No Agenda. Big Impact.

by Kate Neri | Oct 14, 2025

We didn’t have a speaker lineup.

No slide decks.

No formal agenda.

Only a rooftop full of people who’ve shaped our story.

Our first-ever client and partner event was simple by design. We cohosted it with a partner we deeply respect, invited the clients and friends who’ve built Syrup alongside us, and focused on one thing: connection.

And it worked.

Because connection has become both precious and fragile in business.

Between the endless video calls, packed calendars, and the pressure to measure every moment, relationships can quietly shift into autopilot. We convince ourselves that a few emails or quarterly meetings are enough to stay close. But they rarely are.

Thursday’s event reminded me how much people want real connection (including me!), the kind that happens when you finally slow down long enough to have a real conversation.

One moment, I was talking UGA football and introducing two business leaders. While across the room, someone was swapping “war stories” about bloated tech stacks and hard-won lessons. There were laughs, nods, a few “we’ve been there” moments, and underneath it all, something deeper. Familiarity. Connection. Trust.

When you stop trying to host an event and instead create a space for people to show up as themselves, everything shifts. The room (or in our case, the rooftop) becomes less about who’s leading and more about who’s connecting.

That’s what stuck with me: how easy it is to forget that our businesses, our partnerships, our teams… they all run on trust.

And trust can’t be automated or replicated by any AI. It’s built human to human, one real moment at a time.

If you’re reading this, maybe it’s a good time to ask yourself if it’s been a while since you gathered your people? If so, do it.

You don’t need a keynote speaker, a five-figure budget, or a theme. You simply need a reason to gather, to talk, to remember why you enjoy doing business with the people in the room.

Spending time talking with clients, partners, and friends on Thursday reminded me again why we do this thing called business… It’s for the people.

The relationships. The connections. The community.

That’s what makes all the work worth it.