Alexandra: “We’re about to start announcing speakers for Nomad Summit Chiang Mai 2026. But before that, I wanted to share the story behind the program and how it came together.”
If you’ve been following us for a while, you probably know that Nomad Summit’s core mission is simple: help people build a life of freedom. And at Nomad Summit we believe that freedom starts with one very important thing: work.
Yes, travel, self-development, “lifestyle design” — all of that matters. But without a solid way to earn money remotely, it’s very hard to sustain any of it. A remote-friendly career or business is what makes everything else possible: where you live, how you spend your time, how much space you have for family, health, creativity, or just existing without constant money stress.
That’s why, in the way we’re shaping Nomad Summit now, the focus is heavily on work, entrepreneurship, and career building — not just “being a nomad.”
Levels of Work Freedom
Most people reach work freedom step by step, moving through different stages over the years. Roughly, that looks like:
- Getting a remote job
- Mastering a skill and becoming self-employed (freelancer, consultant, solo operator)
- Building and scaling a company
- Learning how to invest and making your money work for you
As a brand, this is the ladder we care about: helping people move from one level of freedom to the next — step by step, in a realistic way.
Program: Build Freedom Through Work
Nomad Summit’s 2026 program is built around these same steps, with the main stage content structured in progression:
- Step In – Land remote work and choose your direction
Start your journey, figure out what kind of work actually supports the life you want, and avoid just recreating a 9–5 with a nicer backdrop.
- Get Set – Turn your skills into a real business
Shape a clear offer, build a brand that stands out, and use strategy (not luck) to bring in the right clients.
- Scale Up – Grow beyond your own capacity
Turn services into scalable offers, build remote teams, and put systems in place so the business isn’t glued to you.
- Seed Wealth – Make your money work for you
Use your income to build long-term security through smart structures and investing, so your freedom isn’t tied to the next project or invoice.
You don’t have to be “on the right level” to get value from a block. Someone just starting out can learn a lot from hearing how seasoned founders think; experienced entrepreneurs can still pick up insights from talks on remote career transitions. But the idea is that the overall flow makes sense as a journey.
Program: Lead On
There are two program blocks that fall outside of the career progression journey. One of them revolves around innovation. New tools, shifting customer behaviour, and emerging platforms keep changing what’s possible for small teams and solo founders — and the people who spot those shifts early usually have an unfair advantage.
The goal of this block is simple: you walk away with a clearer sense of what to pay attention to, what to ignore, and how to adapt your own projects so they don’t get left behind.
Program: Give Back
The other additional block is about something that feels increasingly important to us: what it means to give back as a digital nomad or remote worker.
If you’re able to live and work from another country, you’re operating from a place of privilege. We switch countries, choose our environments, benefit from local ecosystems and infrastructure — and often move on without thinking much about what we leave behind.
In this block, we look at how we can contribute to the places and ecosystems that support our lifestyle, how to do it sustainably without burning out, and how to think about giving back as part of a long-term, freedom-driven life — both in terms of on-the-ground projects that benefit local communities, and the choices we make that affect countries, governments and mobility programs designed for nomads.
At Nomad Summit, we try to ground this sense of responsibility in concrete action:
- We work with local Thai vendors and hire local staff wherever possible,
- ran last year’s Buildathon that paired Thai students with our international attendees to co-create real projects — and planning to make that happen again in 2026,
- and offer special local pricing for Thai nationals.
Moreover, last year we donated 25,000 THB to FERC Thailand (Foundation for the Education of Rural Children, supporting disadvantaged kids in Northern Thailand to finish high school). This money was donated by many of the hosts of the side events during Nomad Week.
This year 100% of admission fees of Nomad Week will help underprivileged children to reach an education level that allows them to make their choice for (or against) a remote work lifestyle. That’s the goal of our donation to FERC.
Over the next weeks, you’ll start seeing the speaker lineup and block themes go live. But I wanted to share the thinking first, so when you see the program, you can also see the logic behind it.
If any of this resonates with where you are in your own journey — or where you want to be — I think you’ll feel at home at the next Nomad Summit.
Get your ticket today!
