Perth nightlife and events expert Aeson McKay wants to tackle loneliness and disconnection in the city by launching a new social club.<\/p>\n
Mr McKay has launched Elsewhere Social Club<\/a>, an initiative dedicated to building real-life connections through curated social events.<\/p>\n Setting out to transform popular venues across Perth into \u201csafe and intentional spaces\u201d, Elsewhere allows guests to meet people naturally through music and conversation without pressure from apps.<\/p>\n Mr McKay, also the founder of Nevermind Smallclub, said he\u2019s spent 18 years creating spaces where people \u201cfeel part of something bigger\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cElsewhere is the evolution of that mission, a way to get people offline, into vibrant venues, and connect authentically with others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a dating service; it\u2019s an invitation to meet, mingle, and rediscover the joy of human interaction.\u201d<\/p>\n The launch comes amid growing social isolation in Australia.<\/p>\n Research by Pure Profile<\/a> found 44 per cent of Australians report not having a best friend, while one in four men say they have no close friends, according to the Australian Men\u2019s Health Forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n Health sociologist Sam Teague said initiatives like Elsewhere are vital in reversing this trend.<\/p>\n \u201cThe strength of this idea is that it reconnects people in a way that used to be normal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a post-COVID, highly screen-oriented world, Elsewhere has the potential to be a powerful re-orienting force for social connection and relational wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n Elsewhere next takes over Si Paradiso on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perth nightlife and events expert Aeson McKay wants to tackle loneliness and disconnection in the city by launching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134,46,13882,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-163870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-perth","12":"tag-social","13":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}