Out of the Circle Soirées
The salon is one of the oldest formats for the production of thought. Not a panel, not a conference, not a networking event — a room where people with genuinely different ways of understanding the world sit together long enough for something unexpected to happen.
Out of the Circle began in Zürich in 2023, at Cabaret Voltaire — a space with its own history of convening the unconventional. The format is intimate and by invitation. Not because exclusivity is the point, but because trust is. What makes a conversation productive is not the credentials of the people in it — it is whether they feel free to speak honestly. To say the uncomfortable thing. To be wrong without consequence. To ask the question that their professional context makes impossible to ask publicly.
This is increasingly rare. Out of the Circle is that space. The conversations are private. The guests are selected for the quality of their thinking and their willingness to engage across difference — in discipline, in background, in perspective. The aim is not consensus. It is honesty in the service of ideas that matter.
Out of the Circle runs seasonally in Zürich. Attendance is by personal invitation only and is not transferable. Guests commit to attend various soirées per season and to the integrity of the space.
Out of the Circle is a non-profit initiative. Enquiries from individuals and organisations who believe a space like this should exist are welcome.
“Unlike belief and knowledge, intelligence is not information: it is a process, or an innate capacity to use information in order to respond to ever-changing requirements. It is a capacity to acquire, adapt, modify, extend and use information in order to solve problems. Therefore, intelligence is the ability to cope with unpredictable circumstances. But intelligence is not merely analytical: to survive and flourish in society, we must also have social and emotional intelligence. (However, I do not here assume an equating of intelligence with consciousness).”
– Sir Alistar MacFarlane
