In Search of Brilliant Events
I love attending great events. From time to time I try to host them too. After over seven years in London, of course I have my favourites!
I’ve been asked a couple of times recently, including by the excellent Steve Dukes of Empora, which events I recommend. That’s a tricky one. Last week, Hermione Way put together a brilliant list of people and events which she rates, and so I thought I’d have a go myself.
As you can imagine, there are hundreds to choose from. So for starters, here (in no particular order) are my Top 20 events and individual hosts which I personally rate as first class. I’ve tried to link to an individual’s name on Twitter where possible;
- Julia Hobsbawm’s Editorial Intelligence (blending politics, business and media)
- Anything by Steve Moore (everything from Channel 4 education gatherings to Reboot Britain)
- Drink Tank organised by Huddle (Andy, Ali and Suz)
- Paul Walsh’s Open Soho
- Carole Stone’s Salons and Club events
- Andrea Zur Strassen’s The Nomads (for people on the move)
- Duncan Cheatle’s Supper Club (for entrepreneurs with 1m+ turnover)
- Charlie Hoult’s Castaway (’open office’ event for agency folk, with high proportion of owners)
- Anything by Coutts (Andrew Haigh hosts some of the best dinners in London)
- The Mandrake Club by Ed Hardy
- Anything by EO (the Entrepreneurs Organisation)
- Christine Hartland’s Mosaic Networking
- TED (hosting events in California, UK, India, and now globally thanks to TEDx)
- The Tuttle Club by Lloyd Davis
- Growing Business events including Young Guns
- Jamie Oliver’s PR masterclass series
- Chain Reaction (held in November and inspired by the Council on Social Action)
- Tom Ball’s Entretain and Summer/Christmas parties
- Techcrunch Europe’s signature events (eg The Europas)
- Glasshouse Events by Judith Clegg
Phew! To be honest, I could write a post about almost every one of these, however this is not the time! Also, it is without doubt that I’ve missed many, and probably some of my favourites too. This is just a personal view. I’ve been to them all and I almost never leave thinking that I haven’t enjoyed myself, met interesting people and had interesting conversations.
Moving on, here are a quick 10 events which I haven’t personally spent much time at, however am keen to try more of;
1. Ewan Macleod’s Mobile Industry Review events
2. The Do Lectures which I’m looking forward to going to this month!
3. Ryan Carson’s Carsonified and Future of Web Apps
4. Katz Kiely’s bTween (for interactive ideas)
5. Think Tank Demos
6. The Young Foundation
7.The Royal Society for the Arts, Manufacture and Commerce… The RSA
8. The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts … NESTA
9. The Frontline Club
10. Daniel Priestley’s Triumphant Events
Hopefully that’s useful! Please don’t hesitate to ask me questions about any of the above, and to recommend your own favourites. I’m conscious that this list is EXTREMELY London-centric!
Good hosts are hard to find, however I’m a great believer that one of the most valuable things you can do in life is to bring people together. So let me take this opportunity to say a massive THANK YOU to all of the above, for brilliant gatherings past and future! … If you’d like to come to one of my future Speednetworking events, please do get in touch!
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Great post Oli, hugely useful.
See you at a Brilliant Event soon,
Steve
Oli,
Fantastically informative as usual – it’s great to have someone, here in London, with their finger on the real pulse.
Lovely to see you last night as usual. Speak soon.