Waiting in Line: Aaron Altabet, Founder, Chumstock

When you arrive at Chumstock, Aaron Altabet hands you a sardine tin. On it is your name, and inside are business cards shaped like fish. They’re simple: your name, personal phone number and email address. There are 14 cards: you get a stack of salmon and one orca. It’s based on how many friendships Aaron thinks you can build during the four-day weekend. You have to choose. The salmon can be traded but you have to save the orca for the one person you’d be sorry to lose touch with.Chumstock is Aaron’s answer to a climate conference: four days, three nights at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Labs. At the conference are 120 startup founders, funders, operators, and researchers. It’s an unconference, so there’s just one 10-minute speech on opening night.There’s something surprising though: Aaron surveyed everyone after Chumstock and found that the number one place people met was in line. All Aaron’s careful planning came down to people waiting for food or for the ferry, or sometimes for the trivia to start. That and a culture where it’s ok to go up to someone and say hi.Aaron also gets deep into his social math: why six is the largest table you can have to maintain a conversation and why you owe your friends a note at least once a year. Hosts Aaron and Charlotte wonder how to build lines into their own conference!00:00 Introduction 02:29 Two Aarons, One Podcast 04:59 Becoming a Connector06:35 The Origin of Chum Stock09:28 Shelf-Stable Friendships13:21 Social Media vs. Real Connection15:54 What Chum Stock Actually Is19:22 The Sardine Tin Business Cards23:58 The Social Math of Group Size25:48 The Surprising Power of Waiting in Line30:16 Wrap-Up and What's Next---The most creative artists in America right now aren’t in galleries. They’re in your neighborhood. How We Connected is a front-row seat to the social artists rebuilding human connection. Hear inspiring stories about roller skating crews, bad art clubs, jousting societies, city saunters, Georgian dinner parties, catch-playing challenges, midnight runners, and picnic societies. Hosted by Charlotte Massey and Aaron Hurst, co-founders of the US Chamber of Connection.Aaron Hurst, Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection, is a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy.Charlotte Massey, Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection, leads community programs nationally. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and former organizer and founder, she works at the intersection of civic life and entrepreneurship.Connect with Uswww.chamberofconnection.orgAaron Altabet, Chumstockwww.chumstock.comAaron is the founder of Chumstock, a four day unconference for people working on climate that he hosts at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Labs in the San Juan Islands. He came to it sideways. He rowed crew and took a dual degree in biology and history at the University of Puget Sound, spent four years teaching science and running wilderness trips in Maine, earned a master's at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and recruited scientists for biotech before an MBA at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business pulled him toward climate and venture capital. He built Chumstock after watching two friends throw big multi-day gatherings and realizing he could do it too. He's 33, based in Seattle, and he sends a lot of holiday cards, most of them late.Heylowww.heylo.comHeylo is a community-management platform built for real-world groups of every kind, giving leaders a clean, branded home base to run events, manage members, communicate clearly, and handle payments without friction. It brings scheduling, RSVPs, waivers, announcements, topic-based chats, and membership tools into one place so clubs, teams, and interest groups can stay organized and connected without the noise of traditional social platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.