My number one priority is that it’s enjoyable, as I think this goes the furthest in terms of strengthening the network as you put it. For me, this is the primary function because it provides motivation to do the business and process stuff later on, which can be done more asychronously.
And so I think any online gathering should involve one weird trick the doctors don’t want you to know about:
Shared tactile experiences i.e. smells and textures. I read that there are companies that have started commencing meetings by all smelling cinnamon at the same time, or all ripping some velcro or something like that. The idea being that everyone is having the same experience even though they’re not in the same place.
I’d also want to replicate the experience of gatherings as far as having most interactions being between 2-4 people at a time. I’ve found that online calls bigger than that are not conversations more than meetings, and they become difficult to be casual in. So I suppose breakout rooms are very important to me for whatever platform this would happen on.
I think some kind of structure might be necessary to be enjoyable, so yes, I am afraid I am suggesting Organised Fun. I would like to avoid a quiz as far as possible, but maybe some other kind of game could be played that people could enjoy? Maybe distributed clues for some kind of narrative could play out over the course of the day? Or, maybe it’s like, tell us some secrets about yourself, so that we may deeply know you etc. Anything that moves the space away from “typical work call”.
I’m up for putting the work in to make it capital f-u-n FUN! Maybe if others are interested we could form the Fun Circle or something?