Whiskey at Bergdorf Goodman
In 1899, French tailor Herman Bergdorf founded what is known today as Bergdorf Goodman. This historic site still stands today as Bergdorf’s flagship store, and is the exact venue I chose to host my latest Tech Week event for founders and investors.
Goodman built a Beaux-Arts home on Fifth Avenue on the site of Cornelius Vanderbilt II's mansion in 1928. While New York City emptied during the Great Depression, he took that opportunity to expand buy the building, then the mortgages around it, until he owned the entire block.
I became enamored by the world of luxury not for material goods, but by the craft, heritage, and emotional desirability.
We often speak of “world-building” in technology today, but have forgotten that the original tastemakers have long existed within high-end fashion. Luxury brands mastered the art of curation and bringing pure excellence (whether by product or curated experiences) to the physical world well before tech innovation.
The Goodman’s Bar
The design of the Bergdorf Goodman building was intended to evoke architecture of an old Vanderbilt mansion with rusticated marble blocks, French ornaments, and a round archway, details that apparently Goodman personally requested. Across the avenue, tucked inside the men's store, a staircase leads up to the Goodman's Bar.
Inside is a bespoke, hand-painted mural designed in collaboration with de Gournay. Plus a highly curated selection of small production wines and modern riffs on classic cocktails, such as its signature Goodman’s Manhattan and the Oaxacan Mary.
Architecting the right rooms
Crafting the right rooms, understanding the flow, energy, and movements of the curves in each seat are hidden layers that go beyond just hosting an event. I see it as an artistic craft.
I brought together a select few incredible people who are founders and investors for a time in the middle of a very chaotic Tech Week. Each seat was specifically curated to someone in my network. Over 500 applied, and only 5 founders and investors were invited to attend.
How hosting can be taste-making
As a host you are given the power to decide who deserves a seat at the table and deciding the why. You control the narrative and it is your duty to become a bespoke ambassador to each.
My biggest non-negotiable to hosting curated events is that I must meet each attendee before they are invited. Accolades and backgrounds will never carry over to looking someone in the eye and shaking their hand. Observing how they sit, eat, speak. What makes them nervous or what brings a sparkle to their eye. You have to read and constantly observe to make a dinner table conversation of quality.
There’s a lot that tech can learn from the luxury space, especially from craftsmen who have never heard or touched the word artificial intelligence. I continue to admire the luxury space and all that it stands for. Every touch point is delivered in a first-class manner. There is something to be studied about the generations and history that went behind mastering this.