Hey there,
since end of last year, I am hosting a weekly Salon for knowledge entrepreneurs and would like to share my lessons learned ✨
You may have noticed that more and more makers and companies are hosting regular events in the form of seminars, office hours, or something similar to a Salon. From my experience, a weekly Zoom call for your audience is very rewarding. In particular - but not restricted to - when you are starting out.
There are so many benefits 💫 so I list them here concise:
I could go on with even more but let's talk about what it takes to start.
Set up was really easy, I just announced the event in the community I am currently most active (Ness Labs) in a post. Then I created an event in Luma so that people could register and add it to their calendar 📆. Luma reminds registered guests of emails before the event starts. It also would make it easier to contact the participants in case something would change. I decided to go with 45 minutes to strike a balance between not filling a full hour but also leaving room for a conversation to evolve.
A Salon is where people increase their knowledge through conversation so I put the focus on one topic for each event and start with a short introduction. From then on it depends on the participants and the conversation where we are going.
For the first event, 20 people showed up, which was quite a large group - especially for a conversation. Of course, most people are not sticking around every week but there are quite a few regulars. Sessions with 9 participants feel ideal in size, especially in the grid layout in Zoom. That way nearly everyone can contribute something and feels seen.
After each session, I summarize my notes in a write-up 📝 (example). This is an important step not only for me to reflect but also to create a permanent record of the event. That way interested audience members can get familiar with the Salon before signing up.
At the same time, there are hardly any disadvantages except maybe the fear of no one turning up for the event.
But even that is not really a problem. I had to move the time of one event recently and "only" three people showed up. The conversation that emerged was one of the best. I had a hard time finishing the write-up in time because of the many insights. So a small group - even just a single guest - is nothing to worry about.
Hopefully, this gives you some idea and sparks your creativity for hosting an event. I believe you won't regret it 🙌
Let me know if you have questions and I'll do my best to answer them here 😀
You can also contact me on Twitter or see the list and write-ups of my Salon events here.
So when is your first event gonna be? 🙋🏽♂️
Thanks for this post, Achim, I am now inspired to consider this format as well.
Thank you, Lukas 😀