Salon Gathering: Community outside your space

Published June 29, 2008 in FWD:labs

Mike Rohde’s sketch of Gary Vaynerchuk’s talk

Recently at the SEED 3 conference in Chicago, Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library TV, a daily internet webcast on the subject of wine with a “unpretentious, gonzo approach”, spoke about the importance of fostering community with online networks. Mike Rohde, a designer and writer in Wisconsin, sketched his notes and posted them online:

COMMUNITY
Get outside and spend time with people in your space and outside your space.

That’s exactly what we did last Friday. (Minus the likes of Gary and Mike, at least for the time being.)

The latest FWD:labs salon gathering, taking up the outside patio lounge at the Wilshire on a luke-warm Santa Monica evening, was another success. The event brought together a mix of cinema-savvy creatives along with their afficionados and audiences. Several were repeat attendees of a previous salon, enthusiastic about coming again.

Unique to these gatherings, we fast-forward past the networking and shop talk and instead hit the slow-mo for embracing conversation and fostering community. Being a small invite-only group, most know someone who knows someone, but there’s still a lot of outspoken energy and enthusiasm about reinvigorating creativity and building friendships.

Nobody has to collaborate, but they all could, many have, and some just might in the future. But for these cocktails and coffees, it’s about celebrating community outside your bubble.

In two weeks, the next meet-up is on Saturday, July 12th. The coffee’s on me.

— Aaron Proctor
Founder, FWD:labs
Director of Photography site
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3 Comments

Commentary

Aaron, thanks so much for the mention and the kind words. From the sound of the event, Gary and I would have had a great time if we were there! :-)

Thanks!

Mike

Mike Rohde #

Mike, you are very welcome and thank you for posting a comment!

I realize now that there’s this whole other facet to this blog post. I knew of your talent for illustrating coffee, but I see you have a strong preference for good coffee.

It surely makes a difference to go out of your way for a powerful cup, but it’s especially nice when you can connect it to your creative talents. One reason I have the FWD:labs salon gatherings hit up a cafe every month is certainly to stir the melting pot for artists with the best cups around in hand. You’ll never see us at Starbucks. ;-)

proctor #

[…] see a previous post which cited a quote from Gary about the importance of fostering community with online networks. […]

Dailies: Content and Community of Gary Vaynerchuk / Fast Forward - FWD:labs #

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