Three months of snZero
// November 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Reviews, snZero
That’s right it’s been three months since my foolhardy decision to bring to Leeds a new social event aimed at a more broad spectrum audience than GeekUp, Girl Geek Dinner and Open Coffee mornings have traditionally allowed for. And each month seems to bring new things - both good and bad.
Month one was held in the Adelphi pub at the end of September and was a sponsored event (by Hotfoot Recruitment and myself) who generously paid for the bar tab on the night. It was a night which I spent running around much like a deheaded chicken attempted to say Hi to as many people who would chat back. And while lots of Hi’s were said I didn’t actually get to say anything meaty to many people. That said there was lots of very positive twitter feedback after the event and many emails of support from people who’d had a good time - and as my only measurement for success for the night had been to speak to 10 people that I’d never spoken to before the 100 people or so that turned up meant that for myself the event was a success.
Month two was again at the Adelphi pub, but was unsponsored - after getting 8 agencies wanting to sponsor us in month one they all dried up in the space of 30 days. Having already done one event the second was a little less frantic, both for myself and for the bar staff who were presently surprised that in month 2 people actually used words like please and thankyou - something that had apparently been missing when the event had free beer. Month 2 had less people than the first month with probably only around 80 turning up, and without the free beer people came and went throughout the night as opposed to all turning up at 6pm with pint glasses in hand. With month 2 I’d had no real measurement for success, I was just hoping for a good crowd of people and some good feedback - and we got both. And personally I thought it was a better event than the first.
Most agreed, with a few exceptions.
It turned out that people had been expecting more of a format to the event than just come along and talk to people who work in the same industry as you - they wanted things to break the ice, they wanted talking points, they wanted presentations. It was at this point we put together a steering group that consisted of myself, Guy Redwood of Simple Usability fame, Andy Banks of Digital Welly and Andy Hey of Enjoy Digital amongst many things. And on a rainy Wednesday in October we can together and agreed the way that we wanted the event to go - yes to talking points, yes to ice breakers and ways to get people talking, no to sponsorship and definitely no to talks and presentations. And it was with this in mind that we set about event 3.
With new discipline appropriate stickers to scribble on and introduce yourself, with new talking point boards to give people without much to say something to talk about and with no presentations in sight we headed into event 3 - the final snZero of 2009, and in a new venue - the Brewery Tap.
A smaller venue and less people again, we probably only put about 50 people through the doors in November it again had a good buzz and I met some really good people - and actually got to really talk to some cool people too - I had a great conversation with Tero Väänänen for example on photography and how it doesn’t matter what equipment you use, it’s about the final article. And in itself I just now realise it’s a fantastic analogy for snZero as a whole - because for all the stickers and boards that we produced they had a limited effect in my opinion on how much fun people had. And I’d hope, and truly believe that the people who turned up had a good time. Darren Scotland was vocal on how the event has attracted a much wider audience than other similar events he’s been to, and that’s something I’m more than happy to hear given the reasons that I set the event up.
So for 2010? Well, we’ll be back in the Adelphi pub now that it’s been refurbished and hoping that word of mouth will start to spread, that we can get some larger agencies involved (Pi, Swamp, etc) and that I can have some useful, entertaining and interesting chats with people who sit at their desks and make websites everyday - while at the same time having a few pints as well. Will it happen? I don’t know in all honesty - I’m not reading too much into the diminishing numbers at the moment - we’re going towards Christmas and people have less money, and even with 50 people those 50 people were all good people who I could hold a conversation with and have a chuckle with too. So I’m happy. And again I hope and believe that people were too.
I’m proud of snZero, and happy for all the people that I’ve met so far - and so to all those that have attended an snZero in 2009 I would like to say thank you, and for the rest of you I hope to see you in 2010 - because I’ve got a LOT of stickers left.
