So long, and thanks for all the fish.
They say that all good things must come to an end. Today we’re announcing that after six wonderful years, Jam is closing down.
To this day, we have thoroughly enjoyed everything we’ve done together. Our events were fun, different, and a pleasure to organise and run. You brought them to life and we couldn't be more grateful for all the great moments we enjoyed in your company.
In this announcement, we’d like to share the rationale behind this decision.
2020 has had a disastrous impact on society and the economy as a whole. From a business standpoint, companies operating in the events industry have been hit particularly hard.
Our revenues crashed, and we lost a considerable amount of money in deposits paid to venues – including Hawker House, who we were saddened to hear, are also in the process of closing down.
We successfully ran several online events throughout the year, but it quickly became clear to us that it was going to be impossible to recreate the experiences we'd created in the past, online.
But we didn't throw in the towel. At the end of the year, we attempted a pivot, and launched – Jam Club – an online community for our most committed members.
Our vision was to build a thriving space for growth-minded product leaders, offering intimate virtual workshops every month.
Pivoting from an in-person events company to an online community has proven significantly harder than we’d originally hoped, and the losses we accumulated in 2020 have proven too significant for us to overcome. And so now we’d rather stop here, celebrate the journey, and say a proper goodbye.
What now?
We’ll keep Jam Club open for the next six months. We won’t be moderating it or running any workshops, but you'll be able to access all workshop recordings, discussions, and member profiles. We hope you’ll be able to use it to reconnect with friends made at past events.
To claim your free invite just drop us a note at hello@makingjam.io.
You can also find all past talk videos on our YouTube channel.
Thank you
A huge thank you to our amazing team of staff and volunteers; Marta, Sunil, Jessie, Maria, Francesca, Stephen, Joan, Monica, Ecem, Steve, David, Michael, Mahtab, Eva, Gizem, Antoine, Jeff and all those that helped run our events every year. We’re deeply grateful for the friendship, shared memories, and support you’ve shown us over the years. We couldn’t have achieved everything we did without you.
Thank you to Doug and Chris at Intelligent People. You supported us from day one, and have always been a pleasure to work with.
Thank you to all our speakers and workshop instructors for all the brilliant content you’ve delivered over the years.
And thank you, for the good times we created together.
Seb & Mathilde
About
Blog
JAM London 2015
The line-up
James Gill
CEO, GoSquared
James is the CEO of GoSquared, and dedicated to designing software that just works. GoSquared's goal is to make it easier for anyone to start and grow a SaaS business online. Something you won't find on LinkedIn: James is dangerously obsessed with Apple, to a point where he will often be found queuing for a new store opening, refreshing the Apple homepage, or just mindlessly playing with his iPad.
Tim Davey
Co-Founder & Head of Product, OneFineStay
Previous to founding onefinestay in 2009, Tim was co-founder and CTO of Snaptalent, a web recruitment ad network based in San Francisco, which raised funds from Y-Combinator, Index Ventures and other leading investment firms. Tim has a BSc in Theoretical physics from Imperial College, London and is an active member of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS) and the Privacy International advisory board.
Rachel Ilan Simpson
UX Designer, Google
Rachel is currently working as a UX Designer on the Google Chrome team. She has worked with award winning Design Agencies, Startups and Software Companies and frequently speaks on topics related to Design, User Research and prototyping.
In her free time, she loves to organize design events. She was one of the original co-founders of Make Munich, a yearly festival of all things DIY. She also started Munich Design Jam, and is on the orga team of IxDA Munich. For fun, Rachel loves to travel (and live!) other places. She?s originally from Calgary, Canada and has visited 26 different countries in as many years.
Pip Jamieson
Founder, The Dots
Pip is the Founder of The Dots. Best described as a ‘LinkedIn for creatives’, The Dots is a professional networking platform designed to help creative professionals and companies showcase work, network, collaborate and (most importantly) connect with commercial opportunities.
An entrepreneur with a distinctive marmite laugh (you either love it or you hate it) Pip has spent the last 13 years immersed in the creative industries, including executive roles at MTV Australia and New Zealand. Pip lives on a houseboat with her husband in Kings Cross, London.
Will Swannell
Chief Executive, HireSpace
Will has been responsible for product at Hire Space and has helped grow the business from something scratch to a market leading position. Previous to founding Hire Space in 2012, Will worked as a corporate strategy advisor and before that as an Economics teacher. Will has a BSc in Theoretical physics from Imperial College, London and MPhil in Finance from Cambridge University. He also has a keen interest in Education.
Karolis Kosas
Product Designer, Stripe
Karolis specializes in interactive product design. He is currently product designer at Stripe. In 9+ years he has worked with impactful organisations and products, including Samsung User Experience Lab, Google, TuneIn, Rapt Studio, Ravel Law and the Barbican Centre.
Scott Weiss
VP of Product & Design, Babbel
Scott Weiss is a mobile design visionary and has led design teams in many prominent tech companies across the globe. In 2001 he started work on his seminal book "Handheld Usability" after discovering that there were no design texts for phones and other handheld devices, and has gone on to help create compelling user experiences on a wide range of mobile platforms. He's worked with LG, Samsung, Vodafone and many other well-known brands, held career-level roles at Apple, Microsoft, Sybase, Autodesk, and Babbel and runs his own UX agency in New York.
Anna Wojnarowska
UX Researcher, Google Fit
Anna Wojnarowska is a user researcher at Google Fit. Previously at Government Digital Service (GDS) she specialised in IT transformation for the British government. Prior to that she has been working within the Cabinet Office conducting ethnographic investigations on the daily lives and work practices of civil servants in order to make government services faster, clearer and simpler. She worked with the Home Office and related organisations on national security.
Graham Paterson
CPO, Catapult
Graham is Chief Product Officer at Catapult, the flexible workforce platform that gives part-time hospitality and retail workers access to top brands in the UK and Germany. Prior to joining Catapult, Graham spent 3 years at Deliveroo where he held the position of Group Product Manager, working with teams across all aspects of the product including consumer, B2B, internal tooling, pricing, and artificial intelligence systems. In addition, Graham has helped to scale and grow brands such as Transferwise, and Intuit (QuickBooks), building the customer experience and supporting expansion into new markets. With a background in design and development, Graham started out building his own products, such as NightCapp the late-night bar locator, which originally ignited his passion for the Product area. Graham is also the Editor of Product Dogs, a blog for people who build digital products. The content includes a series of essays, ideas, and general thoughts on how to build better products.