This was my second Wednesday dinner club series after hosting the first series in London during the summer. The main differences between the two were that I hosted the London dinners by myself in my own home. In Hong Kong, I cohosted each dinner with a friend in a hired, private space with a kitchen. As a result, we asked people to help cover the cost of the dinners rather than asking them to bring food or drinks to contribute to the meal. Here are a few stats and reflections about this experiment now that it’s over. Many of my qualitative reflections below are also based on comparisons between these dinners and the ones I hosted in London. You can read more about that first experiment here.ExperienceIt was great to see that hosting in a private space that wasn’t my home didn’t seem to make a difference in terms of the experience. I also worried that asking people to share the cost of the space would change the dynamic, but if anything it made people more committed …

This past summer I decided to host dinner at my place in London every Wednesday for 8 weeks in a row. My goals were varied, but in general I wanted to see who would participate and what impact that had on my network. I also wanted to understand how important curation actually was for dinner parties I hosted. Last but not least, I wanted to see how much more efficient it would be to host dinners this way in terms of coordination and preparation. To kick things off, I sent an email out to my entire network that went something like this:It was a huge success and I learned lots from the experience. Thought people might enjoy a few stats and reflections about the first experiment now that it’s over. ExperienceAs I have previously shared, there is a sweet spot in terms of size, usually around 10 people. Smaller groups basically require the table to have one conversation, where larger groups make it near impossible without facilitation. After this experiment, I’m even more convinced that active …