The future of thupr

Image via CrunchBase

Oh dear – my Audioboo interview on the future of thupr

Someone very kindly bought me a glass of red wine – but I react to some reds really badly, and you can see this on my face in the picture. And that was just a couple of sips!

There’s bits you’ll hear here first…..

Excitement for the coming month.

Perhaps a bit of a lazy b;og today, but heartfelt none the less. There are always loads of events to choose from – and London’s buzzing right now. I do try hard to get a decent spread whilst still ensuring that I have time to do some work!

First up there’s this Friday’s thupr event, and the great host of people who know what they’re doing are coming on down, and we’ve just added another app developer, Sprash, to the host that will be strutting their stuff. We have so many changes afoot and I can’t wait to share the excitement and bring people in! Why you should go: great, practical  learning space, meeting space, thinking place; a bar; outside the normal ‘echo chamber’; fun;  get out of the office early on a Friday.

And then there’s anticipation of Tweetcamp: if you haven’t seen the campsite, you should! The event’s on Saturday October 8, and promising to be awesome. Why you should go: not the usual ‘echo chamber’; great learning space, meeting space, thinking place; fun.

I’d also love to be at Reading Geek this week – Jim Anning has managed to create a really relaxed format that’s always stuffed full of really smart folk. (Jury’s out on a babysitter though – other parents will identify with that one!) and no, that’s not because I consider myself a geek, but because I learn – lots – every time manage to get along. Why you should go:  great learning space, meeting space; fun crowd; outside of London.

And then Waves, which is run from a boat, will feature as part of a programme later in this year, and we’ll be filming for that. Which is great! But I can’t invite you – we can only take ten at most!

thupr and its new beginnings

The future's so bright we've gotta wear shades!

Most of you by now will have heard about the new Waves intern, Halima, who’s making a great splash here and has taken on the thupr events.

Although things are looking bright for the next thupr,a mobile apps event, it’s what happens from there on in that matters. Thupr has, frankly, been run on a wing and a prayer: it’s been pretty much a textbook case of how not to run a community. It’s not been a predictable format, it’s not on a predictable date cycle, and the event subject matter has been narrow enough to ensure a very different bunch of people each time.

I’ve been guilty of trying to please those who shouted loudest and not listening to my gut feel. And in many ways, I’d had enough and was ready to throw in the towel.

Until Stephen Haggard, who has taken on supplier outreach, asked me a question: if we didn’t do thupr, would someone else want to do it?

And when we chewed it through, and my somewhat jaded eyes were opened: the answer is yes! There’s not another event in London that puts together the tools suppliers and the people who use them in anything except a sales type environment. There’s not another forum that allows discussion around those tools, be it the ethics, the practicalities, the chance to experiment.

My enthusiasm is renewed. Halima is taking some of the strain of organising and making herself some great contacts in the process. (She’s even had the offer of work – other would be PR grads take note).  Stephen is intelligent and considered, and great to work with – a balance to my need for constant change – and between the three of us we’ve gone back to the roots of thupr, but with input that makes it easier to do and sustainable.

So here’s our formula for a thupr revival:

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PR progress report

Halima Amin, Waves PR Intern

Post by Halima Amin, Waves PR intern working on the changes to, and rebrand of, the thupr – (Tools That Help Us, PR) events

What a buzzing week at Waves! Although this is to be expected a mere week before our next meet up (Mobile apps, 16^th Sept).

Whilst this first meet up has really had me in the teething process of the PR world, it has only left me with much more confidence for meet ups to come. The dead ends and the glorious leads alongside the creative power given to me by Claire have all made up my experience so far.  Working on a new logo, name, format and means of communication is as exciting as it is challenging.

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