For the next few weeks, millions of people around the world will be united by one thing: football.
Different countries, different languages, different cultures and different opinions will all come together around the same tournament. For ninety minutes at a time, people will feel part of something bigger than themselves.
But the best moments of the World Cup rarely happen only on the pitch. They happen before kick-off and after the final whistle. They happen when families gather around the table, when friends meet in the pub, when colleagues go for food before the game, and when people who support different teams sit together and share the experience.
Food has always had a way of doing that. It gives people a reason to slow down, sit together and talk properly. It creates the kind of atmosphere that meetings, emails and social media rarely manage to create.
That is why the World Cup feels so relevant to The Recruitment Curry Club.
The Curry Club has never really been about curry alone. It has never just been about recruitment either. It is about what happens when good people sit around a table without the pressure of a sales pitch, a presentation or a formal networking agenda.
People relax. Conversations become more natural. Barriers come down. Someone you may only have known through LinkedIn becomes a real person. Someone you assumed had very little in common with you suddenly has a story that makes you think differently.
The World Cup does something similar. It gives people a reason to come together. Some will arrive with different shirts, different opinions and very different views on who should be starting up front, but once people are around the table, the conversation becomes part of the occasion.
That is the bit we often remember most.
Years from now, people may not remember every result, every goal or every refereeing decision. But they will remember where they watched the match. They will remember who they were with. They will remember the meal, the laughter, the debate and the feeling of being part of something shared.
In recruitment, we talk constantly about relationships, networks and community. But real relationships are not built through connection requests or quick introductions. They are built when people have enough time and trust to be themselves.
That is difficult to create in a formal setting. It is much easier to create around a table.
Whether England go all the way or leave us heartbroken again, this World Cup will eventually come to an end. The conversations it creates will last much longer.
That is the real reminder.
The world’s biggest sporting event shows us that connection does not have to be complicated. Sometimes it starts with a match on the screen, a curry on the table and someone pulling up another chair.
Because long after the final whistle, people rarely remember every detail of the game.
They remember who they shared it with.