For a thrilling week every summer, explorers arrive by the dozen at NG headquarters for the Explorers Symposium, to meet and inspire each other, to share ideas, and to plan how we can help tell their stories over the coming year.

Today was the first day of meetings and it was full of fascinating ideas and great quotes (which you can see featured in tweets from @NatGeoExplorers).

You don’t have to be an explorer to have an influence on this crew though. One of the most mind-blowing moments was when T.H. Culhane walked into the room with a glass full of soda lighting up a lightbulb. And this didn’t just come out of his head, he got the idea last