Archive for May, 2009

The first CitySocialising baby!! (That we know of)

May 13, 2009 at 3:09 pm · Filed under CS stories, May 2009

Well it had to happen at some point and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer couple! Hapi and Neil are both members of the London network of CitySocialising and they are having a baby – in 5 months!! They already moved in and got engaged a while ago so it’s all above board ;)

I actually met Hapi and Neil in the very early days of setting up CitySocialising – but the spooky thing is that they are the only two people that I know of that joined CitySocialising through hearing an interview that I did on BBC London with Jono Coleman.

A week after the interview, Neil came along to a drinks Social. Then one Sunday afternoon, a month or so later, a very nervous Hapi walked through the doors of the pub for a Tate Britain trip, and said that although she’d heard the interview she had ummed and ahhed about joining for a while. But a few months later, Hapi went on to host some of her own London Socials (which is seriously THE best way to meet and get to know the most people) and ended up getting together with Neil and the rest is history…. I bet she’s glad she came down now!

Hapi has promised to send a photo once the baby’s hear so will share here in 5 months. In the meantime, the CitySocialising team wish them both the best of luck!

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First mentor meet and appearance in the FT!

May 11, 2009 at 3:07 pm · Filed under May 2009

As we work patiently towards getting the new site up and running (more news on that a bit later) the past week has also seen us appear in the Financial Times and was also when I first met my new mentor, Andy Taylor, ex-Channel 4 New Media boss, now digital media head at production house All3Media (which produces the likes of Midsommer Murders).

The FT piece on bank holiday Monday came from having gone through the Gateway to Investment scheme – a London DevelopmentAgency-backed support program for early-stage companies – which was a four day workshop that helped prepare me for the fund-raising process for CitySocialising. The team there was a fantastic support and it was especially great to meet other people who were going through the same thing, trying to make their small companies a success and giving their lives up in the process!

Then on Thursday I met up with Andy Taylor for the first time, who has very kindly agreed to mentor me for the next 12 months, as part of NESTA’s Creative Business Mentor program. NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts) is a unique and independent body with a mission to make the UK more innovative and I was lucky enough to be one of 20 companies that got through the selection process to benefit from one-to-one mentoring with some of the most successful business people from the creative sector.

Needless to say I was a little nervous before meeting Andy, but there was no need as he’s a really down-to-earth and friendly guy – super intelligent too with a fantastic wealth of experience behind him (he was credited with much of the work on the launch of the broadcaster’s 4OD service) that I’m hoping we can take some lessons from and apply them to CitySocialising. So far I’ve gone through the business start-up phase alone without a mentor which has been difficult to say the least. So I’m extremely pleased to have one now through the next phase which is set to be even more challenging than the last, with launching the new site, entering into new cities and ambitions to grow the network by 400% over the next 12 months.

So back to the new site… There have been some real blood, sweat and tears that have gone into the new site over the past months with 5am weekend finishes testing and re-testing! I’ve been told by many that getting a new site ready for launch always takes longer than you think but my patience is getting close to zero now. I just can’t wait to get moving with it. But wait we must….

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