“The Art of Gathering” is exactly as it sounds: it is a book about hosting gatherings both large and small, formal and informal. I know it seems odd to read a book about bringing people together in this time of COVID 19 when we cannot do such things, I decided to read it anyway as a form of escapism into how things used to be. In my real world job, part of my work involves hosting community gatherings, organizing meetings, conferences, and the like. With COVID, we’ve moved everything online, so the same dynamic of hosting that I had practiced and gotten used to is no longer available. While this book focuses on how to host gatherings in person, the concepts are fundamentally relevant to any type of gathering, so I found it useful in my work as well even through Zoom. The tips and strategies in this book help a host in all aspects of the gathering from the preparation to keeping the dialog going, to keeping everyone engaged, to reading the room, and even to closing graciously. I would recommend this book both in a professional sense if you work at all with convening people (staff meetings to three day conferences, and everything in between), as well as in a personal sense for learning how to be a gracious and engaging host for your next family barbeque or friendsgiving.

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Created Nov 14, 2020 at 1:57pm • Submit your own review...