How Hosting Works: An overview

Overview

If you’re reading this, it means we’re chatting about potentially hosting Skip The Small Talk event(s) in your space! Thank you for your interest. We hope this info page may provide some initial details to clarify what this community is all about, as well as address some common questions and concerns of first-time hosts.

Backstory

Since our start in Boston in 2015, we have hosted over 1,000 events in over 25 cities. Folks have Skip the Small Talked all across North America as well as a few cities in Europe, including in French! It’s meant so much to us to grow in this way, and to bring intentionality to the different ways that individuals experience isolation and loneliness in different places around the world. Upcoming events across all cities, including specialty events such as LGBTQIA+, may be accessed on our website.


We’ve been very fortunate to find venues who offer to lend us the space and we generally fill a space on an otherwise slow or off night – this is not the only reason in which hosting an event with us makes sense for a business, but it is quite common. We have maintained such solid venue relationships that every venue we’ve hosted at has asked us to return for another event. We’ve distilled down some of the most important details of what’s worked well in the past for you below.

Our Format (at a glance)

What this event DOES DO

  • Gathers people from various backgrounds and interests, adjoined by the goal of connecting meaningfully through partnered conversations

  • Tickets 30+ guests for first event, to increase over time

  • Provides seating options for all guests for ≈2 hours

  • It runs itself – Excluding any tasks a venue prefers to handle, our local Lead and generally an extra helper will be available for all setup, facilitation, and cleanup

  • Technically requires a microphone for instructions, a facilitator-provided bell to signify when guests should progress to the next activity, and projector/screen (only if available) for visual cues

  • Provides accessibility where possible– These “nice-to-haves” which we include in promotion may be wheelchair access, public transit, gender neutral bathrooms, chairs with backs, ample space for bigger bodies to move around, and allergy-friendly F&B

What this event DOESN’T DO

  • Therapy – While many guests find our events to be therapeutic, this is not marketed as nor designed to be a substitute for therapy

  • Networking – Some guests have met business partners, but it’s not generally why they attend

  • Host outside without a backup space indoors

  • Enforce drink minimums – We’ve actually found that our guests buy more food & drink from our hosts without drink minimums

  • Require a fully-private room – While this is nice, many of our long-time venues allow us to pop up in semi-private sections of their space

  • Market itself– We’ve found that our long-term venue relationships have been built through co-marketing. A willingness to put up shared social media posts, add us to your calendar(s), and putting up posters/flyers leading up to the event, as a few examples, not only highly affects attendance, but bar/merchandise sales

 

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