The Oaks Roundtable
Professional Experts Summit
Three Days · Twenty People · One Summit a Year
The 2026 Summit is complete.
Twenty people. Three days in Westlake Village. A morning in the Situation Room at the Reagan Library, an afternoon of Wisdom Parlor at Sherwood, an evening on the water. The seeds planted there are already growing.
And the next Summit is already being planned.
20
Maximum Seats
3
Full Days
1
Summit Each Year
Dates and location coming soon.
Not a Conference
What Happens at the Summit
The Professional Experts Summit is not a conference. There is no stage. No scroll of speakers. No name badges and networking lunches with people you will never speak to again.
It is twenty people. Three days. Jim Cathcart, the man who has spent fifty years studying what it means to become, sitting at a table with people who are serious about theirs.
“The conversations that change people do not happen in breakout sessions. They happen at dinner, on a walk, in a quiet moment between the agenda and the evening.”
That is what the Summit is built for. Twenty is not a limitation. It is the architecture of real conversation.
The round table. Where the real work happens.
Every handshake means something in this room.
The people in the room are the curriculum.
CPE holders at a past Summit dinner.
Who Comes to the Summit
Twenty People. Serious about Growth.
Certified Professional Experts
CPEs who have built real bodies of work and want to continue building alongside peers who understand the standard.
Jim's Closest Peers
Long-time colleagues, collaborators, and friends from across the professional development world. People who have been in the room for decades.
Emerging Professionals
People earlier in their arc who are serious enough to belong in the room. Not beginners. Builders.
Where We Have Gathered
Past Venues
Each year, the setting is chosen deliberately. Not for convenience, but for character. The work is the same. The place becomes part of the memory.
TN
Nashville
Music and meaning in equal measure.
TX
Austin
Where the West begins and the work gets done.
CA
La Jolla
The view that built the industry.
CA
Santa Barbara
Where Jim Jr. runs the Inn. Where the family gathered.
In Their Own Words
Voices from the Summit
Austin
What the Summit feels like
Santa Barbara
What the Summit feels like
Austin Summit
Christina Richter
0:41
Shandra Livingston
2:12
Daniel Pope
4:28
Sue Graham
0:46
Robin Creasman
1:02
Brian Livingston
0:43
Mike Graham
1:27
Linda Bonner
0:32
Santa Barbara Summit
Beth Robins
1:43
Joseph Todd
0:49
Niki McCuistion
1:26
Ken Rochon
0:41
Jason Cathcart
0:25
Brian Livingston
1:12
The Oaks Roundtable
The Next Summit Is Being Planned
Dates and location coming soon.
Only one Summit is held each year, and the room holds twenty. Those who raise their hand now will hear first when the dates are set. So now is the time.
The Founding Fifty
Become One of the Founding 50
50
CPEs Awarded
0
Remaining
Could you be one of them? Reach out today.
Nurture Your Nature.