So, I’ve mentioned in my Recently Series that I have begun a podcast with my friend Chrystina of Chrystinanoel.com, but I think this is the kind of thing that actually deserves its own post. It is kind of a big deal after all.
The Back Story
As with all great things, it started with twitter. Chrystina mentioned having a microphone in her cart on amazon for months, but not having a great podcast idea. I responded that I was in the same boat, and a few tweets, texts and emails later a concept was born. The actual startup of this podcast was really pretty quick, and within a couple of months we had a few episodes recorded, guests lined up, and a website (really 3 websites, it took a while to figure out what worked).
Our Goals
First and foremost it’s to have fun, but it’s also to make party planning approachable. It’s a place to talk about all the ins and outs of party planning, from small gatherings to large affair to even corporate style events. We want answer your questions, as well as our own (since we aren’t professionals here), and to bring gatherings of all types into the conversation.
We live in a digital age, where so many of our connections are made through screens. Let’s bring back the physical social gathering.
What to Expect
Party talk. Obviously.
More specifically, we will try to choose a topic for each episode, whether it’s based in logistics, etiquette, menus, themes, tips and tricks, or something we haven’t thought of yet. We want to get into the nitty gritty of these topics to help you navigate any situation.
There will often be guests who have specific experiences and stories to bring something new to the table. Once in a while Chrystina and I may just chat about a topic on our own. We could seriously talk about parties for dayyyssss.
At the end of each episode we have 4 basic questions that we will always ask (listed below). Basically these are the questions that we are interested in so we thought you guys might be too.
- What are you planning right now?
- What’s going on in your kitchen?
- How are you staying in touch this week?
- What are you into right now?
One episode will be released a month, to start. If this thing catches on, and we can swing the time (I’m about to have a kid you know) we would like to do it more often, but for now this works.
Each episode will be about 50 mins to 1 hour. We know your attention spans can’t handle much more, ours can’t either.
What makes us unique?
I don’t think there is another podcast out there talking about these things (If I’m wrong please send it my way, I’d love to listen to others). The Gatherings Podcast is unique because Chrystina and I are unique (we all are right?).
Like so many of you guys, we are 20 or 30 somethings, with day jobs, who are still trying to figure out that whole balance thing. Our jobs, homes, and other life pieces are important, but we still want to make time for our friends and families and host parties with them. We have different friend groups that we are figuring out how to mix, and budgets to adhere to. We struggle just like anyone else.
I also think our differing perspectives make for some pretty lively debates. While both being 20-something female engineers with curly hair, we come from different worlds. Chrystina is a city girl, a type A planner, and travel queen. I am a hippy-esk, country girl, with chickens, who would rather be home gardening and excels at the fly by night style of party planning. We have a good mix.
Episodes so far
Episode 01: Our Party Hosting Styles –Just us, who we are,how we met, our party hosting styles, and why we started this podcast.
Episode 02: Our Ideal Dinner Parties – Again just us talking about our ideal dinner party, rules that we live by, and how to keep the conversation going.
Episode 03: Networking Events with Lauren Caselli – We chat with Lauren Caselli from Lauren Caselli Events about life stories, event planning, benefits of facilitation and more.
Episode 04: Dinner Party Etiquette with Lizzie Post – We bombard Lizzie (from the Awesome Etiquette Podcast and the Emily Post Institute) with all our questions and she provides amazing insights, tips and tricks, and a few sample scripts along the way.
How to Follow the Podcast
Visit the website.
Follow us on Twitter.
Check us out on Facebook.
Find us on iTunes.
We want to hear from you
Have questions about getting people together? Or a topic you think we should discuss? Or even just a really amazing party to highlight? Please get in touch with us! gatheringspodcast@gmail.com