Long a bucket-list trip for motorheads and the jet-set crowd, on Sunday, August 15, 2021, the 70th Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is back on the calendar.
The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is the flagship of Pebble Beach Automotive Week.
Begun in 1950, the gathering is considered to be the world's premier celebration of the automobile.
Known as "The Pebble" by long-time attendees, planners expect Sunday's principal Concours will have some 200 cars displayed.
Can you have more than 150 friends?
Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, theorized that humans could have no more than 150 meaningful relationships, a measure that became known as the Dunbar Number.
In his original research, Dunbar studied monkeys and apes and determined that the size of the neocortex, the part of the brain responsible for conscious thought, correlated with the groups they lived among. The neocortex in humans is even larger, so he extrapolated that their ideal group size was, on average, 150.
So relevant is the Dunbar Number that in 2007, when the Swedish tax agency was restructuring, a strategist for the agency proposed that each of the new offices have about 100 to 150 employees.
However, new research on the subject has found that no maximum number of friendships could be established with any precision.
Trust me, you can beat the Dunbar Number; it just takes effort and commitment.
Uncovering tales of automotive joy
Matt Hranek relaxing at his home in the Médoc region of France with his beloved Fiat Panda.
Ink slinger, lensman, and aficionado Matt Hranek has traveled the world to uncover car owners' tales of automotive joy.
On Wednesday, June 16 @ 2:00 pm ET, he joins the Brigadoon Monthly call to drop knowledge, tell tall tales, and share insights on a life well-lived.
Watches and cars share a common thread. In many ways, these trappings of men with disposable income have become cliché. A Rolex or a vintage Porsche can be the shortcut to cool for well-heeled men of a certain bent. But beneath that veneer of showboating are often deeply personal tales. Those are the stories that photographer, magazine writer, and all-round bon vivant Matt Hranek teased out in his first book, A Man & His Watch (Artisan, 2017), and now with its sequel, A Man & His Car (Artisan, 2020).
In the new book, Hranek uses his 25 years of experience as a commercial and editorial photographer to capture the cars—warts and all—and his flair for conversation to tease out stories that will resonate with any car lover.
Excerpt from Fortune article "Telling men's stories through their cars" by Daniel Bentley from October 19, 2020.
Adventures with Fiat Pandas + Autogrills + Negronis
2:00 pm ET | Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Matt Hranek | Founder + Editor @ Wm Brown Magazine + Author
Matt Hranek is the author of The Negroni, A Man & His Watch, and A Man & His Car, as well as a photographer, a director, and the founder/editor of the men’s lifestyle magazine WM Brown.
He and his family divide their time between Brooklyn and the Wm Brown farm in upstate New York, though he can also be spotted quite often in old-school bars around Europe, Negroni in hand.
Find him on Instagram at @wmbrownproject.
Frustration born...
Brigadoon helps leaders make better connections and helps them better understand the emerging issues shaping commerce and culture.
Brigadoon is a nightmare if you are looking for sameness and similarity as participants are subject matter experts from a cross-section of backgrounds and industries.
Plus, to ensure conversation-driven gatherings, Brigadoon uses no powerpoints, no lanyards, or apps and discourages attribution.
Born out of personal frustration of spending too much time with the same people and the same thinking, Brigadoon is a simple idea to connect others beyond one's daily life who believe in the power of conversation and embrace curiosity.
Brigadoon provides professional premium resources for better insights and organizes newsletters, podcasts, conference calls, salon dinners, workshops, city safaris, excursions, and multi-day experiences that foster better connections.
Learn more @ thebrigadoon.com.