People Don't Want to Go to Events Alone

An interesting social dynamic is that people often don't want to go to events alone. We'll go to just about any event if our best friend is going and asks us to come. But alone? If we have to go alone, we might not even go to an event that we really want to attend.

(I'm speaking generally here, of course—people have varying levels of comfort with social events.)

Virtual events are a bit different, of course. If we can be a passive observer with our camera off, there's really no risk to going to an event. It's often the in-person events that make us more nervous. But, there's a tradeoff here—in-person events can sometimes be more fun and fulfilling than virtual events because of the opportunity to connect with others. (If you're creating virtual events, maybe keep this question of interpersonal connection in mind.)

🙋‍♀️ If you're attending events alone, one way to make it better is to find someone else who is there alone and ask them questions to kick off a conversation. "How'd you hear about this? What makes you interested in it?" Share why you're there, too. Find a commonality, then go from there.

🗓 If you're organizing events, keep in mind that social dynamics influence who comes and who doesn't come. Rather than asking individual people to come, can you ask friends? Or groups? Or, can you show people which of their friends or connections are already going? Can people count on you to be the one person at the event who they do know?

Just some food for thought.