HOSAN LEE, Founder

In 2011, Hosan was enlisted to help launch a London-based supper club in Washington DC. Using it as an opportunity to implement and hone values-driven principles of engagement around food and drink, she immediately pivoted Number 68 Project from a traditional popup dinner party into a nine-week social experiement, creating a deliberate framework that used the dinner party as a vehicle to bring people together and get beyond the chit chat.

Under a predetermined theme of exploration, thought leaders, writers, scientists, journalists, musicians and artists led the dinner conversation while DC’s top chefs and bartenders contributed with seven course meals and drink pairings. According to influential global trend forecaster PSFK, “functioning within the normal context of the ‘public’ dinner party trend and combining the notion of the traditional dinner party, No. 68 playfully interlaces the two to reveal that classic ideas can still remain innovative.”

The results of her work were also featured in the New York Times, Eater, Urban Daddy, Yelp, and other tv, radio, digital, and print media outlets. Premium brands jumped on board, including Bacardi, Tanqueray, St. Germaine, and Pernod Ricard.
 

Hosan is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University, and received her multidisciplinary design education from Art Center College of Design and Central St. Martins. With a background in advertising, design, media, and writing, she has had the great opportunity to take naps under her desk at prestigious companies like JWT London, Johannes Leonardo, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and W Magazine. As a born-again optimist, she believes that strong individuals create strong communities.

A PERSONAL STORY OF HOW TABLETRIBES CAME TO BE

 
TableTribes is the social and tangible expression of a life-long and willful search for impact and meaning. The need to survive a tumultuous upbringing led me to dive into different social groups, cultures, various academic disciplines, industries, interests, cities and countries, all in the hope of finding my people. As a multidisciplinary designer with a natural tendency towards systems thinking, I began to see larger patterns connecting my path with others who were similarly expressing the same desire for basic human connection, and the destructive consequences of what happens when this isn’t satisfied. The past 10 years were about trying to get to the root of what, why and how this not only affected me personally, but society at large.

For myself, I began holding all the relationships around me up to two questions: 1) Do I feel energized after spending time with this person, and 2) Does this person reflect back or inspire me to be my best self? It’s amazing how clear life became after that.