The founders

 

Marja | Jennifer | Virginia

 

Our story

 

If you’ve attended an event or seminar and found the most engaging moments to be the chance encounters during the coffee break, or engrossing chats over a drink at the end of the evening: LIKE is for you.

LIKE - the London Information & Knowledge Exchange - was formed during such a moment. After an event hosted by City Information Group (now, sadly, defunct) a few of us shared a bottle of wine and chatted about the value, and rarity, of informal professional get-togethers.

We decided such opportunities shouldn’t be so rare, and came up with a solution that might work:

• We’d find a regular venue in which to meet on the last Thursday of each month
• Adopt a fluid format – sometimes using the World Café model to discuss nominated topics, sometimes inviting speakers to brief us on specific issues
• Be open to everyone: no membership fees or ‘qualifying criteria'
• Be responsive rather than prescriptive: no formal governing body
• Be independent: no sponsorship

Since that evening in February 2009 LIKE’s had a lot of luck.

We quickly found our first venue. A great little pub in Bloomsbury -The Perseverance – with a warm-hearted manager who was happy to let us use the upstairs room, and cater to our demands for drink, food, no piped music....

As soon as we created the LIKE LinkedIn group page, people started joining us. And, by the time we held LIKE 3 (LIKE 1 was the initial ‘founding’ meeting and LIKE 2 was a fascinating RSA debate with Don Tapscott), nearly 20 professionals were willing to come along and give LIKE a try.

One of the topics we focused on in that first workshop was ‘the wisdom of crowds’, and the wisdom of our LIKE crowd has guided us in our development and our approach. By the time we held LIKE 8, in October 2009, we knew the growing membership wanted informed discussion, informal networking, and something good to eat and drink! The response to our Dinner with special guest Tim Buckley-Owen was positive: everyone appreciated the chance to exchange ideas while enjoying a hot meal.

Dinner has remained a regular feature of LIKE events. As the evenings became increasingly popular we outgrew our Bloomsbury venue and, in September 2010, launched the autumn/winter LIKE sessions at our new home – The Crown Tavern in Clerkenwell Green. The friendly staff, great food and extensive bar made us feel instantly welcome, and the upstairs room accommodates more than 40 of us at each event.

With more than 600 registered members (at the time of writing) it’s inevitable that more than 40 people want to attend LIKE events, so we are looking at ways of addressing that. As our membership grows, so do the challenges of fulfilling expectations. We are very fortunate: through annual opinion surveys and regular planning meetings LIKE members let us know what they want us to do and how to do it. So the speakers we’re booking and the panel discussions we’re organising are in response to our members’ recommendations and requests. We’re even in the throes of planning the first LIKE full-day Symposium (by popular demand), which will be held in March 2012.

The range of topics we cover at LIKE events represent the extraordinary breadth of members’ expertise and interests. Around 20% of the membership specialises in Knowledge Management and a further 20% are Information Consultants, Specialist and Managers. Of the rest – almost 10% are Business Researchers, around 8% work in public service or academic Libraries, more than 5% are Sales or Marketing Professionals, more than 3% are Management or Business Consultants and a little less than 3% are IT Consultants.

There are also a number of Recruitment Consultants, Journalists and Editors, Information Architects, Records Managers and University Lecturers. Our numbers also include Archivists, Business Intelligence Analysts, Content Managers, eLearning specialists, Librarians, Taxonomy specialists and Entrepreneurs.

For those who prefer graphic representations, here’s a pie chart:

 

 

Although most LIKE members are based in London, many come from a variety of UK locations to attend our events. And, as shown below, membership is not confined to the UK:

 

 

LIKE is open to everyone. If you’d like to join us, you’ll be very welcome. Please sign-up via Linked In.

 

August 2011