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Sunset over the sea on the Cayman Islands, with amber and violet light spreading across the water and the ironshore in the foreground.
RISE Cayman wordmark Rise Cayman

01A personal invitation

Hope needs a
base camp.

Redemptive media doesn’t have one. No single place where the people who make brave stories gather, plan, and send them out. We think it belongs on an island whose national motto is a line of scripture, and from April 30 to May 2, 2027 we’re planting the flag.

  • Cayman Islands
  • April 30 – May 2, 2027
  • Four days
  • One island

02Shared language

Your story already speaks the language of RISE.

You have spent a career telling people that the way through is courage, kindness, and never giving up. We are building four days in the Caribbean around almost the same sentence.

We did not write these values to match yours. We just kept noticing how closely they already read.

  • CourageFaith
  • KindnessFamily
  • Never give upHope
  • ResilienceBeauty
  • Leadership, teamworkCommunity
  • Faith and familyLegacy

Left column: themes stated publicly on beargrylls.com. Right column: the values RISE Cayman is being built on. The pairing is our reading, not his.

03The larger vision

A global home for redemptive media.

Stories that tell the truth, dignify people, and restore hope.

RISE Cayman’s working definition

Stories that do not look away from darkness, and refuse to leave the audience there.

Plenty of media is honest about how dark things get. Plenty more is cheerful enough to be useless. Very little manages both at once, and an audience can feel the difference inside ninety seconds.

So the work is not softer stories. It is braver ones, made well enough to earn a wide screen, and made by people who actually believe a person can be handed back some hope on the way out of the room.

Aerial view of George Town harbour on Grand Cayman, with turquoise water, a cruise ship offshore and the low waterfront skyline beyond.

04Why Cayman  ·  19.3133° N   81.2546° W

Small island. Global horizon.

Global by instinct

Cayman does business with the world every ordinary Tuesday. Capital, law, and travel already move through here, so a story launched from this island does not start local and hope to travel.

Intimate by scale

You can cross the whole thing in an afternoon. The people you need are twenty minutes away, and nobody is losing an hour in traffic to reach the room.

Room to exhale

Beautiful enough to let people put their shoulders down and imagine again, which is usually where the good work quietly begins.

A fresh signal

A Caribbean point of origin for stories shaped by courage and hope, coming from somewhere the industry has not already mapped and pre-judged.

No government support, venue, or partner arrangement is claimed or implied in this document.

05A movement, not a moment

The gathering is the spark.
The ecosystem is the fire.

Four days is long enough to move a room. It is not long enough to move an industry, so the festival is designed as the front door of something that keeps working after everyone flies home.

Proposed vision, not an existing operation

  1. Gather

    Artists, filmmakers, families, funders, and faith leaders, in one place, at the same time, for long enough to matter.

  2. Convene

    Trusted relationships and honest conversations, held in small rooms where people can say the true thing.

  3. Make

    Incubate and support excellent stories, with the craft, capital, and candour that good work actually requires.

  4. Send

    Launch those stories into the world, on the platforms and screens where they can reach real audiences.

Gather, Convene, Make, and Send describe an intended structure. Beyond the RISE Cayman gathering itself, none of it exists yet as a funded or operating entity.

Overhead view of two swimmers in clear shallow turquoise water off a pale Cayman beach.

06RISE Cayman  ·  the gathering

The part that is already on the calendar.

10,000+Expected attendance

3+Curated stages

4Days

Apr 30 – May 22027  ·  Emancipation Day May 3

CaymanIslands

Multi-venueAcross the islands

Four days of music, story, faith, and community, staged across the Cayman Islands. RISE Cayman is being built as an international platform for faith, music, and redemptive media.

The roster is still being assembled, so you would not be joining a finished bill. You would be joining early, while the shape of the thing can still be influenced by the people in it.

Attendance and stage counts are RISE Cayman’s own planning projections for April 30 – May 2, 2027, not audited or ticketed figures. No artists, venues, sponsors, or production partners are confirmed in this document.

07Why you

Not celebrity.
A founding signal.

There are louder names available to a festival. There are very few whose involvement makes a room assume the thing is serious about people.

That is the whole ask here, and it is why this letter went to you rather than to an agency roster.

Resilience people trust

You have been public about the hard parts for two decades, so the courage reads as earned rather than staged.

Reach across generations and borders

Grandparents, teenagers, and a good number of countries in between already know who you are.

A storyteller’s instinct

You have made and hosted enough television to know the difference between a story that moves people and one that merely moves fast.

A bridge between worlds

Adventure, faith, family, leadership, and media rarely sit at one table. You have credibility in all five.

Permission for other brave creators

People watch what you take seriously. Your presence would tell other courageous makers that this is worth a look.

To be plain about it: you have not accepted anything, you have not been asked to endorse anything, and no relationship exists between Bear Grylls and RISE Cayman. This page is our case, not your commitment.

08The invitation

Come as a speaker. Leave as part of the movement, if it feels right.

Speak

A keynote, or a fireside conversation if that suits you better. Your material, your framing, your call on length.

Bring your family

Real time in Cayman with Shara and the boys, off the clock, with as much or as little visibility as you want.

Sit at the founders’ table

One small, private, unrecorded conversation with creators, producers, funders, and faith leaders.

Explore what comes next

Only if the mission and the people genuinely align. There is no version of this where the answer has to be yes.

No title assumed. No endorsement presumed. The relationship comes first.

A single person resting on a wide, empty stretch of pale Cayman sand where clear shallow water meets the shore.

09The proposed experience

Built around meaning. With room to breathe.

Proposed outline  ·  nothing here is fixed

  1. Friday, April 30

    Arrive and exhale

    A quiet landing, no obligations, then a private welcome and a sunset supper with a handful of people worth knowing.

  2. Saturday, May 1

    The conversation

    Your headline moment on the RISE Cayman stage, and the rest of the day to experience the gathering however you like.

  3. Sunday, May 2

    The founders’ table

    A private morning session, then a redemptive-story salon with makers and funders. Small room, honest talk, no cameras.

  4. Monday, May 3  ·  Emancipation Day

    Open and unhurried

    Nothing scheduled before noon. Family time, water, rest, and one clear conversation about whether there is a next chapter.

This is a proposed schedule only. Travel, timings, privacy, security, and family arrangements would be built entirely around your team’s requirements for April 30 – May 3, 2027.

10What a yes could make possible

A credible beginning with a global echo.

Four things become reachable that are difficult to reach any other way, and none of them depend on a stage.

  1. A trusted convening

    A room that serious people accept an invitation to, because of who is already sitting in it.

  2. A shared charter

    An agreed standard for redemptive storytelling that makers can point to, argue with, and hold each other to.

  3. A launch point

    Cayman as the place new projects are shaped, funded, and sent, rather than one more conference on the circuit.

  4. A signal to the next ones

    Proof for younger makers that courage, craft, faith, and hope deserve the biggest screens we can get them onto.

These are possibilities under discussion, not commitments, funded programmes, or agreements with any third party.

11The ask

Say yes to a first conversation.

Not a contract, not a date hold, not an announcement. One call with your team to see whether any of this is worth more of your attention.

  • ·  Availability around April 30 – May 3, 2027
  • ·  The speaking format that suits you best
  • ·  Travel, privacy, and family considerations
  • ·  Whether the wider vision deserves a second conversation
Prepared by
Kenny Klepacki
Phone & WhatsApp
+1 727 688 3588
The gathering
risecayman.com
The dates
April 30 – May 2, 2027
Emancipation Day, May 3
Start the conversation
Turquoise Cayman water breaking in a thin white line onto an empty stretch of golden sand, seen from directly above.
RISE Cayman wordmark Rise Cayman

12Cayman Islands  ·  April 30 – May 2, 2027

Come down. Speak from the heart.
Help us set the compass.

Together, let’s give brave stories a home, and send hope from these shores to the world.

The Tide Is Rising.

Sources, disclaimers, and asset notice

Not confirmed. Bear Grylls has not been booked, has not accepted any invitation, and is not affiliated with, associated with, or endorsing RISE Cayman or any related venture. No relationship exists between Bear Grylls and RISE Cayman. This document is an unsolicited invitation prepared for his and his representatives’ consideration, and it contains no quotations from him.

Sources. RISE Cayman details from risecayman.com. Bear Grylls themes and background from beargrylls.com. No artists, venues, partners, sponsors, budgets, government commitments, or production arrangements are confirmed or implied anywhere in this deck. Attendance and stage figures are RISE Cayman planning projections. The redemptive-media ecosystem described on slides five and ten is a proposed vision rather than an operating entity.

Imagery. Photography in this deck is temporary working imagery and must be replaced with fully licensed campaign assets before any broad public promotion. No image of Bear Grylls is used, and no AI-generated likeness of any person appears in this document.

Prepared privately for Bear Grylls and his representatives by Kenny Klepacki. Not for public distribution.