There’s a very specific kind of vulnerability in creating a room from scratch.
You pick a topic. You find a venue (and ideally support a local business while you’re at it). You set the time. You commit to continuity. And then you wait.
Every single time I organise an #AfterworkwithKamilla, I still have the same thought: Would anyone actually show up?
It can feel slightly ridiculous. Almost like being the village idiot who believes people will gather.
And then they do.
January: The room you’re waiting for doesn’t exist yet, you create it
The January edition was a quiet reminder of why I keep doing this.
In a remote, digital-first working culture, and Finland is one of the most digital-first cultures I know – building a real, in-person network has become genuinely hard. Most people are waiting for the right room. Few are willing to build it.
So that’s what these afterworks are for.
What I’ve learned, four editions in, is that bringing people together is leadership in itself. Not a soft add-on to leadership – leadership. If people walk into a space and feel safe enough to speak, ask a question, or simply be present, that is already a success.
These rooms do more than networking:
- They create clarity.
- They spark collaborations.
- They lead to job opportunities.
- They build trust.
And as the host, you learn something equally valuable: who shows up, who follows through, who is reliable, who is building for the long term. That information is worth its weight in gold.
Community doesn’t appear. It’s built.
February 25th: Networking without fluff
The fourth #AfterworkwithKamilla took place at HUONE Meeting and Event Venues, co-hosted with the wonderful Hera (Haerang) Choi.
The room held 25 people from 14 nationalities, bridging generations and walks of life: locals, newcomers, spouses, academics, professionals, entrepreneurs, jobseekers, cultural workers. Exactly the mix I hope for and rarely see in conventional networking events.
And we didn’t network the conventional way.
We danced to Yalla Habibi. We moved through a networking carousel inspired by the brilliant team at Grape People Finland Oy. We let conversation be a body activity, not just a head one.
There’s a reason behind the choreography. In my TEDxVaasa talk last year, I argued that trust must not become a casualty of an AI-driven, power-driven world. As a facilitator, I see the same truth confirmed over and over: intentional interpersonal engagement creates the kind of connection that screens cannot.
When people share emotions through art, movement and conversation, something measurable happens. Sociologists call it collective effervescence, the chemistry of belonging that builds trust and makes a group feel safer together.
That is what I’m designing for. Not chairs in rows. Not awkward small talk over warm wine. A felt sense of belonging, engineered carefully, then released into the room.
The feedback that stayed with me came from a guest who simply said: “Glad I came and didn’t hibernate at home.”
That sentence is the whole point.
What I want organisations to take from this
These two evenings are not side projects. They’re a small, public laboratory for the work I do with organisations behind closed doors.
The same principles apply when I’m facilitating a leadership offsite, hosting a 400-person executive day, moderating a regional forum, or consulting on community-building inside a company:
- A room is a designed object. Treat it like one.
- Trust is a deliverable, not a vibe.
- Movement, music and emotion are not unprofessional. They are accelerators of decision-making and collaboration.
- Continuity matters more than scale. The fourth edition of anything is more powerful than the first edition of ten different things.
- Belonging is built in moments, and someone has to design those moments deliberately.
To those building rooms and those thinking about it
If you’re already creating spaces… keep going. The world needs more of you, not fewer.
If you’ve been thinking about hosting something of your own, this is your nudge. The room you’re waiting for probably doesn’t exist yet. You create it.
And if you’re an organisation that wants its workplace, leadership team, or stakeholder network to feel less like a transaction and more like a meaningful human experience, that is exactly the work I do.
I host. I moderate. I facilitate. I deliver keynotes. And I consult with leaders who want to turn their organisation into a real community, a space where people show up because they want to, not because the calendar invite said so.
If that sounds like your room, let’s talk. 💙
