The FGCU Storytelling Summer Conference, entitled Storytelling as Healing: Curiosity and Compassion, will be held from June 5 to 7, 2026, at Florida Gulf Coast University, in Fort Myers. The event will showcase the art and craft of telling oral stories that creates community and connection and how its foundation of curiosity leads to compassion.

The proceedings will kick-off on Friday with a reception at 5:30 p.m. followed by Tell & Talk: Stories and Conversation on Curiosity and Compassion featuring Kim Weitkamp and Sue O’Halloran from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in Room 106 of Academic Building 9’s auditorium.

On June 6, Weitkamp will lead a How to Craft and Tell Personal Stories workshop from 9 to 10:30 a.m. and O’Halloran will present Stories for a Change: Creating Curiosity and Compassion from 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in the Community Room 138 of the same building. After a lunch break, the same room will be the site for a one-hour panel discussion starting at 2 p.m. featuring Weitkamp, O’Halloran, Joel Ying and other experts followed by a Story Coaching Circle with many featured tellers from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. The final activity after dinner on that day will be a performance by Weitkamp from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in Room 106 of the same building.

The event will culminate with a Storytelling Circle with the Tamiami Tale Tellers, the local Fort Myers Storytelling Guild, during which attendees can listen and/or bring their own stories, from 10 a.m. to noon in Room 138 of the same building.

Location: 10501 FGCU Blvd. S., Fort Myers. For more information or to obtain tickets, visit fgcustorytelling.com/conference.