“

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

”

-Henry David Thoreau

What is One Salon?

The One Salon is a social, cultural, intellectual gathering every week that focuses on engaging in stimulating scheduled talks and wonderful ad hoc conversations with each other.

At its core, Salon is a weekly gathering with an open environment full of thoughtful, creative, and passionate people. But that doesn’t begin to capture the energy of Salon.

Salon is a place to learn, to draw inspiration, and to be surrounded by doers and creators. It is a place to let our creativity run wild, to expose ourselves to new topics and new viewpoints, and to inject serendipity into each and every week.

With eight chapters and growing, Salon is also growing to become an international community around these values, so that a Saloner can visit any city and immediately have a community of people that hold our values important.

To many attendees, their experience at Salon has become an integral part of their week and even their lives. But whether someone comes every week or for a single evening, Salon is thought-provoking, fun, and provides a unique experience for every attendee.

What Happens at Salon?

Every night is unique and every night is memorable. Each week there are both regulars and new-comers, and everyone knows to expect the unexpected. We start the night by breaking reality, playing games taken from the improv world to loosen up and allow us to share a bit about ourselves.

Most Salons include a scheduled talk, on topics as diverse as Tango, Creativity, Healthcare, or Rhetoric. Some talks are meant to teach, some to create an experience, and some to inspire. All talks however, invite participation - either through activities, discussion, or thoughtful responses.

While Salon is planned around a talk, it is only a diving board - the real magic of Salon happens between the attendees. We create an open environment, bringing together a group of thoughtful, creative, and passionate minds - and we just let sparks fly.

How Salon Began

Where We Are

The original Salon was started in Palo Alto. Since then, we have spread to 16 cities, from San Francisco to NYC to Paris to Nairobi to Beijing. 

The Team

Max Song

Max grew up in Beijing, Shanghai and Chicago, and studied machine learning and diplomacy at Brown University. He previously worked at NASA Ames on genetic engineering as a Teaching Fellow at Singularity University, co-founded Brown's first startup accelerator, and worked in Silicon Valley as Ayasdi's youngest data scientist. 

In the last few years, he co-published a book on data science, modeled Citibank’s 2015 Stress Test, stated a international, entrepreneurship-based high school summer camp in Shenzhen called Prometheus, and started the One Salon—an intellectual, emotional and experiential community that spread from Stanford to 12 cities around the world. 

He’s currently based in Beijing, and developing an interest in investing, global economics and politics at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua. In his spare time, he explores exponential technologies, the implications of AI in biotech, sustainability, and renewables. 

Rafael Cosman studied Computer Science at Stanford University and did machine learning research at Palantir and Google Brain. When he's not working he enjoys swimming and blues dancing. He is now co-founding a startup in San Francisco. 

Rafael was a founding member of the first Salon chapter, at Stanford, where he brought an indelible welcoming presence, rigorous science and the most delicious snacks to feed the intellect and bellies of the Salon. The "short talks", "boom volcano", "high fives" were all part of Rafael's creative contributions, and Salons around the world continue to build on his ground breaking endeavors.