You know, I think my jiu jitsu school meets a lot of these criteria. I've also (anecdotally) seen a lot of serendipitous encounters, and benefited from those interactions over the years.
Well, a lot of the ingredients you suggest are organically present: there's a diverse group of folks from a bunch of different professions and backgrounds. They are all inherently at least a little open to new experiences since they're training jiu jitsu together and it's 2023.
The "trigger" is everyone getting together to train (ostensibly, anyway - a lot of it is hanging out and interacting with people you care about more broadly). Outcomes can vary depending on what actions folks take, but I like to jot down notes to follow up w/folks if we are starting to have an interesting conversation.
I've certainly met folks I would not have otherwise come across, and some of them have been the right person at the right time.
Seriously. Reading the David Spink´s Newsletter is having a blast while at the same time generating enough wisdom to improve what´s needed. Great read as always my friend! Eager to be part of the community =)
For my community (a live music/DJ event series) - I make a particular point if I meet people IRL (serendipitously?) that seem to align with our values/interests...to personally invite them to future events. Then, once we're at the actual event, when I MC - I sprinkle in moments throughout to "introduce yourself to someone you don't know", "we're all in this space together", etc. As you said, people sometimes do struggle with "people'ing", and you need to guide them a bit.
At our most recent event, it was cool to see so many of these people who individually showed up, in active, lively, and engaged conversations with each other...little did they know I "engineered" who was there - with the goal of those 'serendipitous' interactions being of a high caliber.
I'm still struggling with the "in-between" events window of maintaining that same kind of energy, and wonder if there's a point I can get to where it feels less manual. But I'm always reminded that it's worth it - numerous people have gone on to creatively collaborate, forge friendships, relationships and more. Tracing it back for many of them - the community was a catalyst in making those types of things happen.
Thanks for this post - hits on a lot of stuff I'm constantly thinking about.
on the "in between" experience, one way to look at it as that the followup and valuable outcomes of the serendipity sparked at your events IS the in between.
you don't have to facilitate every part of a community experience... you just need to be the spark
that said, if you did want to explore doing more connection in between events, i'd look at opportunities to involve members of the community in the cocreation of the experiences. as members get more involved in your community, there's a good chance they'd be motivated to take on a more active role. maybe you can give them that chance
Would buy the shirt:).
WHO wouldn´t? =)
haha that's three!
You know, I think my jiu jitsu school meets a lot of these criteria. I've also (anecdotally) seen a lot of serendipitous encounters, and benefited from those interactions over the years.
Love it! Any specific tactics come to mind in how they engineer serendipity?
Well, a lot of the ingredients you suggest are organically present: there's a diverse group of folks from a bunch of different professions and backgrounds. They are all inherently at least a little open to new experiences since they're training jiu jitsu together and it's 2023.
The "trigger" is everyone getting together to train (ostensibly, anyway - a lot of it is hanging out and interacting with people you care about more broadly). Outcomes can vary depending on what actions folks take, but I like to jot down notes to follow up w/folks if we are starting to have an interesting conversation.
I've certainly met folks I would not have otherwise come across, and some of them have been the right person at the right time.
Seriously. Reading the David Spink´s Newsletter is having a blast while at the same time generating enough wisdom to improve what´s needed. Great read as always my friend! Eager to be part of the community =)
Thanks so much Alex!
For my community (a live music/DJ event series) - I make a particular point if I meet people IRL (serendipitously?) that seem to align with our values/interests...to personally invite them to future events. Then, once we're at the actual event, when I MC - I sprinkle in moments throughout to "introduce yourself to someone you don't know", "we're all in this space together", etc. As you said, people sometimes do struggle with "people'ing", and you need to guide them a bit.
At our most recent event, it was cool to see so many of these people who individually showed up, in active, lively, and engaged conversations with each other...little did they know I "engineered" who was there - with the goal of those 'serendipitous' interactions being of a high caliber.
I'm still struggling with the "in-between" events window of maintaining that same kind of energy, and wonder if there's a point I can get to where it feels less manual. But I'm always reminded that it's worth it - numerous people have gone on to creatively collaborate, forge friendships, relationships and more. Tracing it back for many of them - the community was a catalyst in making those types of things happen.
Thanks for this post - hits on a lot of stuff I'm constantly thinking about.
this is awesome, thanks so much for sharing Isaac
on the "in between" experience, one way to look at it as that the followup and valuable outcomes of the serendipity sparked at your events IS the in between.
you don't have to facilitate every part of a community experience... you just need to be the spark
that said, if you did want to explore doing more connection in between events, i'd look at opportunities to involve members of the community in the cocreation of the experiences. as members get more involved in your community, there's a good chance they'd be motivated to take on a more active role. maybe you can give them that chance
thanks so much seth! it seemed like the right story to tell (=