On May 30th Smedley Events hosted a media showcase of a new concept, the Sunset Dinner Experience. The event takes a farm to table dinner and combines it with purposeful conversation through a Jeffersonian dinner. Guests were guided, with a moderator facilitating the discussion at each table, through a conversation centered around Gratitude. That evening one of the guests asked what the topic would be at the next dinner. Honestly, I hadn’t decided yet but in order not to look unprepared I quickly blurted out Legacy.
A few days later, after feeling a sense of real gratitude from watching the showcase outperform my expectations, I took a moment to reflect on my very reflexive answer of Legacy. When I embarked on this journey in creating purposeful events it was important to me that the experiences brought people together to discover our commonalities, especially in a world that so easily finds ways to point out our differences. And sometimes conversations that aren’t as easy to have uncover our most common characteristics.
A friend and I were having a discussion on taking really difficult topics and finding ways to spin the conversation into something positive. Our difficult topic was death. It’s scary to think about your death. An unknown aspect of your life and the ones you love most. We avoid dealing with it until it’s looking us straight in the eyes. But what if the conversation about death was flipped and we talked about life? What if we had conversations with our loved ones about legacy and what we want others to know us for? Now and when we are no longer here.
Legacy to me isn’t just about what is physically left behind and doesn’t necessarily mean it’s only valid after someone has passed. Legacy to me is how you make people feel, what you do to give back to others and how you create opportunities for stories to be shared and passed on for generations.
The Sunset Dinner Experience is about using conversation to explore what makes us unique, different and the same all at one time. It uses great food and a beautiful environment as the conduit to having these meaningful conversations. Its legacy is about bringing people together.
Our next Sunset Dinner is Saturday, July 27th. Join us at Sumac Hill Farm in Centennial, Colorado as we enjoy a wonderful meal, share stories and create meaningful connection. For tickets and more information visit https://www.smedleyevents.com/sunset.