How we involved our members at Swenson
The central focus of Swenson is passionate people.
Swenson was created to give people moments to share their stories and get inspired by others to do great things.
Researching and selecting inspiring folks is the thing we spend most of our time on. Curating the right balance of messages and stories is an art. We’ve broad categories — Entrepreneurship — Artists — Designers — Creatives — Athletes — And we try to find people in these areas that are leading the way and making a positive difference. We don’t always go for the obvious choice. We search out the mavericks, the risk takers or the ones who have taken an alternative path to get where they are.
Sometimes we keep people on our list month after month. We write to them, inviting them for a talk or a moment with our members, knowing they will politely decline, in the hope that one day they may just say yes.
At the office, we call the right member a Firestarter (light one and it will burn for hours), the one able to light up people’s imagination and ambition.
Also, diversity, is an important one we focus on. Craftsmen, makers, business founders, artists, photographers, scientists, chefs, surfers. That diversity made the experience so rich, because they all come with something unique to contribute. This diversity sparked something unforeseen, gave our gatherings a whole new life, as opposed to a normal meetup — something that really couldn’t be planned.
“It’s rare in life that you get to spend a few intimate days with people from a different background to you, who do a different job to you, who might come from a completely different culture to you and you realize that beneath all the layers of status, business and background, you are the same. You discover that your tribe might not be your family or the people you work with, but the small group of people you met at Swenson, in the middle of nowhere.”
We provide moments for magic to happen, but the magicians are our actual members. Over the years (4 years Swenson exists 🎂) the number of people wanting to join has grown. We have a very informal list of questions that help us get to know what the potential members are like; what they are interested in, what they are passionate about and where they are in their lives. This helps us gather a diverse group of members; people are from different backgrounds, but who are united by like-minded thinking. And this is what makes Swenson so special. The limited size of our Houses or the places we create moments ensures that it will always be small and intimate.
Each year we strive to get better, not bigger.
