TechHub

We know that funds are tight for students, but that you still want to make the connections and hear great speakers that coming to TechHub events provides.

So, we're offering free event attendance to bright, enthusiastic, personable students of technology and business, in exchange for helping us out with event set-up/closing and on the door greeting guests and managing the guest list (which is a great way of finding out who's who and who's coming). As well as coming to some fantastic events, you'll also gain valuable experience for your CV and a reference when you're applying for jobs.

If you're interested in taking advantage of this student event programme, drop tina[at]techhub.com an email with an overview of your skills and experience, details of why you'd like to take part, and a copy of your CV.

I'm completely jealous of everyone who's sunning themselves on holiday this month, and so many TechHub members are away at the moment that we've decided to extend our free co-working offer until Friday 27th August.

Want to give TechHub a try for free? Drop Charlie a line at charlie[at]techhub.com letting us know the day you're coming in and then come along. Test out our hefty brand spanking new 100 mbps fibre data line as I'm very pleased to announce it's all in and up and running! Big fat data FTW!

We also have our second #TechHubFriday Movie Night coming up this week. We'll all be practicing our best accents for everyone's favourite line: 'My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to Die.' in readiness to enjoy the fabulously silly Princess Bride from 5pm this Friday.

So kick off the weekend early, meet some other tech peeps and finish your Friday in style @TechHub. Register now.

Lastly, we're in the process of planning out our events programme starting in September, so if you'd like to give us your opinions on event styles and subjects you like, those you don't and any ideas you have or lists of people you'd really love to hear from, please tell us!

TechHub, a new co-working space and networking centre in London for technology entrepreneurs, had an action-packed first week that included Speed Dating for Entrepreneurs, a "Pitch Battle" competition for new business plans and a discussion of Financial Times mobile initiatives with technology bloggers.

"Starting up on your own is not easy. It is lonely at the beginning," said Brent Hoberman, co-founder of lastminute.com and a leading light in London’s Internet community, addressing the teeming launch party for TechHub. “It is fantastic to see places like this opening in London and I hope that we see many successful businesses come out of TechHub."

Pearson was the first founding sponsor of TechHub, followed by Google. London’s TechHub aims to be the first location in a network of TechHub communities spread around the world.

"Co-working is based on a community spirit that helps entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality," says Juan Lopez-Valcarcel, Pearson’s director of digital product and consumer technology. “We are thrilled to support the digital community in London and you will see many of our product teams working here at TechHub engaging with entrepreneurs and developers”.

The opening week kicked off on July 12 with a Tech Founder "Speed Dating" event on Monday, organised by Seedcamp and TechHub, as a forum designed to match entrepreneurs with technology talent. Just as in the “romantic” version of speed dating, potential partners moved quickly from chair to chair along a long table trying to find the right chemistry for relationships — to start a business together.

On July 14, the “TechCrunch Summer Pitch Battle” attracted more than 40 entrepreneurs seeking recognition for their business ideas. Entrants had one minute to pitch their idea in front of a packed crowd of fellow entrepreneurs, venture capital firms and corporate development teams.

Ten finalists were then chosen to present their ideas for three minutes. The first place winner was Calaboard, for an augmented reality video conferencing system in which one party might draw diagrams in three-dimensional space which then appear on a computer screen viewed by the other party. Second place went to Duedil for a platform for professional recommendations, and third place went to Geomium for a mobile location system that advises users of events going on around them.

On July 15, the Financial Times mobile team shared ideas with tech  bloggers about the FT's current offerings and future plans for mobile devices including Apple’s iPhone and iPad. It was the first briefing at TechHub organised by one of Pearson’s businesses.

There have been 370,000 downloads of the FT’s app for the iPhone since the app was launched last year, and “we see very active users, with lengthy uses per visit,” said Steve Pinches, lead product development manager at FT.com. The FT’s app for the iPad, the only news app to win an Apple Design Award, has seen an average use of 23.3 minutes per visitor, and both the FT’s iPhone app and the new iPad app have been very effective in driving subscriptions to FT.com, said Mr. Pinches.

For more information about Pearson’s involvement in TechHub, contact Juan Lopez-Valcarcel at juan.lopezvalcarcel@pearson.com

We're busy, busy bees getting TechHub ready for launch, but we're not just focusing on the space itself, oh no! We're starting to book in some fantastic events for TechHubbers and guests and what we really want to know is: what do you really want to know?

Are there particular formats you like or dislike? Amazing entrepreneurs or other speakers from far flung places that you'd like to hear from? Questions burning in your brain that you'd love to have answered? Or perhaps there are some topics you just love to bang on about with great, like-minded people?

Tell us now! <- We want to hear from you, and please ask your other techie friends to tell us too. 

TechHub, the hub for technology entrepreneurs from around the world is launching early July. We need great staff to help us greet members, manage the space, set up events and more. We're have two permanent, long-term Reception/Host jobs available for the London space

This is a great opportunity for someone who loves people and is keen to work in a start-up environment and have the opportunity to move up within the company. 

Core duties of the roles:

Reception

• Greet members and guests, assign & monitor guest passes
• Manage the physical sign-in process
• Manage the online booking processes for the co-working space, meeting rooms and device-testing room
• Answer queries
• Book taxis

Facilities management

• Set up the co-working space in the morning
• Ensure kitchen is clear and cleaners have done their job
• Check meeting rooms & set up
• Oversee printing, consumables & maintenance
• Manage any technical issues & order tech support visits where necessary

Event management

• Oversee setting up the event space and catering (you’ll have assistance with the space/catering set-up)
• Greet speakers and attendees
• Manage the guest list

Role description

• TechHub is open 8am – 10pm, so you can choose from core working hours of either 7.30am – 3.30pm, or 2.30pm – 10.30pm, to suit your family arrangements or other commitments.
• Working on-site at TechHub London in City Rd, London EC1Y 2BJ

You’re an essential member of the TechHub team and we’ll be relying on you to be the friendly, professional face of the space. You’ll be genuinely valued – we want the benefit of your experience, skills and expertise to help us shape how the space is run, the processes that need to be put in place, and to come up with ideas to make TechHub even better.

You are:

• Punctual, with excellent time-keeping and completely reliable – you’re such an important member of the team as you’ll be opening up in the morning or closing up at night and trusted with important responsibilities. We need to know you’ll be there when you say you will and are totally trustworthy!
• Super organised – great at managing your time and workload to ensure everything gets done and that handovers with your counterpart are smooth and seamless.
• Friendly and personable with great communication skills – you love interacting with people and helping make their day the best it can be. Our members are lovely people and we know you’ll enjoy meeting them.
• Excellent at remembering names and faces – you’ll be getting to know the people who visit TechHub and everyone loves to be treated like a valued member, rather than a membership number!
• Great with using computers and the internet - you'll need to quickly get to grips with our booking and member-management systems, so good skills with the ability to learn new software, applications and technology is a must.
• Ideally enthusiastic about technology and entrepreneurship – this is what we’re all about and we’d love our staff to understand why tech companies need TechHub and to gain an insight into what it’s like to start-up run a company.
• Happy to muck in – as these are new roles, some duties might be unexpected, or there might be times when it’s all hands on deck. We’re looking for people who want to see TechHub succeed and will get the job done.
• Innovative, creative and proactive – you’ll be developing processes and working out the best ways of doing things. If you think something could be improved, we want to hear your thoughts, and we’d love you to anticipate issues before they arise, and take action where it’s needed.
• The kind of person who goes the extra mile – you’re genuinely helpful and committed and these qualities won’t go unnoticed at TechHub, we believe in giving credit where credit’s due.

While we're seeking people who will really love these roles, there are great opportunities to move forward with TechHub in time, either into events planning and management or into a more senior club management role for one or more TechHub spaces.

As these roles are very important to the company, we're looking for people who want to join the TechHub team and who are interested in full-time, long-term work  (not suitable as holiday temp jobs).

Important: To apply, make sure you do the following:

• email your CV to Elizabeth at hostjobs@techhub.com
• include a covering email telling us why you're interested in the role
• briefly detail your relevant experience and skills in the email. We want to see that you're excited by this particular opportunity.
• include your salary expectations
• tell us which role you're interested in (early or late)
• and include your earliest start date 

 

Wow! Well we've had a massive response to our Founder Membership offer! Thanks so much to everyone who's applied, and and we'll be in touch with everyone by next Monday.

Also next week, we'll be opening up applications for standard TechHub Membership and Deskspace Membership  - I know there are lots of you itching to get your hands on our permanent desk spaces, so keep an eye out here and on twitter.

It's been a really busy week. We've been having some great conversations with companies interested in our three founding sponsor partnerships and we're very close to announcing the first of these.

After our very positive meeting at Downing St, we've been having some really interesting chats with the UKTI about how they can help support TechHub members in taking their businesses to an international level and break into new markets, and how non-UK businesses can get support for doing business in the UK. We're looking forward to hosting some advice sessions and events for TechHub members and guests.

Other organisations are also starting to get in touch about hosting their events in the TechHub event space - we'll have room for about 150 people seated, and more if it's a standing event. Looking forward to adding these to the TechHub events programme that's in the works.

It's so great to see that so many share our vision for how TechHub can help tech start-ups to be better businesses and grow faster. There's lots going on and to all those giving such wonderful support to the project, thank you!