THE WELCOME
Peer hosts meet you at the door and help you find your feet.
WEDNESDAY 18 NOVEMBER / LIMINAL / HAZEL
THE NIGHT
Eat together. Meet good humans. Move one thing forward.
Doors 6:30 pm till late. Official program: 7:00 pm kickoff to 9:30 pm. Come alone or bring someone.
Book your seat01 / THE NIGHT
THE RHYTHM
WHAT TO EXPECTA lightly facilitated community night with different ways to participate.
- 01work on something you need to finish
- 02bring a creative project
- 03sort out life admin
- 04read, write or study
- 05ask for ideas, referrals or help
- 06meet people
- 07help somebody else
- 08work quietly
- 09join the conversation
There will be a short welcome, focused time, optional peer connection and opportunities to ask the community for support.
No forced networking. No compulsory participation.WHY WEDNESDAY?
- The midweek dip
- By Wednesday, most of us are running on empty. Not from people, but from performing: screens, meetings, being “on”.
- Co-regulation
- Our nervous systems settle faster around other calm humans. Sharing a meal in a safe room, with no one to impress, helps the body come down from fight or flight.
- Why together
- Your brain expects people nearby. Regulating alone costs more energy. A room like this lightens the load, so you leave with more than you came with.
THE ANATOMY OF THE NIGHT
Four stops. No clipboard. No forced icebreakers.
- 6:30The Landing
Doors open. Grab a sparkling water or a drink at bar prices and find a seat. Peer hosts from our local crew greet you at the door, not a ticket desk.
Not sure yet? The Suss It Out Lounge is right there. Sit on the edge, say nothing, watch first.
- The Shared Table
A light shared meal, community-style, served in a short window after arrival. We email the exact schedule a week out.
Our venue community partner The Mulberry Group opened Liminal / Hazel to us. Your $33 covers a shared meal and helps fund the next table. Because that's what community is for.
- Move 1 Thing Forward
Get into the work at your table, join the Get Unstuck session in the private room, or settle into a quiet space or good chit chat. Sit anywhere you please.
Our aim is 101 people moving one thing forward. You choose what that looks like.
- 9:30Official wrap
The program wraps at 9:30 pm. Head home lighter, or stay on till late at bar prices.
FOUR WAYS TO BE AT THE TABLE
- Connect
- Stay at the table, chat, and share a meal. You don’t need a project or an agenda. Dinner just tastes better with good people.
- Create
- Crack open a notebook, your laptop, arts and crafts, or that life admin you’ve been putting off. Gentle body-doubling, zero pressure to perform.
- Contribute
- Share a contact, offer an ear, or open a door for someone.
- Get Unstuck (Facilitated Life Design space)
- A separate facilitated circle using the Life Design Manifesto to explore who you are first and unpick where you're stuck, alongside space to quietly just be.
There are multiple rooms and spaces: some for quiet, some for group chit chat and connection. You decide when you get there what you're feeling.
Want to come early? You can. The community gives you space. Help us set up and make sure it’s all good to go, greet people at the door, or offer your craft: photography, content, writing, storytelling, music.
JOIN THE CREWWHAT'S INCLUDED & WHAT TO BRING
WHAT TO BRING (TO START WITH)
- A charged laptop
- Come with good battery juice.
- A notebook and pen
- For rough ideas, sketches, notes or brain dumps.
- That life admin
- The invoice, the awkward email, the appointment you keep stalling on.
- Your arts and crafts
- Sketchbooks, knitting, mending, collage, whatever needs gentle hands.
- Or nothing at all
- Just yourself and an appetite. Come for the light meal and the company.
THE FOOD
- Who’s cooking
- Our venue community partner The Mulberry Group, the team behind Hazel and Liminal, are hosting us in their own space.
- The room
- We’re gathering in the space between Hazel and Liminal, inside the T&G Building. Two of Melbourne’s much-loved rooms, and the in-between is ours for the night.
- Why they matter
- The Mulberry Group are proper Melbourne hospitality. They build places people actually want to be in, and they said yes to a community experiment before it had a track record. That’s the kind of backing that makes a table like this possible. See what they do.
- Your contribution
- Your $33 covers a shared meal and helps fund the next table. You join a facilitated evening of connection and space to participate at your own pace. The Bridge is an optional check-in, not a delivered email service. Drinks are extra at bar prices. Want to gift one more community seat? Add an optional $33, once per booking.
- The produce
- Food comes from Common Ground Project, The Mulberry Group’s organic farm. It is not a degustation, but it is beautiful, varied food, and you choose what you’d like from the options on the night. We’ll email the menu before the night.
- What to expect
- A light, shared community-style meal. It is not exclusively vegetarian or vegan, but we cater to both. We’ll email the exact dinner schedule a week out.
- When we eat
- A light meal is served in a short window after arrival, not as you arrive or throughout the night.
- Dietary
- Choose omnivore, vegetarian, vegan or not eating when you book, with a separate gluten-free option. Tell us your severe allergies or medical dietary needs. We cannot accommodate personal food dislikes.
- Nut-free
- No nuts whatsoever in any of our catering, for allergies. Please don’t bring them.
- Drinks
- Not included. Grab a sparkling water or a drink at bar and cafe prices.
NOT EATING? YOU STILL BELONG AT THE TABLE.
Come anyway. Your $33 + booking fee covers a shared meal and helps fund the next table, along with experienced facilitation, an optional Get Unstuck session, quiet spaces and an evening at The Mulberry Group's Liminal / Hazel with people you might not otherwise meet.
Even if you choose not to eat, your seat still pays it forward. You feed someone at the next table, and you still get the full benefit of the room.
WHY PAY FOR THE NEXT PERSON?
Most of us can name someone who made room for us. A friend who saved a seat. A neighbour who dropped round a meal. A stranger who said, “sit with us.”
We gather in the room Nathan & Diamond from Mulberry Group have opened for us at Liminal / Hazel.
Your $33 covers a shared meal and helps fund the next table. Add an optional $33 to gift one more community seat. For one attendee that’s $66 plus the booking fee, with just one extra gift per booking.
Someone fed you. You feed the next table.
You’re in good hands. It will be inspiring: part workshop, part creative space, part connection, and good food.
Facilitated by Em and a welcoming crew of founding hosts. The room is designed so authority and attention belong to the room, not a microphone.FAQs
FILLING IN THE BLANKS
- What to wear
- Whatever you’re wearing today is great. If you’d like to dress up and feel good, go for it. Dress how you feel.
- Do I have to talk?
- No. You can chat, or pop your headphones on and work quietly beside others. Body doubling and parallel work are completely welcome.
- What to bring
- A charged laptop, a notebook, that project file, your overdue life admin, a creative idea or a problem you’d like another brain on. Or bring nothing at all and just listen.
- Coming alone?
- Most people are. You won’t be the only one.
02 / OPEN INVITATION
WHO CAN COME?
You do not need a project, professional reason or existing connection.
You might be working, studying, freelancing, job hunting, parenting, retired, building something, making something, new to Melbourne or simply wanting more community in your life.
Come alone or bring someone.
VOICES FROM THE WAITLIST
“For once I’d like to come without the need to perform to feel I belong.”
An extroverted introvert“I’ll come with life admin and a curiosity about who’s joining.”
Someone bringing their to-do list“I truly value low pressure environments where people can be themselves and meaningful connections flow.”
Someone new to Melbourne“Connection and meaning seem to have become where I still have energy to experiment.”
Someone recently retired“Sometimes I want to fly, sometimes I want to rest.”
An exhausted social butterfly“Body double, help people, stop isolating.”
Someone done with working alone
OPTIONAL: THE HUMAN ECOSYSTEM MAP
During the night you can choose to use The Bridge and the Human Ecosystem Map on your phone. It's a short digital reflection: where you are, what you need and what you can offer. You get a small takeaway card to keep.
If you opt in, hosts may review possible pairings with other people from the same gathering. Hosts approve or dismiss every suggestion and nothing is sent automatically. It's an optional reflection and connection tool, not a guaranteed introduction, and it never replaces the meal or the program. Skip it entirely if you like.
MAP WHERE YOU AREA little reflection: what’s staying stuck costing you?
THE INACTION TAB
WHAT'S STAYING STUCK COSTING YOU?
Question 1 of 3
WHY WE GATHER / HOLDING THE ROOM
THE TABLE BELONGS
TO THE ROOM.
We might have brought the table. But it belongs to the people who gather around it.
Not a show to watch or a solo host to follow. A shared gathering held by a founding crew and shaped by everyone in the room.
01 / HOW WE HOLD IT
COMMUNITY-LED.
NOT LEFT TO CHANCE.
Community-led does not mean nobody is responsible. Our founding crew sets the conditions: a welcome at the door, a light meal, space to focus and people to turn to when you are stuck.
Emeli brings her facilitation experience as part of that crew, not as the centre of every conversation. Community co-hosts share the welcome, the care and the connection. Attention belongs to the room, not a microphone.
THE CONNECTION
A community co-host brings their expertise to the session up the front when you want help moving something forward.
THE CONTRIBUTION
The ground crew and craft exchange bring practical help, skills and care to the gathering.
THE REST OF US
Work on your own thing, share a conversation, listen or quietly be. Participation is yours to choose.
Our principles & how it works
01 / COMMUNITY IN PRACTICE
OUR STARTING PRINCIPLES
Community is a practice
We all help create the culture. This is not an experience produced for an audience.
Relationships before transactions
No unsolicited selling, pitching or lead generation.
Ask for what you need
Ask for advice, introductions, knowledge, feedback or practical help.
Contribute when you can
Share knowledge. Make an introduction. Welcome someone. Help with something. You do not have to contribute every time you come.
Participate in your own way
Talk, listen, work quietly, move around, join in or opt out.
Different people need different things
We want people across ages, cultures, genders, abilities, neurotypes, professions, incomes and life stages to participate.
Inclusion requires active work
Saying ‘everyone is welcome’ is not enough. We will pay attention to who comes, who does not, what barriers exist and what needs to change.
Respect is required
No racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism or other bigotry.
NO DICKHEADS.Shared ownership
The Table is being initiated by SoCo Collective, but it should not depend on one person. Over time, we want members to help shape, host and lead it.
02 / VERSION ONE
THIS IS A PILOT
This is where we begin.
Not necessarily where we will get to.
We are starting with a monthly gathering in Melbourne.
Then we will learn.
The format may evolve.
New rituals, activities, projects or neighbourhood Tables may emerge.
We want to understand:
- Who comes?
- Who is missing?
- What helps people participate?
- What actually creates connection?
- What should change?
- What could members create themselves?
Version one is a starting point, not the finished model.
03 / BETWEEN TABLES
THE BRIDGE
Momentum is easy at the table and hard on a random Tuesday. The Bridge is our quiet ritual that carries one thing from dinner into your month.
At dinner, scan the code at your seat and name one thing to give space to (or take a breather). Your note stays private, your return link lands in your inbox, and next month you sit back down and pick up right where you left off. No homework. No scorecards. No becoming a different person.
04 / MAKING ROOM
ACCESSIBILITY
Step-free entry, wheelchair-friendly seating, accessible toilets and a no-pressure way to be in the room. Everything is on its own page.
READ ACCESSIBILITY05 / PAY IT FORWARD
MONEY SHOULDN’T BE THE BARRIER
Our venue community partner Nathan & Diamond of Mulberry Group are opening their doors at Liminal / Hazel. Your seat is $33 plus booking fee. It covers a shared meal and a night of connection, and helps fund the next table, because that's what community is for.
If you want to come but paying for a meal is a barrier, we still want you here.
People who have a little extra can choose a $66 pay-it-forward seat plus booking fee to help someone else take a seat.
No big explanation. No judgement.
For a community seat, email info@sococollective.com.au. We’ll be in touch to confirm what’s available.
Community is also about making room for each other.
06 / COLLECTIVE EFFORT
WHY DO IT TOGETHER?
Humans often find it easier to start, persist and solve problems when other people are around.
A run club is a good example. You might arrive with the motivation of a damp sock, but once other people are there, you start running. Social accountability begins doing some of the work your inner discipline refused to do.
Over time, shared rhythm, encouragement and familiarity make it easier to return.
That is part of why running clubs, book clubs, study groups, coworking spaces and communities work.
At The Table you might find someone who can:
- answer a question
- share useful knowledge
- make an introduction
- look at something with you
- help you start
- sit beside you while you get it done
- or simply become a new friend who is in it with you
And next month, you might be that person for somebody else.
That is the point.
07 / NEED TO KNOW
PRACTICAL DETAILS
- Opening venue
- Liminal / Hazel, T&G Building, 164 Flinders Lane, Melbourne (entry off Flinders Lane, easy car parking)
- Frequency
- Monthly, at a different Melbourne venue each time
- Next date
- Wednesday 18 November 2026
- Food
- Your seat is $33 plus booking fee: a light shared meal, a facilitated night of connection, and drinks at bar prices. Your $33 helps fund the next table, because that's what community is for
- Community seats
- Email info@sococollective.com.au to ask about availability
- Toilets
- Disabled toilets on site
- Carers
- Welcome. Book both tickets for the meal
- Kids
- Kids-free, initially
- Drinks
- At bar and cafe prices
- Parking
- Multiple car parks at multiple prices, easy access from Flinders Lane. $12 prepay in the closest, right underneath the venue. See Getting there
- Capacity
- Small by design