The Art of Gathering

Why we chose this title

As we are nearing the end of the pandemic, many questions emerge. We want to avoid racing back to something we have taken for granted. We want to pause and ask ourselves:

What have I learned during this time? How do we gather meaningfully instead of only focusing on the logistics?

Priya Parker gives us valuable and creative ideas to gather with purpose.

She does not shy away from sharing her own experiences of success and failure and helps us design gatherings that encourage connection and exchange.

This book will guide us through building our community and imagining future physical experiences.

Book Summary

In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lacklustre and unproductive.

We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved.

At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centred approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and play.

Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn't, and why.

The result is a book that's both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications.

About the Author

Priya Parker is a facilitator, strategic advisor, author and the host of The New York Times podcast, Together Apart. Parker has spent 15 years helping leaders and communities have complicated conversations about community and identity and vision at moments of transition. Trained in the field of conflict resolution, Parker has worked on race relations on American college campuses and on peace processes in the Arab world, southern Africa, and India.