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Meridian House
A founders' dinner

Community · eight formats

Connections by system, not by luck.

Eight formats, a published calendar, and a team whose job is to know who should meet whom. Nothing here depends on a member "networking".

A typical month

Sixteen dates. None of them optional for us.

This week

Five confirmed dates.

  • Work formats
  • Table and social
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
56
Founders' breakfast08:00 · Dining room
7
Investor office hours16:00 · Meeting suites
8
Industry night: real estate19:00 · Lounge
91011
12
Mastermind · group A09:00 · Boardroom
13
Founders' breakfast08:00 · Dining room
14
Deal room17:00 · Boardroom
15
Workshop: hiring in the GCC15:00 · Meeting suites
16
Private dinner · 12 seats19:30 · Dining room
1718
1920
Founders' breakfast08:00 · Dining room
21
Investor office hours16:00 · Meeting suites
22
Industry night: technology19:00 · Lounge
2324
Courtyard social18:00 · Courtyard
25
26
Mastermind · group B09:00 · Boardroom
27
Founders' breakfast08:00 · Dining room
2829
Workshop: raising in the Gulf15:00 · Meeting suites
30
Private dinner · 12 seats19:30 · Dining room
311

The eight formats.

  1. Founders' breakfast

    Weekly, twelve seats, one question on the table. The most reliable hour in the club.

    Weekly · Tue 08:00

  2. Investor office hours

    An investor member takes six twenty-minute meetings. Booked, not pitched at.

    Twice a month

  3. Private dinner

    Twelve seats, seated by the house, one long table. No speeches and no phones.

    Twice a month

  4. Masterminds

    Fixed groups of six, same room every month, one member's problem per session.

    Monthly · two groups

  5. Deal room

    Three members present something real — a raise, an acquisition, a mandate — to a closed room.

    Monthly

  6. Industry nights

    One sector per evening — real estate, technology, trade, healthcare — members and two guests each.

    Twice a month

  7. Workshops

    Ninety minutes on something operational: hiring in the GCC, structuring, raising in the Gulf.

    Twice a month

  8. Courtyard social

    The only format with no agenda. Partners welcome, and the one evening we allow music.

    Monthly

House rules for the calendar

An empty room is worse than no room.

Most club calendars die the same way: too many dates, no host, nobody accountable for who is in the room. These six rules exist to stop that, and the team is measured on them.

  1. Every format has a named host from the house team. No host, no date.

  2. Seats are invited and confirmed, never opened. Twelve confirmed beats forty registered.

  3. A minimum of eight and a maximum of twenty-four. Below eight we move it; above that it stops being a conversation.

  4. Nothing is published until it is confirmed. The calendar is a record, not a wish list.

  5. A format that under-fills twice is retired, not repeated. We would rather run six formats well than twelve badly.

  6. No sponsors, no pitching from the front, no name badges. If someone needs a badge to be introduced, we failed.