The purpose of this document is to explain the process for hosting salon dinners, as well as some lessons learned, having hosted more than 100 of these kinds of dinners.

Most of the process is handled by my EA, so my total time involvement in setting these up is pretty minimal. My only involvement is in 1) setting the topic and 2) deciding who attends.

Process

Here are the steps I take to invite people, decline people, etc.

I have my EA do all but 2 of the steps below.

Step 1

The first step is to decide on a topic.

Here's a list of all the topics we're considering and some of the topics we've hosted in the past. I only pick topics that I'm personally interested in talking about with other folks.

Salon Schedule

I then usually go to ChatGPT to generate some “motivating questions” to give people a sense of what we’ll be discussing. Example:

<aside> 💡 For the salon dinner on “The Bundling and Unbundling of Religion”, I wrote:

I'm hosting a salon dinner on the topic of "the bundling and unbundling of religion". The main idea is that there are specific things about religion that people reject... but they then fill with a secular equivalent. For example, saying "gratitudes" before a meal instead of "saying grace". Or "manifesting" rather than "praying". Can you create 4 motivating questions for the group to spur conversation?

And ChatGPT returned:

  1. What are some other examples of traditional religious practices that have been repackaged into secular or non-denominational practices, and what might this suggest about the enduring human needs or desires they fulfill?
  2. In the process of unbundling and rebundling religious practices into secular contexts, what elements or aspects of the original practice do you believe are lost or gained? How does this impact the experience or its effectiveness?
  3. How do these secular adaptations of religious practices contribute to or influence people's understanding and perception of religion, spirituality, and morality in an increasingly secular world?
  4. Given the rise of "spiritual but not religious" identification and practices, what do you think is the future of organized religion? How might it adapt or evolve in response to these trends? </aside>

Step 2

I have my assistant draft the email and send it to everyone on the invite list.

You can find a recording of the entire process she uses here:

Salon Logistics

Step 3

Create a calendar event.

The time that I've found works best is 7pm - 9:30.

The title is usually something like "Corcos Salon; The Future of Education (K-12)"

The description is generally something like:

Description: We look forward to hosting you Tuesday at our Salon dinner.

Address: 10 E 14th St, PH, New York Time: 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm Access: <doorbell? other?>

We'll be seated for dinner at 7:30 pm sharp! So please arrive between 7pm and 7:30pm.

Background Material: <insert here>

Questions: <insert here>

Please let us know as soon as possible if you have any dietary restrictions. Feel free to bring a bottle of wine if you like, but it is not necessary.

Additional Details

Devices: We want to make these salons an analog experience. We ask that you turn off your phones and not check them during the dinner, but if you need to keep your phone on you, we understand—though we ask that you use it away from the table of possible.

Conversation: We try to keep a single conversation at the table to facilitate engagement. We’ll do intros at the beginning.

Sam's number: 415 515 4630

Waitlist