Come meet the people whose work you already admire
The third Thursday of every month · six to nine
A mixer for people who make things. Ninety of you, one loft, name tags that list what you are working on instead of where you work. No lanyards, no pitches from a stage, no schedule past the first ten minutes.
This month's room is a loft on Wooster Street. The door code arrives with your RSVP.
June, ten past seven
The bar, before six
Golden hour did its part
The long table, again
The next one, by the half hour
Thursday, August 20. The evening is three hours long and it has run the same way forty-one times, so we can tell you what happens in it. Scroll and the clock moves with you. Everything below is what actually occurs at that time, in that room, including the parts that are not glamorous.
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6:00pm
Doors, and the sentence that does the work
You come up in the freight elevator and the first thing you meet is a folding table with ninety blank tags and four marker pens. You write your first name, and under it the thing you are working on right now. Not your title. Not your company. The sentence is the whole mechanic of the night: it gives every stranger in the room a reason to start.
- 6:02First pour of the night
- 90Tags on the table
- 8:15Someone on the door until
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6:30pm
The board fills up
Every tag gets copied onto a six foot board by the window, grouped by nothing at all. It is deliberately unsorted. People read it standing shoulder to shoulder, which is the cheapest introduction anyone has ever designed. By half past six the board is usually two thirds full and the room is loud enough that you have to lean in.
- 6ftThe board, floor to shoulder
- 61Average tags posted by 6:30
- 4Markers, always losing one
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7:00pm
Introductions, made on purpose
This is the only structured half hour. Four hosts work the board and the room and make introductions out loud, by name, with a reason attached. You get three. They are not random: the hosts read every tag before seven and mark the pairs. If you asked for something specific in your RSVP, this is when it gets used.
- 3Introductions per guest
- 4Hosts working the room
- 30 minThe only fixed block
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7:30pm
The room resorts itself
Structure stops here. Nobody is managed after half past seven. The bar reopens for the second free pour, the focaccia comes out of the kitchen, and the room breaks into the shapes it wants. Historically the two biggest clusters form at the window and at the record player, and the quietest corner is the one by the freight door, which is where most of the actual work gets discussed.
- 2Drinks on the house
- 6:15Focaccia and olives out
- 0Programming from here
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8:00pm
Two minutes from the front
One host stands on a chair for two minutes. No microphone, no slides, no deck, no sponsor read. It is used for exactly three things: the date of the next one, one ask from someone in the room who needs a specific person, and the name of whoever is hosting the room next month. Then the chair goes back under the table.
- 2 minHard stop, timed
- 1Ask from the floor
- 0Slides, in 42 editions
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8:30pm
Last round, and the coffee
The bar takes its last order at 8:30 and the coffee comes on at the same moment, which is the polite way of saying the evening has a shape. This last half hour is when people trade numbers instead of pleasantries. If you are going to ask someone to work with you, ask now, because at nine the lights come up and nobody negotiates in a bright room.
- 8:30Last order at the bar
- FreeCoffee from here on
- 2Collaborations started, median
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9:00pm
Nine o'clock, out
The doors close at nine because a mixer that ends is a mixer people come back to. The building is residential above the fourth floor and the neighbours have been generous, so we do not test them. There is a diner two blocks north on Broome that stays open, and roughly a third of the room walks there together without anyone organising it.
- 9:00Doors closed, no encore
- 2 blocksTo the diner on Broome
- 34%Of the room keeps going
What an introduction actually looks like
People ask us what "we introduce you" means, because at most events it means nothing. Here is the whole procedure. Answer the RSVP field with a role, not a person: "a colourist who works in Resolve" gets used, "anyone in fashion" does not.
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1
The hosts read every answer on the Tuesday
Two days before, the four hosts sit with the list and mark pairs by hand. It takes about ninety minutes. It is not a matching algorithm and we are not building one, because the useful pairings are the ones that look wrong on a spreadsheet.
90 minSpent pairing, by hand -
2
You are introduced out loud, with a reason
A host walks you over and says both names and both sentences, then the reason: "you are both trying to finish something in November." Then the host leaves. Standing in the conversation to keep it alive is the fastest way to kill it.
3Introductions guaranteed -
3
Nothing is followed up by us
We do not send a contact list, an attendee export, or a "you met these people" email. There is no directory to sell and no database to leak. What happens after nine o'clock is entirely yours, which is the point.
0Attendee lists shared
Nobody in this room is a lead
Every edition so far
Forty-one Thursdays since March 2023 and we have not moved the date once. Here are the last six. Attendance is counted at the door, not from the RSVP list, which is why the numbers are not round.
| Date | The room | Seats | Came | Waitlist | What it is remembered for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 16 | The room41 Wooster Street, SoHo | Seats90 | Came88 | Waitlist64 | Remembered forThe blackout at 7:40. Everyone stayed. Two hours by phone light. |
| Jun 18 | The roomMarrow Studios, Gowanus | Seats110 | Came104 | Waitlist39 | Remembered forLargest room yet, and the first one where the board ran out of space. |
| May 21 | The roomThe Long Room, Tribeca | Seats80 | Came79 | Waitlist88 | Remembered forA documentary crew formed at the bar and shipped in March. |
| Apr 16 | The room41 Wooster Street, SoHo | Seats90 | Came90 | Waitlist71 | Remembered forThe rates conversation that became the November theme. |
| Mar 19 | The roomPeridot Post, Long Island City | Seats96 | Came86 | Waitlist28 | Remembered forThird anniversary. Nobody made a speech, which was the gift. |
| Feb 19 | The room41 Wooster Street, SoHo | Seats90 | Came74 | Waitlist11 | Remembered forIce storm. The smallest room and, by common agreement, the best one. |
The room, and getting through the door
The August room is a fourth floor loft on Wooster Street between Grand and Broome. It is a working space that somebody lends us, not a venue, so the instructions matter more than they would at a hotel.
Getting in
What is behind the bar
Your first two pours are on the house. After that it is an honour box, cash or tap, at cost.
And what there is to eat
Enough that you are not drinking on an empty stomach. Not dinner, and we would rather say so.
Vegan, gluten free and alcohol free are all covered without you asking. There is a note field on the RSVP if something needs to be avoided entirely.
Questions people ask
Is it really free?
Sixty eight of the ninety seats, yes, including the first two drinks. The bar past that, the photographer and the focaccia are paid for by the eighteen people who keep a standing seat at $16 a month, and by whoever lends us the room. There is no sponsor and nothing is upsold on the night.
Can I bring someone?
Not on the open list. A seat is one person because ninety is the number the room holds and a plus one is somebody else's evening. Write to us if the person you want to bring is the reason you are coming at all.
What happens if the list is full?
You go on the waiting list, which has run between eleven and one hundred and two people. About nine seats free up in the last forty eight hours of a normal month, and the offer goes out by text, not email, because it needs answering inside an hour.
Is the room accessible?
Yes, kerb to fourth floor, through the loading bay and the freight elevator, and there is an accessible bathroom on the floor. Somebody runs the lift until 8:15. If you need it after that, say so on the RSVP and someone will be waiting.
What if I do not know anybody?
That is the ordinary case, and it is what the three introductions are for. Around forty per cent of any room is on a first visit. Arrive at six rather than seven and you will meet people while it is still quiet enough to hear them.
Say you are coming
Tell us your name, the thing you are working on, and who would be useful to you right now. If there is a seat left, the address and the door code land in your inbox on Monday.
Request a seat for August 20Waitlist opens when the ninety fill. It usually matters.