We are sometimes asked why we do not simply publish a menu and let people transact. The answer is that the room is the product, and a room shaped by a shopping cart is a different product to one shaped by a considered conversation.
A short conversation surfaces three things: who you are, what you would want from the room, and what you would bring to it. The third question is the most important. A room without contribution is not a room; it is an audience.
We listen for specificity. Vague answers are not refused on principle, but they signal that the room would receive a vague contribution.
Someone who has thought clearly about what they want and what they offer has already made the room stronger — the conversation has done the work the first session would otherwise do.
