As a seasoned journalist, I’ve been to my fair share of professional conferences, networking events and upscale gatherings. At this point, there’s a recipe for what to expect.

  • Name tags.
  • Big city venues.
  • Massive ballrooms.
  • Endless handshakes. 
  • Business card & Linkedin swaps. 

Meaningful? Most times. Memorable? Not always. 

Everything I knew about conferences was flipped upside down when I attended the Diaspora Salon in Marrakech, Morocco this February. But calling this event a conference would be too formal because it was more like an intentional meeting of the minds with one shared mission: turning our individual silos into collective social networks. 

An event by us, about us and for everyone

The Diaspora Salon is the creation of Meryanne Loum-Martin, an award-winning Parisian lawyer turned self-taught interior designer and boutique hotel owner in Marrakech. With numerous connections to the African Diaspora from Senegal to the West Indies to Morocco, Loum-Martin said she wanted to find a way to provide vital connections for Africans and Black Americans. 

“For centuries now, whether it was through colonization or through during slavery, it was very important for us not to know each other, not to connect,” she said. 

The four-day event is set on the grounds of her hotel, Jnane Tamsna, where Loum-Martin hopes her property serves as a platform to help transform lives.  

“We are not lacking talent, we’re lacking access, especially now at a time where some people are trying to remind us how fragile our success is and how permanent is theirs. I think it’s important to create bridges between each other. We are not scattered, we are connected. This is how legacies begin,” said Loum-Martin during her opening remarks at the 2026 Diaspora Salon.

Working with her co-curators, professor and filmmaker Mame-Fatou Niang and cultural entrepreneur Claude Grunitzky, Loum-Martin crafted a series of panel discussions, a film screening, musical performances, and cultural moments under the tagline: “An event by us, about us, and for everyone.”

“We know one thing is for sure: we are from the diaspora…You are from the diaspora, and we want a place where people feel welcome into this circle,” said Mame-Fatou Niang.

“I see the Diaspora Salon as a place where we could come to every year and bring our whole selves and talk about issues related to being Black in this oppressive world of white supremacy,” said Grunitzky. 

This year’s panel discussions crossed the themes of “Reclaiming the Wor(l)d; Writing Our Presence; Futures, Technologies and Business for Generational Wealth;” and “The Wealth of Our Identities,” featuring award-winning authors, historians, journalists, athletes, scholars, policy experts, writers, cultural advocates and tech specialists. 

“We talk about ideas, we talk about experiences, we talk about histories, but above all, we’re talking about people. And this is an experience between people, human experience,” said Young.

The panelists represented voices from across the global diaspora such as authors Heather McGhee (“The Sum of Us”), Alayo Akinkugeb (“Reframing Blackness”) and Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (“The Most Secret Memory Of Men”); Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edda Fields-Black; AI specialist Ovetta Sampson; singer and songwriter China Moses; actor Malik Yoba; and former French politician, Christiane Taubira. 

Unlike most conferences, we weren’t confined to the dimensions of four walls and stuffy boardrooms for the four-day event. Instead, we were surrounded by huge palm trees with the sky as our ceiling, birds chirping in the background and the sun providing natural light for the panelists. Notably, there were also no name tags or badges for attendees and panelists, which was an intentional decision by the curators. 

“You have to speak to the person that you want to get to know. You have to ask them what their name is, where they’re from, and you have to engage in conversation with people,” said  Grunitzky. “And the effort that it takes to start conversations is what I believe is needed to build authentic relationships, versus a lot of relationships that are very transactional, just based on climbing and meeting people who are quote, unquote, important or influential.”

Grunitzy said the location for the Diaspora Salon is just as important as the intentional programming. 

“I also feel like it’s important for us to be on the African continent as we have these conversations where we try to find commonalities, shared affinities, between various members of our global tribe of the African diaspora,” he said. 

The Magic of Morocco

From the bright, warm colors in the entryway to the intimate yet welcoming library to the lush greenery throughout the property, the grounds of Jnane Tamsna laid the foundation for genuine connections. Throughout the week, I found myself having dozens of authentic conversations with people I had met days or even hours before. There was a sense of ease, comfort and safety that isn’t the norm for most networking events. 

“It becomes a place of healing, in the true sense of taking care of self and of others. It’s also a place of learning,” said Young. “It’s bringing us back to the Latin roots of curate, you know, like curate to, to heal, to heal by choosing.”

First-time attendee Natasha Cozart, a Haitian American luxury real estate specialist in South Florida, described the Diaspora Salon as a mecca for trailblazers. 

“I feel a network has grown, the collaborations, the experiences, not just business, but friendship, sisterhood,” said Cozart. “It’s space that is nourishing and cultivating the next generation to come, and that’s what I appreciated, too. We had the age spans, we had the diversity and backgrounds.”

She said she’s leaving the Salon with a renewed sense of purpose.

“Let’s refuel our energy into self, into grounding,” said Cozart. “We are here. It’s already ours. There’s nothing to fight for now. Define what your impact will be moving forward.”

Growth without losing intimacy

From our first conversation, Meryanne Loum-Martin told me that she wants the Diaspora Salon to remain an intimate gathering. This year, roughly 120 people attended the second annual event, doubling last year’s attendance.   

“I think that everyone has left with 120 new friends and also the conversations were powerful,” she said. “I think that you need moments where you’re not here for business, but you’re just here to make your mind think and connect.”

In the future, Loum-Martin said she also wants to work with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to bring students to the Diaspora Salon, giving them access to another network of entrepreneurs and opportunities.

“HBCU students might not find the right internship [in the US], they could find it in Paris, where there’s some Black enterprise. They could find it in Africa. They could find it in other countries,” she said. “I think that I would feel with what is going on now that people are trying to shrink my horizon, and […] being connected to the diaspora is a way to expand it.”

As she looks ahead to the future, Loum-Martin said she doesn’t want this convening ever to grow beyond 180 to 200 people.

“Because it’s all about connecting. It’s not about creating a festival with thousands of people. It’s about creating a community,” she said\. 

Want to go? Here’s how

Next year’s Diaspora Salon will be held March 21-24, 2027, in Marrakech. Learn more about the nonprofit organization behind the Diaspora Salon at its website.

MORE FROM THE URL MEDIA NETWORK