Here are some lessons learned and questions raised (in addition to all the topics we covered!) after Friday night’s dry-run:
1) The sleepover idea is probably less suited to Cincinnati than to, say, San Francisco or other large metropolis. Here, people live close enough to walk or drive home, so it’s not like they’d have to navigate BART or other hassle in order to get to and from the event.
2) Not many people seem keyed-up to attend an event unless they know an agenda in advance. Some said that this is “a Cincinnati thing”. If so, perhaps the choice needs to be made between more people and pre-planned objectives for the event OR a small group of more possibility-driven people willing to drive the agenda themselves. I don’t think one is necessarily better than the other, but trying to be both might lead to some headaches and disappointments.
3) Some people are talking about doing a slickly marketed, party-like event (flashy logos, ‘hot’ image, fire-eaters and a live band, etc). In that case, the challenge might be trying to have a conversation within that, and producing a gathering that’s not just a clone of so many other events. What I like about the direction this idea looks to is that it suggests doing cool stuff, and letting the informal social networks blossom around those activities. I’ve seen this happen with my Cincinnati Salon and Cincinnati Supper Club: People show up to hear and talk about a given topic, or to have some dinner, and end up making new friendships and creating new value in unpredictable and wonderful ways.
The question then becomes: What cool stuff are we to do that takes us beyond talking but still stimulates that ongoing conversation and local action?
Big thanks to all who took a chance on the unknown and came out on a Friday night to make things so worthwhile!
[...] 25th, 2007 by Jackie Danicki Here are just a few of the subjects we touched on during Friday night’s conversation. Please feel free to add your two cents in the [...]