What’s this I hear about a salon (and what the heck is it)?

- by Scott Cole, CEO / Co-founder

Why a salon?

As the Collectivity team was working through our year end retreat, we wondered about how we might bring thought leaders together for intentional conversations about challenges we are facing in our communities. What would motivate busy leaders to take time away from their already full days to gather for conversation?

We landed on the idea of hosting a series of quarterly conversation circles that would be casual from a social perspective, but intentional from an “intellectual” perspective (the topics would be relevant to the day, and meaningful to the work of leaders).  It occurred to the oldest one in the group (me :) that this could be like the enlightenment era salon - fun (social), yet stimulating and useful (and mission relevant).  

What is a salon?

Historically, the term “salon” has been used to describe a gathering of people centered on knowledge sharing. Early salons were largely organized by women and hosted in their homes, hence the term salon. They discussed weighty topics women weren’t typically able to participate in, given the male dominated societies they lived in. The aim was to increase awareness of a given topic through intentional conversation with other participants. 

The salon is a moldable platform used to amplify voices, brainstorm system-level changes, and be a growing and shared knowledge bank to refer back to and reflect upon. Participant knowledge and experience is critical to the success of the salon, where the combined “sum of the parts” becomes greater than the whole. 

How will the salon work?

Using the concept of the salon, Collectivity will invite executive leaders within our client base and close associates for the opportunity to come together, collaborate, and engage in conversations generating ideas and actions to address challenges we face. We’ll help facilitate the conversation, but the group(s) will make decisions about topics, direction, and potential actions (which can be individual or group). 

Are you ready to give it a try?

We are all connected by a shared sense of purpose and a powerful vision of the future. With diverse backgrounds and experiences, together we can build each other up, collaborate, and drive system-level change only possible by working together.