A bi-weekly community salon · Holyoke
The Long Table
Conversations on Youth Futures
The Long Table is a bi-weekly dinner gathering for parents, educators, students, and community members who want to think seriously about the futures unfolding for young people — and what it means to help position them for what's coming. Each event centers on a single question — one that doesn't have easy answers. We share a meal, hear from a guest with real expertise, and then get into it: the concerns, the frustrations, the ideas people rarely have space to voice. You'll leave with something concrete — a new frame, a connection, a next step.
Register Now- Bi-weekly dinner gathering
- A guest opens the topic; a facilitator holds the room
- Agenda, guiding questions & resources sent in advance
Upcoming conversations
Sep 2
The Motivation Crisis
Postponed — new date to comeWhy do so many teenagers seem disengaged, avoidant, or hard to motivate — and what actually helps a young person care enough to begin? A conversation about autonomy, relevance, purpose, exhaustion, and the difference between compliance and motivation.
Sep 23
Understanding the Data Center Dilemma
Seats openAI can feel invisible, but it depends on enormous physical systems: buildings, land, energy, water, labor, and infrastructure. What changes when we look beneath the interface and consider the material footprint of the technologies reshaping our lives?
Past conversations
Aug 19
Parenting the Algorithm
PastHow do you raise a child when the most powerful force shaping their worldview is a feed you can't see?
Aug 5
Career Pathways in the Age of AI
PastWhen the jobs they're training for may not exist at graduation and tuition has never cost more — what does a smart investment in a young person's future actually look like now?
July 22
The Loneliness Epidemic
PastWe're more connected than ever and lonelier than ever — what's behind the isolation, and what does genuine community actually need from us?
July 8
AI and Education
PastWhat does it mean to learn when machines can do it too — and how do we prepare young people for a world that doesn't exist yet?
How the evening goes
Every dinner runs 6:30–9:00 PM.
6:30–7:00 PM
Arrival, introductions, and dinner
7:00–8:30 PM
The facilitated conversation
8:30–9:00 PM
Open table — conversation and connection
Reserve your place at the table
Seats are limited per dinner. A suggested contribution per dinner helps us cover the meal — and it’s waivable, no one is turned away. Register for one conversation or as many as you like.