Building real bonds amongst diverse groups of strangers 💖 Sophie Mona Pagès, LVRSNFRNDS

Feb 1, 2021

Sophie Mona Pagès, founder of LVRSNFRNDS, creates spaces for authentic dialogue about relationships. Growing up as a Moroccan immigrant in France, she felt the need for diverse connection, leading her to launch her community. Sophie discusses the importance of sharing our 'weirdness' and how her events spark meaningful relationships. As the pandemic shifted gatherings online, she adapted to keep community engagement alive. Ultimately, Sophie emphasizes connection's power in combating loneliness, with hopes for future global meetups.

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ANECDOTE

Creative Start of Community

Sophie Mona Pagès found her first 20 community members by selecting people she enjoyed spending time with from dating apps.
She used fun facts about attendees on cards to spark conversations at the first in-person event.

INSIGHT

Embracing Weirdness as Strength

Sophie grew up feeling "weird" due to her complex identity and experiences with racism.
She embraced this uniqueness and now sees it as a strength in building authentic connections.

ANECDOTE

First Event Success Signs

After the first event, many attendees stayed late dancing together indicating strong connections.
Feedback showed attendees felt seen, safe, and eager for more gatherings.

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“Society is losing something when we don’t share our weirdness with one another. You're losing something when you have someone at your table and they don't share what makes them different. One of the purposes I have in life is to create spaces where people will share what is interesting about them, and why they are different.” - Sophie Mona Pagès

As a Moroccan immigrant growing up in France, Sophie Mona Pagès grew up feeling a bit “weird” in her complex identity. She craved a space infused with diversity, inclusion, intimacy, modernity, and beauty.

Instead of waiting for such a space to appear, she created LVRSNFRNDS herself. The 20 attendees at the first event in East London were people Sophie found on dating apps who she “would be happy to spend an evening with.” She asked them to fill out a form if they wanted to attend, spend 15 minutes with her on a call, and gathered fun facts about each attendee to spark conversations. The group was diverse across identities and ages, and meaningful relationships were sparked. The night was a success.

Today LVRSNFRNDS gathers people around the world, to fight loneliness and enable meaningful connections of all kinds. Hand-selected members have access to events where they’re asked to contribute their voice to conversations on intimacy and relationships.

In March 2020, the community traded bars for virtual rooms. We’ll talk with Sophie about developing a playbook that captures shared values, facilitating online conversations, and why this work matters to her.

Highlights, inspiration, & key learnings:

Origin story. Finding the first 20 people.
Can’t fake the funk. “I grew up feeling weird.”
Going virtual. People showing up and supercharging the why--support.
Facilitating online. Empowering members to step up as hosts.
Building playbooks with members. Acknowledging that people mess up and creating a response for when that happens.

👋🏻Say hi to Sophie Mona Pagès and learn more about LVRSNFRNDS.

✨Thank you to Marjorie, “Get Together” correspondent, for bringing us this story.

📄See the full transcript

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