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In summary, OpenSeat is an online meal-hosting platform for connecting people around food and conversation. OpenSeat facilitates the process of hosting events, enabling event creation, easy management of guest attendance and payments, and enabling the expansion of hosts’ existing social networks. By doing so, the platform aims to help people connect with others, build new and pre-existing communities, and provide a means for supporting local economies and lowering the barriers for hosting.
By creating a platform to facilitate social connection through food and conversation around a shared table, OpenSeat's vision is to help build genuine communities around South Africa and eventually worldwide by enabling people to connect – in particular those from different backgrounds and viewpoints
OpenSeat's ethos is centred on several core, interrelated ideas.
The first is that eating, conversing, and community-building are inextricably linked.
The second is that authenticity is best achieved through the social rituals of
food and sitting together around a table or within a carefully-prepared environment.
The third is that good hospitality is an experience that humanises people, conferring
dignity on hosts and (most especially) upon guests. The fourth and final core idea is
that experiences of physical, in-person community are healthier and more fulfilling
than virtual community mediated through online interactions.
Following on from our ethos, OpenSeat-facilitated experiences ideally occur in spaces
that are rooted in a particular local community and its culture (culinary and otherwise).
As a result, we place a strong emphasis on using home dining spaces for events, recognizing
the intimacy and personal connection that can be fostered in these environments.
Exclusive spaces like cafes in the evenings or boardrooms after the workday can achieve a similar effect.
As such, OpenSeat also seeks to challenge the norms of the hospitality industry and encourage hosts to
think creatively about how they can engage with their guests in unique and meaningful ways that further the OpenSeat ethos.
The platform acts as an intermediary for two main user groups: firstly, potential hosts, who may embody some or all of the following characteristics:
Secondly, the platform is aimed at guests, who may embody some or all of the following descriptions:
