Before Socrates, There Was a Shared Table Dinner
AI. AI. AI. We live in the age of intelligence, we can no longer outsmart.
A day before the World Beautiful Business Forum opens its doors, the most human gathering there is, we sit down to attune our minds and bellies.
In ancient Athens, the deipnon (δεῖπνον) was the meal that happened before the symposium. Before Socrates. Or Claude. Before the philosophizing. Before everyone had to be clever.
We’re starting there, in celebration of intelligences that are older, stranger, and less optimized than either of us.
The intelligence of the gut microbiome. Of underground fungal networks. Of half-processed grief. Of forest aerosols. Of precolonial civilizations dismissed as "uncivilized." Of the thing you knew before you could name it.
What do we know and how? And what would it mean to connect through that intelligence, the kind that doesn't show up anywhere it's supposed to?
Come join us with an unreasonable amount of olives that, some say, hold their own wisdom. There'll be tomatoes so juicy you'll be elsewhere for a while.
We'll take care of food and drinks. Bring something for the table: a bottle of wine, some feta, whatever found you on your way to Athens.
Suggested contribution: €15 per person.
12 spots only. Confirmation by request.
See you soon!
Your hosts,
Monika & Amy
About your hosts
Monika Jiang is a Chinese-German writer, community builder, and founder of Shared Table Dinners, a ritual series as part of The Oneliness Project. She's been part of the House of Beautiful Business community since the beginning. This is where she first met Amy Daroukakis, cultural strategist and co-founder of Culture Connectors, a global collective bringing locally embedded cultural expertise into brand decisions. Amy opens the doors to her home in Athens, and knows exactly which farmers market ingredients deserve a seat at the table. In other words, this dinner had to happen.