Connector Field Notes #7
Friday night dinner
On a recent Friday night, we had dinner plans with a friend. Earlier in the week, another friend texted to invite us to a dinner party her friend was hosting.
Instead of saying we already had plans, I asked if the friend from the original plans could join the dinner party. The dinner party host (who I hadn’t even met yet) was consulted, and the answer was yes!
Everyone involved had a connector mindset, and together we created community around the dinner table. We ended up with eight people for dinner; some of us knew each other and some people were new. Phone numbers were exchanged, future plans were discussed, and conversations were had about how to build community like this at scale.
The best welcome-to-a-new-city gift is an introduction
We went to a Super Bowl party hosted by friends who moved to Boston within the last couple years. I was fascinated to learn how each of the party guests knew the hosts. They were all friends of friends, introductions made by third parties who don’t live here but wanted to connect friends moving to Boston with friends they already had in Boston.
The new friendships had blossomed from there, just from thoughtful connections and proximity. They had met up from the initial introduction, and they continued showing up for each other, over and over, for a year and counting.
When only an in-the-moment video call will suffice
A close friend who lives on the opposite coast called me on FaceTime to share exciting life news. I knew the reason she was calling as soon as I saw the out-of-the-blue FaceTime call instead of a text.
It was the closest possible thing to telling me in person, given the distance- and much more real time than waiting to actually tell me in person. In this example, technology really facilitated and augmented connection: one to one, high fidelity, engaging multiple senses, in a way that could only have been mediated by a screen but also didn’t feel that way at all.