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 2018
The line-up
Thomas May
Product Manager, Thread
Thomas is a Product Manager at Thread, an online styling service for men. They're on a mission to help guys feel great by making it easy to dress well.
Michael Willmott
Head of Product & Technology, Beryl
Having gone from aerospace engineering to founding a global research platform for universities, Michael now leads product for Beryl. He is on a mission to get more people in cities on two wheels; combining his passion for cycling, technology and keen interest in the future of cities and mobility.
Charlotte Gauthier
Product Manager, Wikimedia Foundation
Charlotte has helped organisations from seed-stage startups to major publishers better understand their users, design compelling experiences, and launch amazing products. Currently Android PM at Wikimedia Foundation, she was previously Lead UX Designer at the Guardian and Head of Product at startups in Berlin and London.
Femke van Schoonhoven
Product Designer, Uber Eats
Originally from New Zealand and now living in Amsterdam, Femke (@femkesvs) loves making time to obsess over pixels, record a podcast (Design Life FM) or speak at events. Today she splits her time working as a product designer at Uber, side projects, writing and speaking. She?s also a lover of the outdoors and cooking.
Steve Kato-Spyrou
UX Manager, John Lewis
Steve is the UX Manager at John Lewis, leading and coaching a team of UX designers. He has lead the componentization of the John Lewis and Sky.com sites, in order to create a consistent customer experience.
Radu Chelariu
Product Design Manager, PaddyPower Betfair
Radu plays the role of Product Design Manager at Paddy Power Betfair, leading a team of UX and UI designers in one of Europe?s leading betting and gambling companies. He?s been fiddling with UX & UI for over a decade, focusing on eCommerce and, more recently, the gaming industry.
Ian Curtis
Product Manager, The Telegraph
Ian is a Product Manager at The Telegraph. He was instrumental in the website redesign during the transition from Escenic to Adobe and is currently optimising the user experience around The Telegraph's registration strategy.
Gibson Biddle
Former VP Product, Netflix
Gibson was VP of Product at Netflix starting in 2005, then in 2010, he became the Chief Product Officer of Chegg, a textbook rental company that went public in 2014. Today, he’s an adviser for multiple consumer tech companies, and teaches entrepreneurship at Stanford.
Lindsey Jayne
VP of Product, Yoco
Lindsey is a former VP Product at Monzo - the bank that does more than you'd ever expect to make you effortlessly financially savvy. Lindsey heads up a growing a team of product managers, drawing on her experience scaling and developing teams at luxury retail tech company Farfetch, and at the UK Government Digital Service. She's happiest in the world of interdisciplinary product development, and has resolved to do more non-exec and charitable work this year.