Art of Hosting

The Art of Hosting is the practice of turning yourself into a host while you interact with others. You host the interactions you have and create space for mutual empowerment.

Concept
The "Art of Hosting Conversations that Matter" (as the name of the concept goes) is a practice for all who aspire to learn and find new ways of living and working with others to create innovative and comprehensive solutions. It is a process orientated interpersonal learning technique.

The current generation of Art of Hosting practitioners generally use practices such as Open Space, World Cafe, Circle and Appreciative Inquiry.

These techniques of bringing people together (based on shared intentations):
 * develop sharing in communities
 * spark communities of practice
 * encourage social transformation

These processes foster synergy and provide ways for people to engage with intention, design deliberately, focus on outcomes and support deliberate action.

Daily Life
The Art of Hosting can be applied to any space where people gather: shared houses, co-work spaces, soup kitchens, tea-houses, conferences, online communities.

This practice in mind you intend to make the most of your interactions with others (the core of learning), for you, for the other, for you together, and for those to come. To find the others and to connect.

Most people already have hosting-experience, for example when hosting a party. The 'Art of Hosting' is about extending this concept to also other facets of life when people meet to interact. You create an inclusive space for interactions by setting a welcoming atmosphere, greet the arrivals, ask how they do, and empowering everyone to interact.

For the praxis of sharing, the Art of Hosting is a great concept to learn from. A concept closely associated with 'being a host', is the one of a facilitator or enabler.

Discover more

 * http://www.artofhosting.org/
 * http://www.interchange.dk/practices/artofhosting/
 * http://www.rheingold.com/texts/artonlinehost.html