Meet the entrepreneur breathing new life into the “French salon" concept for the digital age

While social media may have you believe that those with opposing views can never engage in civil discourse, an entrepreneur breathing new life into the “French salon” for the digital age has revealed how she’s facilitating “the most important conversations on the internet” and encouraging non-confrontational discussions from all perspectives.

After growing up in Budapest where she received master’s degrees in philosophy of art and English, Anna Gát, 39, worked as a writer and journalist, editor, translator, screenwriter and playwright before moving to France and then London to receive another master’s degree in theatre. It wasn’t until she founded Hungary’s leading women’s rights platform in 2013, however, that she found her true calling in facilitating civil discourse to support societal good.

“It was an incredibly fulfilling experience to bring radically different people together on stage and act as a catalyst for important conversations between real people. There was no popular feminism for my generation at that time – we only had academic or activist conversations. So we wanted to bring it all down to earth, where normal people of all genders can understand the conversation and engage. A lot of my own assumptions got debunked in those conversations and I came to the realisation that even across the deepest of political divides people can sit down and have productive, enjoyable conversations – provided that the environment for those conversations is properly set up”.

Fast forward to a turbulent 2016 where events like a Trump presidency and Brexit referendum had created a cultural atmosphere completely polarised in its ideological positions, where those with opposing views seemed to become forever unable to share their opinions. Determined to return to an era of healthy intellectual discourse, Anna got to work building a community of open-minded people dedicated to learning and having important conversations.

“Up to that moment I really thought of myself as a theory person. I thought I’d write, teach, and inspire others to do important things – but suddenly I knew I had to do something myself. A lot of experimentation ensued until one afternoon in San Francisco’s Dolores Park, Interintellect was born. Based on the many in-person gatherings we had in the first year and the research I conducted, I found that people were looking for civil discourse, a global community, and a healthier and more accessible intellectual life – so I went and built it. It’s still possible to put people with different views in a room without them mistreating each other once you have created the right setting”.

What began as a gathering in a West Coast park quickly snowballed into what is now known as Interintellect – which Anna describes as a “warm, proactive, engaged global community of minds” – which has now hosted thousands of online and in-person events for its global member base on topics such as science, art, literature, philosophy and more.

“It was beautiful to find out that I was right, you can build conversation spaces relying on people’s natural kindness, patience and curiosity. We’ve had thousands of online events hosting people from all kinds of geopolitical areas coming together as strangers and leaving as friends, with zero incident. Our conversations are non-political in the widest sense – there’s no agenda, and we’re not selling you any product or worldview. We’re there to learn together. The civility and kindness of Interintellect salons is due to a few simple rules we follow. Events are paid, people use their camera and real names, and if someone needs to leave early they let the host know. We express trust, openness, and intentionality. It works!

Intellectual life is better as a team sport – the joys of solo thinking and imagining are doubled by connection, surprise, serendipity and shared experience. And since the events are paid, they provide an opportunity for Interintellect hosts – young up and comers or seasoned professionals – to earn an income outside the confines of traditional academia, media, publishing”.

Anna explains that, through Interintellect events – some with tickets as little as £8 – she aims to make intellectual discourse more accessible to people from all backgrounds, regardless of their culture, religion, gender identity, education or class.

“I’m a triple immigrant, and I’m very familiar with the feeling of being super broke when the only intellectual life you have is the used book you ordered off Amazon for £2. It’s so important to me for my discussion platform to be affordable for a wide audience and to offer a place for creators to make money doing what they love most”.

ABOUT INTERINTELLECT

Interintellect are reinventing the French literary salon for the internet era – building a warm, proactive, engaged global community of minds hosting over 2,000 incredible online and in-person events on topics like science, art, literature, philosophy, and more.