On one hand it is the hip and cool hub for both the technological and creative side of the UK’s digital industry, the birthplace of Last.fm, TechHub and numerous cutting edge agencies. On the other it is a slightly run-down and rough area, named after a king’s mistress called Shore who died in a local ditch. It is Shoreditch.
With its mixture of cool and slightly rough Shoreditch is the archetypical London neighbourhood. It is also home to the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley: The Silicon Roundabout.
In yesterday’s networking I managed to drop by at both the tech and creative side of the Silicon Roundabout. At TechHub the Roundabout Brewery was launching and nearby the club Cargo played host to Glug London, a bi-monthly gathering of agencies and creative folk.
Glug was a blast, as always. Where else would you meet freelance flash artists, founders, managers and account directors of various digital agencies that work with global brands – and a comic artist? Since I was killing two birds with one stone I arrived a few minutes late. And my tip for future Glug visitors: Don’t do that. The vault where the talks take place was packed and I couldn’t get in. Which did leave more time to meet people in Cargo’s excellent beer garden.
The Roundabout Brewery Launch at TechHub was also very good. Apart from the always interesting mix of entrepreneurs there were also some excellent samples to be had of the Roundabout Brewery beer, complete with the opportunity to provide user feedback.
One evening, two events, lots of interesting people and no one I know got mugged. All in all, another successful networking evening in the Silicon Roundabout.