Chris Shirer describes herself as a devoted champion of all things food, beverage, and guest experience… and she got my attention at “food!”Chris is the Founder of two companies: Madison + Fifth, a marketing agency, and the recently-launched JoinMyTable, a new platform for prepaid group dining created to encourage community and increase our time spent in real world conversation.JoinMyTable is a fascinating and unique concept: people who want to go out for dinner can pre-purchase off-the-menu dining experiences online with everything included (tip, tax, and any fees). Then they can invite people to join, and all of this is from a web-based platform.The idea is to bring communities together over dinner for some good conversation, without technology or the usual hassle of going out. This could be a group of your friends or your team from work, but the real gem is bringing a like-minded community together to make new friends and have good conversation.It took five years to get to this point because they needed to do market research. How could a service that brings people together for a night also help businesses?One of the biggest benefits for businesses is that these experiences can be offered on slow nights (usually Monday-Wednesday), which adds directly to the bottom line of a restaurant.Because the entire payment is included up front, the service staff doesn’t have to worry about common problems (like low tips) that come from big parties.It also shares the stories of individuals within these businesses: the chefs, brewers, distillers, coffee roasters, and other artists who we don’t always get to know, but who are sharing their incredible creativity in our communities.JoinMyTable is now available to anyone in the Columbus area, and it’s going great so far! Restaurants like The Refectory, Paulie Gee's Short North, The Whitney House, The Avenue Steak Tavern, and Barrel & Boar have offered successful tastings, seafood boils, and other interesting experiences.You can watch this video to check out the Low Country Seafood Boil at Barrel & Boar, and you can head over to JoinMyTable.com to invite friends and reserve your seat at an upcoming Table.Resources:Learn more: JoinMyTable.com | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube--Production & Development for Improv Is No Joke by Podcast MastersLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices