Rachael Rowe: Hello, welcome back to our Seismic Sessions podcast, where today we’re going to be discussing the role of community in financial services, touching on the impact of hybrid working on in person events and communities, and how do we think communities will evolve in the future? I’m joined as always by my colleague Gemma Livermore, Head of International Financial Services Marketing here at Seismic. Hi Gemma.
Gemma Livermore: Hi, Rachael. Good to be back.
Rachael Rowe: Lovely to have you again Gemma,
We’re also joined by Clare Bayley, Marketing Manager at Evelyn Partners. Thanks for joining us today, Clare.
Clare Bayley: Alright. Good morning. Lovely to be here.
Rachael Rowe: Morning, Clare. And also Tony Margiotta. Thank you for joining us, Tony. Tony’s Global Head of Membership at Rise by Barclays. And maybe to demystify that a little bit, perhaps you could tell us a little bit about Rise, Tony?
Tony Margiotta: Yes, indeed. So if we go back about 13 years ago, which seems forever, I was involved with a couple of other gentlemen and I think we had the very first coworking space in London, which was up in Bloomsbury and it became very successful. We opened about three or four clubs and then Barclays approached us and said, hey, we’re Barclays, 300 years of wisdom in banking, but we just need to be able to speak to FinTechs a lot better, would we create therefore a bridge into the ecosystem? So we did. And we set up Rise, created by Barclays. We all got together and then now we’re currently in New York and London with around 120 to 130 companies spread across both those locations, predominantly FinTech with a splattering of sustainable companies as well.
Rachael Rowe: Wow, that’s fantastic. I’m really looking forward to hearing more about that as we discussion today, Tony. I think you’re going to bring quite a few insights to the conversation. So to kick us off, let’s get started with an icebreaker. Our regular listeners will know that we start our discussions by asking each of our guests, what does enabling the financial services industry mean to them?
So Clare, if we could come to you first.
Clare Bayley: enabling the financial services industry. Certainly in terms of topic we’re talking about today, for me, it’s about sort of events and community and getting people together, particularly after COVID, I would say, where things have changed somewhat in the landscape.
Rachael Rowe: Thanks, Clare. Excellent perspective. And Tony, your thoughts.
Tony Margiotta: It’s all about community meetups, getting together and just enabling everybody to be able to have access. Access to the whole community, the whole ecosystem, whether it’s digital or in person events. So that’s really important.
Rachael Rowe: Thank you, Tony. So let’s delve into today’s topic. In each of our podcasts, we split out the conversation with our seismic earthquake theme. Looking at the tremors, where the movement started, how communities used to function in financial services in this case, the epicentre, how things have evolved and what communities look like today.
And then we make our predictions for the future. What will be the aftershocks? How do we see communities evolving in the future? So with that in mind, let’s start with the tremors. So firstly, we’ll look back at how financial services used to be very siloed in the way it was set up. I personally remember the days when community used to be more of a frat club of who you knew.
And everyone having come from the same background, the same university, which made it very hard for outsiders to penetrate or feel included. So coming to you first, Tony, and given what you’ve already outlined in terms of Rise in the community that you’ve developed, I’d love to hear more about that, and how that all began.
Tony Margiotta: I guess the initial ask from Barclays back in 2015, really shows that they realised, they’re the first bank that really realised that needed to be more of a community spirit and getting together with these young fintechs from big corporate banks to understand what’s really going on in the sector.
So over those, since 2015, over those eight years plus, I’ve really seen now that, is really about bringing people together, understanding who’s doing what. Yeah. More importantly, knowing who are the main characters in the ecosystem because back in 2015 and before then we didn’t really know it was there was a separate entities across all the different sectors and specifically, of course, in fintech.
And so I’ve seen over the last eight years, how the community in general, not just in Rise, but in general, has got a lot better connecting people, which is really important and people together to talk about FinTech.
Rachael Rowe: Yeah, absolutely. and it’s the power of those voices, isn’t it, enabling those discussions to take place because that, that really is where the magic happens when you start to break down those silos and you promote conversations across different sub verticals within FS, but also, across a diverse spectrum of individuals as well.
Tony Margiotta: Yeah. And it’s also cool that we’ve got all these different various organisations now across the ecosystem that is, is big in supporting the sector, whether it’s Innovate Finance or Tech London Advocates or London and partners, or, just some of the really good coworking spaces that really care about their members and promoting them. So we’re quite lucky that we’ve got this vibrant ecosystem currently.
Rachael Rowe: Excellent. It’s really good to hear and Clare, coming on to you. You obviously have a rich experience of developing community within Evelyn. So maybe though, if we peel back the clock a little bit, could you tell us about your first experiences with community within financial services?
Clare Bayley: Yeah, sure. I’ve been in the industry actually, over 20 years in financial services. So I have seen quite a lot of change, and positive change, as you can imagine, whereas, initially you wouldn’t see much sort of community at all or very restricted and very closed off to things developing.
There was, I saw communities for young professionals flourish. That was interesting. And networks for women more latterly have come to play, although perhaps initially they were then very much at a sort of very senior leadership level, which kind of, I think closed ranks, I think it was quite difficult for women and that’s got better. So I’ve, seen some trends,
Rachael Rowe: Mm hmm.
Clare Bayley: along the way and then more recently at Evelyn Partners, so I spearhead our sort of marketing for entrepreneurs, FinTech financial services. And we, we have this sort of fantastic series of events and webinars for our communities and for our partnerships.
And, those kind of formats are fantastic because you see, perhaps founders coming together, C suite, and also perhaps women in tech sort of type events, where people can come together, make new connections, support each other’s sort of businesses and ask questions about, how to how to grow and, just to see that sort of develop, has been really exciting and been really fun to be part of.
Rachael Rowe: I love to hear about that journey and the way that journey has evolved. It gives a great perspective when you can see how far you’ve come, I think, and how, much communities have developed during that timeframe. I think turning to you now, Gemma, as well as your work at Seismic, you’re very well known in the industry for the community that you founded, Women of FinTech, which now has over, I think, four and a half thousand members. Can you tell us a little bit about how that started?
Gemma Livermore: Course, I’m going to echo a lot of what’s already been said here, which is, I’ve been in the industry over 20 odd years and back in the day, it was exactly to your point, Rachael, very siloed in the communities that were available, it felt like they were all internal communities, but you didn’t mix with people outside of your company as much in terms of community, only when you were selling to them or connecting to them on a business level. And, it felt very much like you only knew who you knew in that respect. Going forward, I’m a mother of many children, as many people know, and as I started to have my family, I realised I was being cut out of the few communities that did exist back then, because they were all after work or before work and in those times where you needed to be at home and all of a sudden I was cut off from having those interactions and, as people, as humans, we have always wanted to collect together, hence a slight living in villages and towns and always needing that community side and work is no different.
You need to actively participate in communities to help us stay relevant, share insights, foster professional growth and so on. And so to be cut out of that at quite an important time in my career felt really isolating. Also at around that time, I was struggling with the fact that pre COVID, there wasn’t really any ability to flexible work when you were a parent.
So there was also that isolation going on as well, if you like, and then just the third part that kind of made this all come together, the trilogy of the story is, I was also at the same time nominated for an award for being a woman in fintech, I was at that awards and there were over 300 odd women, a scattering of very few men and everybody left frustrated with that same passion for wanting to make gender diversity more prevalent in our industry. And I looked around the room and I thought, God, there’s all these powerful women who solve really complex issues day to day in financial services and yet we’re not working together to solve this really relevant issue in front of us. And I thought, I wonder how that would look if we came together to solve it. So I set up Women of FinTech, the reason it’s got an of in the middle is, I was very into Humans of New York at the time, which is a photographer that goes around telling stories in New York, and so in my maternity leave on my fourth child, cause I can’t do nothing, I’m one of those people that always has to do something, I’ve started telling people’s stories and that grew to over 2000 people within my maternity leave. And I realised I wasn’t alone. There was a whole community of women feeling the same, but not just women.
It was actually five men who helped me set up Women of FinTech. So there was a whole view of people that wanted to come together and make this change. And the incredible power of that community today has been amazing in what we’ve achieved and what we’ve collectively done going forward.
Rachael Rowe: Wow. That, that, that’s a really inspiring story, Gemma, and I think you’ve really tapped into something there. I’m sure it resonates a lot with women listening to this podcast, but as you say, not just women. I think that there’s something there for everybody as well in terms of the hybrid working piece for sure, which I think segues nicely into the epicentre of our conversation and where we find ourselves today in terms of communities, how communities have now evolved in the industry to be, as you say, externally facing, the industry I feel works together a lot more. And it’ll be interesting to explore, together, whether that’s maybe perhaps because the demands of the customer and the customer service focus has shifted.
And, then also maybe we can talk a little bit about how hybrid working has impacted on face to face events, for example, that you mentioned Tony, and communities and how inclusive they now are. So it feels like there’s quite a lot to unpack here. So to start with this, Tony, I’d love to come across to you and talk about the inclusive side of communities and I know for example, that you create inclusive communities for ex military. folks, so if there’s something there that maybe that you could expand on.
Tony Margiotta: Yeah. So I think there’s first of all, let’s talk about community. I realised quite early, and so did the team, that we had to change the way we created our club. We realised that this is before lockdown, and it actually applies to after lockdown as well, in some cases, but we realised that there’s so many co working spaces out there in communities all offering the same thing, i. e. office space, but it’s what, it’s the value adds that you offer within that space or community that makes a difference. As I always say to people, it’s not about beer on tap or loud music or colored cushions or table football, it’s about content. It’s about connections.
And that’s what certainly my members want. When I talk to my 60 odd companies at Rise in Shoreditch, I always say to them, how can I help you grow? And it’s invariably, it’s about raising money. It’s about the next hire. It’s about getting really good quality connections and advice. And if you can collaborate, get all those collaborators together in one place or at the end of a call, then that’s what makes a difference.
So it’s about that content that’s really makes a really good community and members that care about each other. That’s the really important thing.
Rachael Rowe: That, that’s a really interesting, perspective. And can we come on to the other part of the question about how you’re merging your two communities, Tony?
Tony Margiotta: Please. I’d love to talk about my other community, which, I’m always screaming from the rooftops about, and that’s the military community. I was very fortunate and I do miss it often, to spend 20, 20 odd years in the UK armed forces and leaving a number of years ago. But I realised, over the last five years that there’s a real vibrant ex forces community out there, or even people that are just about to transition from the UK armed forces into civilian roles, and I realised that they needed some assistance because they don’t always know, or they tend to undervalue themselves when they’re doing that transition and yet they have so many transferable skills. So I’m hopefully this year about to launch a super app, called Civvy Street, which is going to be about before, during and after service. And this is really getting down and dirty with the transition in UK armed forces personnel and just giving them a heads up about what’s going on in civilian life and then doing those connections for them because they’re all really eager to go on their new mission. If you like, they just need a little bit of coaxing along the line. If you like,
Rachael Rowe: That’s fantastic, Tony. Thanks for sharing that. You’ll have to come back in the future, podcast and tell us a little bit more about how that evolves. Clare, can you tell us how Evelyn Partners is plugging in with FS Communities? And I guess as an extension of that, how they prosper from that?
Clare Bayley: Sure. I’m a massive advocate myself, I see that because of the magic of events and communities, I’ve seen what a buzz comes from these situations from a personal view, having worked in this space for many years, that your creativity, that connections are made, and also from a, from a business point of view as well, there’s a sort of the power of, we, we have the power, sharing the power of good advice with our clients and our communities.
We’re able to do this by, for example, community events, et cetera, because of sharing content, information, education, supporting business grow, introducing businesses to the right people within our own networks ourselves and obviously it’s really important as well, for looking after our clients and, helping our clients prosper.
Events are really important there for that. And I think, the community and the events, when you go from strength to strength that I’ve seen develop, and particularly after COVID, I think the really interesting thing, I know we’re going to get onto hybrid working as well, and there’s things we can talk about there, but I think it’s become so important for people, perhaps, communities will perhaps talk together on WhatsApp groups or online or via sort of various forums, but then to have the opportunity perhaps to come together, perhaps, with us for a quarterly networking drinks, a round table. a breakfast on a particular topic to help them grow their business could be on, international expansion, for example, and coming together and that real sort of magic of, people coming together from different businesses, but sharing their experiences. And, that, that sort of, has become so important, particularly after COVID and you can really see things flourishing in that area.
Rachael Rowe: I love that. It’s that kind of virtuous circle that you’re describing there builds its own momentum. Yeah, that’s great. Thank you for sharing that. Gemma, could you tell us about the community you’re setting up for Seismic?
Gemma Livermore: Yeah, of course. So I joined Seismic at the end of August, beginning of September and I was really intrigued by enablement at that time because it’s a new phrase that’s being thrown around a lot, a bit like how innovation came around first of all. And then enablement seems that second wave of innovation, and I was really intrigued by it to know more about how you could enable people within their roles. I go to a lot of community events, as not just my own, but I love going to other people’s. I love that connection of listening to stories and understanding how other people fix their pain points. And I was at one and there were about 16 banks around the table, all talking about their pain points and at first it was as if they were all, covering their homework, should we say, and Tony, I’m sure you’ve seen this many times before as well, and, it’s like they, they didn’t want to share first of all, they didn’t want to be the first person to share. And there was this very siloed view and it took one person to turn around and say, it can’t just be me who’s rubbish. He used a much less PG version of rubbish, but I’ll go with rubbish because we’re recording, I can’t be the only one that’s rubbish at doing this around the table. I need more time. I can’t do this. All of my time’s taken up doing X, Y, Z. And so I never get to do the important parts. And suddenly there was this sigh around the table. And someone said, I thought that was a small bank problem.
And the other person said, I think that, I thought that was a big bank problem, or, and someone else was like, I thought that was just me, not being able to keep up on my role. And there was that moment of revelation of people understanding that if they spoke to each other, they could learn from each other and they could help each other get rid of those pain points.
And after that, everyone had a laugh and they all started speaking much more candidly. And what was interesting is not only bringing those people together to help realise that they all had the same pain points and they can work together to solve them, but they actually learned more once they really opened up from each other about what they had done that didn’t work.
And that was really interesting because suddenly they all saved each other so much time in saying, I won’t try that then cause you’ve said it doesn’t work. And that sharing of information just really enabled them to move forward. And so the community that I’m building is really to ensure that everyone understands what enablement is, that everyone wants to do, or I say everyone, majority of people wants to do their jobs better. And they want to know how they can do it faster and quicker and save time and be more productive. And in the rec, then the rise of AI, everyone’s very intrigued. Suddenly we can see, I’m sure everyone around the table here has used chat GPT to do something completely unwork related.
I know I have, I’ve used it to try and impress my teenage kids with rap songs I’ve made them. It didn’t work at all, but I thought it was funny. But you can see how you can create something really fast that you couldn’t create before and how you can apply that to your role. And that sharing of knowledge is really important.
So what I’ve done is started these monthly breakfasts. We bring in a different thought leader each month to set the scene and set the conversation. so it’s not just us monologuing to people, it really creates that community vibe and it just gets people sharing information. And then we do quarterly lunch and learns where it’s more workshoppy.
So rather than just talking peer to peer, we bring somebody in that will teach them something. And then we do these quarterly supper clubs where again, it’s just a different level. So it’s people that are much further along that enablement journey and want to share how they’re bringing it forward. So that sharing of information is essentially what I’m creating.
Rachael Rowe: Thanks for sharing that Gemma, and I think what we’ve heard is three different perspectives, but all articulating the power of community and the value that it drives over time for folks involved in that community, and that you get out as much from a community as you put into it.
So thank you all for sharing those perspectives. And now a question for everybody and you touched on it, Clare, earlier because we can’t talk about the epicentre without mentioning how the pandemic and hybrid working that followed shaped how communities look, feel and interact now. So I’d like everyone to give their thoughts on that. And I think this time Gemma, we can start with you.
Gemma Livermore: I think, I think COVID was a real friend for inclusion when it comes to communities. Going back to what I said at the beginning where you feel isolated if you can’t attend certain events and Tony and Clare have both touched on it as well in that not everybody can do person to person events for various reasons. We think about the logistical aspect, but there’s also the aspects of neurodiversity where somebody just doesn’t feel comfortable going into a room and networking in that way. And so I think COVID really lent a hand to that inclusion side of us realising community doesn’t have to be face to face in this new digital world.
I’m in, many communities that are WhatsApp groups or Telegram groups or other types of groups. And we interact on a daily basis, but in the comfort of our own home in a, in the comfort of how we like to interact. And then you’ve got lots of video, obviously webinars and stuff popping up, which suddenly meant that at that table, it wasn’t just people that lived within a radius of London.
We were connecting and learning from people globally. And that was really impactful to understand how people were doing things in different parts of the world and how we could adopt those methods. So I think for me, hybrid working and the pandemic really added that level of inclusion to community that we didn’t have before.
Rachael Rowe: That’s great. I love that. Thank you, Gemma. Clare, what are your thoughts?
Clare Bayley: It’s interesting. Obviously COVID hit and we had to move our sort of face to face events program online and actually, it gave the big nudge to move to live webinar format, some on demand content for our clients and we had, you had to adapt and those now we’re after COVID, obviously face to face events are super important again, but obviously we’re still, we’ve still got this sort of, key digital offering in terms of getting communities together, because there’s, everybody has to use Teams or Zoom or got used to doing it.
And it’s great there’s a sort of a hybrid program. So that’s interesting. And, we have some fantastic partnerships. We support communities themselves who have certain business needs and we’re there and some of the content they may deliver now might be digital, but obviously face to face as well.
What we’ve seen really with live events after COVID is that actually they’re key, but you might see, still see a sort of a, perhaps a higher drop off rate than we used to pre COVID. It’s just an interesting thing that you see that, people are still keen to get to events, but maybe because of hybrid working, it depends what day they might be coming in to work in the office and if that works with the events that are on there face to face.
And it’s just interesting to see the kind of the challenges of running programs, post COVID. But I think that, some great stuff has come out of hybrid working for communities and events as, as Gemma mentioned. So I completely agree on those points, and I don’t think anyone’s ever going to take for granted going to a fantastic face to face event ever again, having all had to be at home for a long time. Those are my thoughts anyway.
Rachael Rowe: Excellent. No, thank you, Clare. Thanks for sharing that. And Tony, what are your thoughts, particularly around the in person events that you mentioned previously?
Tony Margiotta: So we were all worried when we got locked down because certainly our secret source is always about being in person and being around each other as a Rise community where we can really help each other and understand and apply a listening ear to everyone’s woes. So we had to do, as already mentioned, we had to put all our events online during the COVID and ensure that all of our members had access to our database of mentors. So I would, I was going around speaking to each of the members, on a daily basis, or obviously not all of them in one day, but over the period of the week just to, to check in and lean in to make sure everything is fine and always say the, I always say a statement to my founders, how can I help you grow this week?
Even if it’s just a minute, little helping hand, what can I do for you? So I was going around, using zoom and other platforms and just chatting with my founders and saying, how can I help you grow? And the drop in sessions were really popular during lockdown where people would just book in drop in sessions with me or one of my team, just to open up about general stuff, not just necessarily FinTech stuff.
And it was really cool to keep that momentum going with the community. And since we’ve come out of lockdown, the only thing that’s really changed for me as, for everyone is that we realise now that we have those shoulder days, the Monday and Friday where people tend to be at home, but the Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays are buzzing. So it’s good to see that’s happening now.
Rachael Rowe: Yeah, definitely. No, it’s really good to see that’s back. Okay, we’re moving on to the, the last section of our conversation. So we’re looking at the aftershocks now, and really what we’re looking to unpack is the future of communities. So what your thoughts are in terms of, how communities will evolve and perhaps how technology will play a pivotal role in connecting us all.
And Clare, beginning with you, I would love to hear your perspective to how you see companies harnessing the power of community going forward.
Clare Bayley: It’s a crystal ball one, really. I think in a way, perhaps, we’ll see more development of what we’ve just been talking about. Obviously, as Gemma mentioned, that there’s more WhatsApp communities now than they used to be, seen that in the last year or two, so there’s there’s some online chat and then there’s, to support each other and then there’s the, sort of the importance of the the face to face aspects, bringing communities together and, and I think that, as people connect and communities grow, the way that they keep in touch will be very heavily digital based because we’re based all over and we’re hybrid working. But I think perhaps, people will still make time to perhaps put dates in the diary and come together where they can, but I think we’ll just continue to see a lot of, kind of reliance on digital communities, I think, in the future, and businesses will have to adapt in terms of how they perhaps keep in touch with their communities, thinking of those sort of new ways of, of, getting together rather than perhaps the traditional formats that, that we’ve been using in the past, like email, for example, still important, but I think that the way communities keep in touch and quite an informal digital basis is just quite important. I think that’ll grow.
Rachael Rowe: Okay. No, thank you. That’s interesting. and I guess throwing it over to you, Tony, because I’ve loved what, hearing about how your community’s grown from strength to strength. Where do you see the future of Rise? Do you, agree with Clare or do you maybe see a slightly different trajectory?
Tony Margiotta: No, I agree what’s being said at the moment. It’s a, really strong mix of the digital in person physical spaces. If you mix it all together and you have an offering that includes all those three, then you’re onto a good thing. We realised just after Christmas that we need to change a few things up.
So we decided on the physical side, when we talk about physical space. So we decided to create an area where at Rise in Shoreditch, which is called The Hub, where people, members from upstairs can come out of their office, come downstairs, sit in a luxurious little, oh, big room, which has coffees, sofas, work areas, and telephone booths, that are soundproof, but also open it up to the local community, so I was bringing in, as I do now, certain influencers who come in from different organisations, so there’s a constant flow of people coming through that particular area. And there’s lots and lots of connections going on there, but equally on the digital side, it’s really cool to see what’s going on with LinkedIn over these last three or four years, where it’s become such a social platform. Now, I often, if I can’t get it from my own community, I just nip on there and say, who’s the big guys in AI? Cause I need a couple of panelists. And it’s amazing how people just interreact and say, I’m available, Tony. And it’s just cool. So that was really important.
Gemma Livermore: And when you think they’ve got a billion users on there now, it’s incredible the reach that you have on there.
Tony Margiotta: Yeah. So I I think we’ve got a lot of physical co working spaces. They’ve got their head screwed on. It is really about providing a really cool place for a community to interact. But equally, you need to make sure that you’ve got the ability to do stuff digitally. And if it comes down to spending, then you need to do that as well.
Rachael Rowe: I love that. I love this idea of omni channel communities, meeting people where they are. It’s really powerful. Gemma, over to you. How do you see communities looking in five to ten years?
Gemma Livermore: Yeah, again, I’m echoing a lot of what’s already been said, amongst our guests. But what I would say is, I think there will always be a need for in person. Always, just naturally we veer to one another, but I would imagine that there will be a much more interactive way that we can do hybrid events.
Clare, I’d love to hear your, opinion on this, cause I know I’ve been to a few hybrid events that just flopped, but I imagine that there is a space where they could work. Have you seen any success there or?
Clare Bayley: I actually prefer to do one or the other. That, that’s just, I tend to sit, tend to do, if you’re doing to do face to face, do face to face really well. Sometimes trying to do a stream from a face to face event, I, this is my personal view, I think that, sometimes it can distract a bit from the purpose of getting everybody together face to face, because it’s a bit of a distraction if you’ve got cameras in and links, and you’re trying to link in people, and I think you could do a really impactful face to face, then absolutely do face to face.
Gemma Livermore: It calls to my mind, I was on a panel where one of the people on the panel was, came in and that was the hybrid nature, but their face was like 10 times the size of everybody else on the panel, so it became a bit comical, but I can see maybe a space where maybe someone can create a way that does work because I completely agree with Clare on one or the other.
Clare Bayley: Be great to see it. It’d be great to see it. I don’t think we’re quite there. I don’t think that the industry is there yet with the tech properly, because I think, as you say, it’s a bit clunky. So maybe that’s one of the future points, Gemma, is that’ll get better and it’ll be a bit less clunky.
Gemma Livermore: Yeah, exactly. I hope so. And then, the future of events, I don’t see events and communities changing too much because I think the beauty of them is, it’s something that humans have wanted throughout the whole of humanity, is that community element. So I think that there’s a need to not change them too much because the beauty of the fact that they work is it’s exactly what they’re, we need as humans, we need that social connection and that feeling of belonging, we need those shared experiences and learning and we need it in a safe place where, it’s this one thing to create them, but you need to create that safety and that trust that you can really share amongst those people. And I feel that if you change it too much, then it takes away from the essence of what we’re all needing and wanting.
Rachael Rowe: I wonder as well, with digital natives entering the workplace and particularly as we, we look to the younger generations who are very dependent upon their communities within their social networks. I wonder what kind of impact that will have, whether that will be an accelerator for communities as we move forward.
Gemma Livermore: Yeah, and there’s a whole generation of people that have come through into the workforce during the pandemic and didn’t have that face to face contact, on any level. And so their need and want for communities is going to be very different to all of ours. And that will be interesting to see how that connect with the other generations as well.
Tony Margiotta: Can I just add something here about generations, which is, will bring a smile to your face. When we talk about the younger generation coming through and they’re amazing, what they’re getting up to now, but I, there was an occasion last week at, one of our, one of our value add classes, as I call it, we have a knitting class at Rise, my girlfriend runs it.
She’s a big knitter and it was amazing. There was seven or eight individuals, they’re knitting away, and they were all probably under 25, which seems forever for me, looking back, but they were talking about FCA regulations, they were talking about AI, they were talking about raising money, and then they go, oh, I dropped a stitch, and I was in stitches, excuse the pun, I was in stitches on the periphery watching, I thought, this is crazy. This is a knitting class full of really cool developers and founders in two particular cases, chatting about really interesting FinTech stuff. So you never know, you can throw lots of different ingredients at all different generations, but in the day, they all come together and hopefully support each other.
Clare Bayley: I think, if I could just chip on something on, the sort of people up and coming, you mentioned, Gemma, I think it was you that about people have come into their careers and jobs perhaps started their job when they were, went during COVID. And I think. how important it is for communities and events for people building their careers as well, just in terms of going to an event, learning to network, building your network, the knowledge that you acquire from attending events and, meeting sort of other people. I think that’s just a kind of a key thing just to, to help,
Gemma Livermore: I completely agree with that. And I think the beauty of these events and communities is going back to what Tony said at the beginning, which is make it holistic and bring everybody from the ecosystem in, because actually some of the best moments I’ve had from networking at these events is opening the unexpected door, it’s meeting somebody that I would never have thought to have met and that unexpected magic that happens around it in that.
You meet someone that maybe is in a completely different career to you and it inspires you to do something. Or you hear someone’s viewpoint that makes you realise, actually, this is the way I should be doing something. And we all learn from each other. So yeah, I would say always open those doors and include everybody in, communities that you’re running.
Rachael Rowe: Excellent. I think that’s a great sentence to, to end on. In terms of this conversation, it feels like we’ve really scratched the surface. I think there’s so much more that we could talk about, the power of communities and the value that it, that they drive. We like to do a roundup question, for each of our podcasts, just to try and summarise what we’ve talked about today.
So I’m going to ask each of you to give me one word. In summary, and then maybe in a sentence or two to explain why you chose that word. it’s a tricky one, I know, because we’ve gone on a little bit of a journey in our conversation. I will start with asking you, Clare. What one word would you give me that summarises our discussion?
Clare Bayley: Buzz,
Rachael Rowe: Oh wow, I like that.
Clare Bayley: The buzz that come, that comes from events
Rachael Rowe: Very onomatopoeic as well. that’s brilliant. Tony, what would your word be?
Tony Margiotta: Words for me. I just like the secret source of community. When you get a community together, magic and secret source happens. It’s brilliant.
Rachael Rowe: Brilliant. Thank you, Tony. And Gemma, what’s your word?
Gemma Livermore: I would have to go with inclusion because I think it’s, that’s where the magic happens around community is where you include lots of people together and get those different tones of voice.
Rachael Rowe: That’s fantastic. So we’ve got buzz, magic, secret sauce, and inclusion. So fantastic conversation. Thank you all for joining us today on this Seismic Sessions and we’ll see you next time.
