I've hosted many hundreds of events over the last decade. These are my key takeaways for how to not burn out, and how to design events that others enjoy and want to come back to.
- structure/timing
- open-invite style for maximum cross-pollination and ease of bringing friends
- biweekly or monthly cadence for ease of calendaring and making it feel more like church or another recurring/preditable social/community experience
- event reminders (for busy/distracted ppl with time blindness)
- avenues for creativity (micro zines, open mics, art supplies, etc.)
- zones / feeling welcomed to accommodate whatever energy level people show up with
- conversation prompts (help people be less boring/predictable, and help conversations generate stronger social cohesion)
- importance of meeting diverse needs
- (over)stimulation of activities / environments
- bathrooms
- food
- timing flexibility / lateness
- mobility options (sitting vs standing vs. walking vs. public transit)
- followups (to collect feedback, express gratitude, share future events, and encourage people to connect)
- pricing
- sliding scale payment (zero is always an option. no one feels as comfortable inviting a friend if the friend then has to pay)
- tech stack:
- partiful (free event pages, easy to collect donations, automated reminders, effortless social discovery for attendees)
- substack for mailing list (free to send to all followers)
- low effort website (getrealnice, strikingly, etc.)
- venue selection
- food court
- walks
- friend's apartment
- community spaces that want to host events already
- philosophy
- I've been hosting hygge dinners and hikes for nearly 10 years. The hygge hikes for me feel like a replacement for church. We're finding community and sharing ourselves, our curiosities, our philosophies, and our struggles together. We never know who will show up each time, but it's always nice when we see familiar faces, and it's always exciting when we see new faces. I like the pilgrimage aspect, where we know roughly where we're starting, and where we'd ultimately like to get to, but we're willing to be surprised (and invariably challenged) along the way. I bristled against the compulsory movement directives of Catholic Church growing up (being told when to sit and stand), so I particularly like the freeform element where people can join at anytime and frolic away at any time as well, always welcome to rejoin the flock, even if it's many hours later. I also find a sense of personal security in better mapping my feet physiologically to the world around me, so mixing up each hike with a new neighborhood brings me emotional solace.