People are craving intimacy; design rooms accordingly.
observation — attributed to Lisa Belzberg
Belzberg's current focus has moved from the large institutional program to smaller, more intimate gatherings. Her diagnosis of the moment is that people are craving intimacy, friendship, and authentic relationships. Once she knows what someone wants, putting them in a room with the right other people feels right. The principle is operationally simple and structurally hard. It requires the host to actually know what each participant wants, which requires asking and listening. Hosts who put strangers together based on professional category produce networking events. Hosts who put strangers together based on what each one is actually craving produce relationships that compound for years.
For private hosts, salon designers, and conveners running small intimate gatherings. The observation is most useful as a frame against transactional networking-event design.
intimacy, small-gatherings, authentic-relationships, host-instinct