- Build your audience 📈
- Boost your newsletter, podcast, or video channel 📝
- Develop your talents and communication skills 🎙
- Grow your revenue 💰
- Make lasting friendships around topics you’re truly passionate about ❤️
Ready to start hosting?
Create a host account for free, and start earning money, even at your first event!
Check out our salon template for inspiration!
The “Host’s Journey”
Learn more: The “Host’s Journey”
Interintellect’s mission to build a more open-minded, patient, productive public arena is driven by our incredible hosts.
We’re proud to be a creator-centric platform, supporting hosts from around the world as they cultivate their ideas and artistry in the company of our curious and supportive global audience and community.
FREE Host Account in Minutes
Creating a host account is easy and free. When you create your Host Account, you’ll receive your Welcome Package via email with a lot of helpful information for listing your first Salon or Salon Series.
You’ll also be given access to the Host Hub with all of our training resources and our Community Forum’s Host Greenroom.
We Support You All the Way
Anyone with an idea or artistic practice to share can become an Interintellect host on our platform.
To ensure all of our Salons are awesome, all event submissions undergo a quick editorial review process. Your event will be “pending” for around 2-3 days after you submit them, and in some cases we might reach out to ask you clarifying questions.
Read more about our method and mission.
Do you have any questions? We’re always here to help:
Shoot us an email or explore our Host FAQs.
About Hosting with Interintellect
By becoming an Interintellect host, you will be joining hundreds of thinkers and facilitators from around the world who are building their knowledge, audience, and expertise every day by running online and offline events on their favorite topics.
Interintellect hosts receive training, are invited to special host channels in the Community Forum, and respect the Four Rules of Hosting.
“My hosting experience has been a source of intellectual and emotional nourishment. But that’s table stakes. The bigger joy, particularly in co-hosting, has been making incomparable friendships of depth, curiosity and generosity within the community.” — Amir H. Hajizamani
What is a salon?
Salons are evening-length conversations (typically one to three hours in length) around a specific topic, carrying the atmosphere of a living room gathering. (Take a look at our Standard Salon Template).
Salons come in many forms (detailed here), and we encourage you to experiment with a Salon format that fits your unique voice.
“Hosting was extremely rewarding. It’s a great way to engage with your audience if you have one and an even better way to meet people who are interested your area of expertise or interest. The process is drop dead simple and the team is tremendously supportive. If there’s a better way to spend a few hours getting paid, I’m not sure I know of it.” — Sean Hughes
Benefits of Hosting
The benefits extend beyond the opportunity to share and indulge in your interests.
“From being an Interintellect salon attendee to hosting my own salons has been a profound journey of self-discovery and finding amazing people who have turned into friends that I can call upon, despite sometimes being continents between us. Hosting has been such an enriching experience where the initial hesitancy of bringing my thoughts and ideas on a public platform, quickly transformed into connecting with like minded fellow Interintellects who are encouraging, kind, and thoughtful. If you have been on the fence with hosting, I would encourage you to take a leap of faith, because truly on the other side are soulful friendships and brilliant conversations that will leave you mesmerized.” — Tanya Raj
Read some of our hosts’ salon recaps in our blog!
Where can I learn even more?
To guide you through your hosting journey, we have compiled all the resources you need in the Atheneum, Interintellect’s public knowledge base.
Here are some recommended links:
- Host Agreement
- Series Agreement
- Salon Code of Conduct
- The Five Rules of Gathering: the fundamentals of Interintellect’s ethos in running our events
- The Four Rules of Hosting: our guiding principles for Interintellect hosts
- Community Forum Guide (ii Discord)
- Host Hub: training and support resources for our hosts
- Host Greenroom: an exclusive “backstage” channel in our Community Forum where hosts give each other mutual support
The “Host’s Journey”
Inspired by Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey,” Interintellect’s “The Host’s Journey” represents an outline of an epic adventure in hosting, starring our hero: you!
1. Departure
It all starts with the “call to adventure”: the desire to share your curiosity and excitement as a thinker or creator on a particular topic. At first, there might be some hesitation (I’ve never done this before! How do I become an Interintellect host?). This might even lead to a “refusal of the call,” followed by the appearance of a “supernatural aid” (Event Producer, Crystal Duan, the “Host Whisperer,” perhaps!). Our daring host crosses the “first threshold” by creating a host account and enters the “belly of the whale”: editorial help from Editorial Lead, Christin Balan, the process of listing their first salon, free host trainings, promoting their event, and, finally, preparing to host.
2. Initiation
Initiation occurs while hosting their Interintellect salon, when they face their audience and walk “the road of trials.” They might event have a meeting from “the goddess” (Founder and CEO, Anna Gát!) who makes a surprise appearance at the salon, participating enthusiastically and offering words of encouragement.
After a successful salon, the host may think that their journey is over. But wait! A member of the audience, who was inspired by the host’s salon expresses a strong desire to see more of the host’s creativity. The excitement of this audience member spurs the host on, leading them to share more of what they love most. Their audience grows both on and off the Interintellect platform. They are now primed to understand the power of hosting, the ultimate boon: the ability to touch and transform lives!
The way is open for our host to take this inspiration and return to their podcast, book, art, music, etc. or to seek even more hosting opportunities (listing a series or a workshop, perhaps!) becoming even more involved with the Interintellect community.
3. Return
At first, a new host might “refuse this return.” Perhaps the whole experience thrilled but also frightened them, the sight of this energy within them they didn’t know they had, making them wish to return to the safety of their previous life. But rescue comes in the form of friends new and old, and fellow Interintellect hosts who encourage the host to persist. The host crosses “the return threshold” by listing another salon (or salon series!) and becomes “master of the two worlds,” gaining confidence in their knowledge, skills, and the support of the Interintellect community.
Read more of what our Interintellect hosts have to say:
“My hosting experience has been splendid. I never imagined myself hosting salons on a topic that was clearly out of my field. But, this is what the Interintellect community is about— curiosity, kindness, and support lead the way. Anna and the team are there to hold you wherever you need them. An excellent set of curated resources are available for a host. The best part is that there are no standard to-dos in terms of hosting style. There is space to learn and develop as a host throughout the journey. The wealth of knowledge and experience that I have garnered as a host is unmatchable. For me, the ability to savor the joy and curiosity in this intellectual journey is something that I truly cherish.”
“I decided to host my first salon as one of several measures to add focus, urgency and accountability to a period of independent study. I found that hosting a salon was an excellent ‘structuring commitment.’ It lead to dozens of interesting conversations and several new connections—while preparing, during the salon itself, and in the weeks that followed.”
“I’ve been an avid fan of the Interintellect platform ever since a friend introduced me to it. Hosting my very first salon gave me the opportunity to nerd out with friends internationally over a book discussion topic that I might not have been able to do a deep dive into otherwise. I’m so grateful for the help and support provided by [the Interintellect team], and will be looking forward to more creative salons I’ll be hosting in the future.”
“Hosting my first Interintellect salon was a great experience. I was incredibly nervous going into it, but once we got started, the conversation naturally coalesced around the viewpoints and interests of everyone who joined in. Hosting is a great opportunity, not only to initiate the conversations you’d like to see happen and participate in, but to have those conversations with the insightful, diverse, and open-minded community of people around the world who have found Interintellect.”
“For me, the ii represents a collective consciousness that fuses some of the brightest, most inspiring, and curious minds in an emergent mash up of wisdom and fun.”
“Anna has assembled one of the world’s best communities of curious geeks.”
“Hosting is a way for me to set aside time for the questions and topics that interest me outside the focus of my everyday work.”