If you’re seeing this post, it’s likely you are already familiar with Whiskey Friday (aka #whiskeyfriday). However, the sad truth is that many less fortunate whiskey-drinking souls are not.
We aim to fix that.
As a quick aside, Whiskey Friday began as a semi-formal tradition when we worked at The Onion. We drank whiskey (or whisky). On Friday. At work. It grew from an internal de-stresser to a physical hub of community that attracted comedic, media, technology and just generally interesting folks. We even brought in Macallan and Johnnie Walker to do tastings. Since those days, Whiskey Friday has grown as an informal activity within office parks and friend groups across the world with us at Cultivated Wit sporadically organizing more public versions in cities we live in or visit (Academy Award-winning composer Michael Giachinno recently stopped by Whiskey Friday Los Angeles).
In a recent company meeting, we talked about how we could spread whiskey friday more consistently across planet earth. In this blog post, we share the highlights of that discussion and seek your input and help in building out this community.
Aside from the obvious reason (alcohol), Whiskey Friday is so appealing to build out because its whole purpose is bringing similar creative/tech people together in a welcoming environment. No name tags. No speakers. Just cool people and booze. Whiskey Friday has spawned dates, hires, creative collaborations, friendships, and probably coups.
Logistically speaking, here is what we’re hoping to create:
- A weekly event in multiple cities (New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Chicago already being on board)
- A small collection of people in each city (4-6) will serve as organizers and hosts, to make sure at least one person is holding down the whiskey fort each week. We need a simple way to communicate with these city leaders.
- Interested drinkers (and non-drinkers, for that matter) should be able to find out where WF will be held in their city that week with relative ease, whether that be through an email, SMS, calendar push, or some combination. The host committees for each city will control this messaging.
- We would also like to have a central database for all Whiskey Friday fans, so if we ever want to message them all with updates, news about more cities entering the fold, or alert them that the whiskey revolution has begun and we all need to arm ourselves… with casks… we can do that
- Lastly, there is a centralized page within CultivatedWit.com that serves as Whiskey Friday HQ (WFHQ) demonstrating the total scope/power of WF and how to assimilate.
We see five groups of people in this world:
- Those who know about WF, live in a city where events are held, and already participate in them.
- Those on our WF list, but don’t live in a place where they can physically show up to events.
- Those who may be familiar with WF, but they don’t know why or where it comes from or that other people out there are WFing all around the world.
- Those who drink, maybe even like whiskey, but have no idea WF is a thing that exists in the world.
- Those who don’t drink, but still enjoy socializing and meeting cool human beings.
In an ideal world everybody in groups 3-5 moves into one of the first two categories, and then we build out a way to engage everybody in groups one and two seamlessly and enjoyably. Maybe it’s Meetup. Maybe it’s Facebook (probably not because well freedom). Maybe it’s Eventbrite. Maybe it’s something you know about that we don’t.
Why are we telling you this? Aside from being extroverts who tell everybody everything (because social media), there are ways you can help. You might want to bring Whiskey Friday to Omaha. You might have tech suggestions for connecting people in the ways we mentioned above. You might just be drunk and want to say “Hooray booze!”
Whatever you think you can lend, please let us know. Comment on this post or email us directly at answeringmachine@cultivatedwit.com with your ideas. We’re pouring out fresh glasses of the future. How will you take yours?
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