to remember events that at the time were really important to us. Although I hope CongRegation will also evoke an emotional reaction rather than intellectual. The connections made over the weekend will probably endure even longer as people build on those relationships. Cong, the village where it takes place, will replace the weekend with something else and the conservative 250K euro that it brought in will be forgotten. All this could happen extremely fast.
This would be a shame, not just for the loss of the weekend where most of the action happens but more so for the incredible potential to extend and redefine its legacy by taking the learnings and bringing CongRegation to other audiences in other countries and influence how people connect and learn.
So what is blocking a continued legacy.
The main reason is probably that I have fully internalised the processes and learnings and continue to run the event singled handedly, rather than assembling a team.
The reasons for this are simple and complex. Originally my plan was to monetise the model. This was successfully done in Ireland but licensing in other countries came close to fruition but fell at the final hurdle.
The logistics behind CongRegation are complicated with a disproportional amount of time and effort needed before the event and multiple spinning wheels. Most events are fairly simple – get a bunch of people into a room, line up some people to speak to them and sell the tickets. With the CongRegation model everyone has a dual roles of speaker and attendees and there needs to be a reasonably strong motivation to engage.
On a more personal level I am also conscious that I need to move beyond playing the ‘martyr’ and get over myself. Despite my belief I am not the only one who can do this, it dies if I protect too much and others can help it evolve into something even more powerful.
This year I hope to take some steps to secure a more lasting Legacy but also to create a structure where others can guide this legacy. This includes a few key actions
- Documentation: Capture everything into a single implementation manual/guide. Turn tact knowledge into tangible IP.
- Ownership: Expand guidance, control and input into the event with steering group and execution team.
- Succession planning. Recruit and train committed individuals to learn and run the event.
- Step Back: Give agency to others to execute the event while I look to expand to other locations
The Legacy of CongRegation is an unwritten story but one that I could influence.