Helping communities connect, adapt, and grow in our rapidly changing world
I’m Peter Bowden.
I help community leaders understand how technology is changing human behavior and adapt in ways that strengthen connection, participation, and community life.
My work is rooted in decades of experience with community building, small groups, leadership development, communication, children's television & media production, and digital strategy. I work primarily with leaders of nonprofits, community-centered institutions, and Unitarian Universalist congregations (my home tradition).
An educator at heart, a core part of my work is helping nontechnical people make sense of our rapidly changing digital world. This has included the rise of social media, online video, digital community, and changing patterns of participation.
Today, it increasingly includes artificial intelligence and the larger questions it raises for our lives, relationships, organizations, and society.
If we aren't leading on AI, we aren't leading anymore.
Contact me to discuss events, speaking, strategy sessions, or training for you or your team.
Contact Me
Community Conversations on AI
Artificial intelligence is advancing quickly, but meaningful public understanding and participation are not keeping pace.
My new facilitated Community Conversations on AI events create accessible spaces where people of all levels of technical knowledge and experience can explore the issues being raised by AI.
I design and facilitate events online via Zoom and in the New England area. I limit air travel to larger events. Reach out via my contact form to discuss the possibilities.
These conversations are part of my commitment to strengthening human connection, meaning, agency, and wisdom in the age of AI.
Starting in Fall 2026, I am hosting regular community conversations on AI within my network via Zoom. Think of these as an AI conversation design lab.
Friends, family, and colleagues: Get my Community Conversations on AI invites:
AI Conversations
For Unitarian Universalist Congregations
Through the UU Growth Lab, I help congregations strengthen their communication, newcomer experience, community connections, leadership, and pathways to membership.
My training and consulting translate changing patterns of human behavior into practical strategies for use online, onsite, and throughout congregational life.
Leaders From Other traditions: While the UUs keep me busy, I love leading workshops and trainings for leaders across traditions. Contact me to discuss programs for interfaith / multifaith clergy, seminary classes, denominational staff, and professional chapter groups.
UU Growth LabFrom PBS KIDS to Community & Digital Life!
For twenty years, I served as a producer and educator making live-action activity segments for nationally syndicated PBS KIDS children's television programs.
I worked on programs including Curious George, PEEP and the Big Wide World, Arthur, Martha Speaks, Design Squad Nation, Plum Landing, and Pinkalicious & Peterrific.
I served as a producer, educator, art department, occasional on-camera adult, and sometimes mad mud scientist.
When the 2020 pandemic hit, I shifted to helping communities adapt to digital life full time. That earlier work continues to shape everything I do: approaching change with curiosity, making complex ideas accessible, designing meaningful experiences, and remembering the importance of fun and play!
I bring that energy, enthusiasm and fun into all I do, including media strategy for community organizations and making challenging technical AI conversations more manageable. 😉
