Network & Chill Time
Excited was the word I most used when describing to my friends and family that I will be heading to the Network & Chill event at the Oxo Tower on Thursday 21st February.
The day prior to this event, I hosted the Haringey Youth Council Meeting with my Cabinet Team. It was so amazing opening doors for young people into community development and the hours of planning paid off in execution. Tired, was the first feeling that came over me on Thursday.
I happened to meet with Keith West, co-founder of Network&Chill Club, a few weeks prior to his event to hear about his vision and plans for this one. He was so optimistic and hopeful that this event could add value to a lot of the attendees and help them to relax from their usual busy and stressful schedules.
On arrival to the Oxo Tower, I was caught by a long line of people waiting outside the venue. Of course, I wasn't going to just stand there for 10 minutes and wait to network so I spoke with the first person that stood in front of me, Peter. Peter and I shared a great conversation around Education, Yuval Noah Harrias books and he gave me some advice as an investor.
We finally got in and I went straight to exploring the venue. The first item to take was your lanyard. This made it so much easier to spot people from different industries as I was specifically looking for Investors (Red) and Tech Enthusiasts (Blue).
The venue hosted a Selfie/Boomerang machine, Giant Jenga, a Chocolate fountain, 2 Massage tables, a Foosball table, Table tennis, Connect 4, a Violin player, a Close-up Magician who pulled out a potato from an empty cup (don't ask how) and loads of sweets.
It is the pitches that I was waiting for however, and what a line-up. We had Rupesh Thomas, founder of TukTukChai who pitched in the Dragons Den, Randall Heather the commercial lead at AssetVault, Michael Blakeley the founder of Clikd, William Sachiti who pitched KarGo, Daniel Whytock who is innovating the retail market, Anthony Rose the founder of SeedLegals, and Genevieve Leveille who uses blockchain Tech at AgriLedger.
The key points to take away from the pitches were to find a problem and work hard in solving it, to do what you love, and to never be afraid of saying no.
After the pitches, I left with some food for thought, some contacts to follow up with, a cool drinking cup and time to network with more people. You don't know how excited I was when I found 4 other Polish people at this event! I am a regular attendee of networking events and it is very rare for me to find other Polish people despite the hundreds that actually live in London.
Anyway, time to follow up on these contacts so until the next time! Network&Chill ;)
Be nice to others!
Damian Zabielski
