How to plan the perfect gathering: start with purpose

So you’re planning an event. A staff meeting. A dinner party. A team offsite. An outing with your best friend.

What's the purpose?

No, be more specific. Why are you getting these people together at this time? Sorry, go deeper. Deeper still! Ah, there we have it.

Now that you've found your purpose, you're ready to plan your event in a way that will accomplish your goals and, in the process, truly honor your guests.

"The Art of Gathering," by Priya Parker, shook up the way I think about getting people together. The most impactful book I’ve read this year, it reshaped how I think about everything from corporate offsites to weddings, team meetings to dinner parties. I started reading the public-library version of the book and was taking so many notes that I bought my own copy so I can refer back to it often. It's now peppered with sticky notes to remind me of gems like this:

“When we gather, we often make a mistake of conflating category with purpose. We outsource our decisions and our assumptions about our gathering to people, formats, and contexts that are not our own. We get lulled into the false belief that getting knowing the category of gathering — the board meeting, workshop, party, town hall — will be instructive to designing it. We often choose the template -– the activities and structure that go along with it -– before we're clear on our purpose."

In addition to helping you find your event's purpose, Parker gives you the knowledge and courage to exclude people wisely, choose the right venue, host with intention and attention, create connections between the guests, and open and close for maximum emotional impact.