feel he embodies the cliche of a young entrepreneur? It’s become cool to be into business, he says, but the image of a Mark Zuckerberg-esque, hoodie-wearing coder is something he’s keen to steer clear of. He looks at business in an entirely different way to his pred-ecessors. “We need the next generation of people to code and be web profi-cient. Without it we’ll stagnate. While I was building Zest, I met Niklas Zennström, the co-founder of Skype. I was nervous about meeting him — for-tunately he was welcoming and sup-portive, but not everybody is. There’s a lot more cynicism in London towards young entrepreneurs than there is in San Francisco.”

Anderson credits his mentors for sup-port. “Just having somebody who

MidtownLondon’s leading business district

James Anderson is a teen tech entrepreneur who will champion the new generation of coders and mentors, young and old, at the Midtown Big Ideas Exchange. Eleanor Ross meets the millennial manager

‘I got an E in computing at A level. Qualifications aren’t the only marker of success, they should be a back-up’

JAMES Anderson, 18, is a smart guy. At seven years old he sat down at his computer and taught himself how to code. By 16, he’d launched Thinkspace, an innova-

tive student-led space that encourages school pupils to learn how to code. Last week, he launched his latest app, Zest, developed with George Streten, 16, which allows users to simultaneously get their caffeine fix, bypass queues and support independent cafes.

Anderson — one of the star speakers at the Midtown Big Ideas Exchange (see supplement, page 4) — feels schools miss a trick when it comes to teaching children coding. “I taught myself in primary school and realised the teach-ers were finding it hard to keep up to date with the technology.” Thinkspace came about from his desire to create a modern space inside schools that “inspired productivity. I realised that others might not have my initiative to teach themselves, and I wanted to help. Thinkspace is a collection of spaces where often it’s the older students teaching the younger ones.” Reverse mentoring is something Anderson is also committed to, so the younger gen-eration can pass on their knowledge, and technology and social media skills to the older generation too.

You might expect a man hailed as a

visionary young entrepreneur by the likes of Stephen Fry and Richard Bran-son to be precocious, and perhaps arrogant, but Anderson is neither. Instead, he comes across as an articu-late, committed educator, keen to help students realise their potential.

Becoming an entrepreneur at such a young age isn’t unusual in the world of start-ups. The internet relies less on nepotism and qualifications and more on drive, and ingenuity. Anderson’s parents have no background in coding and they don’t run start-ups. “My inter-est came from an insatiable curiosity to discover and to learn,” he explains.

“I got an E in my computing A level because I was focusing all my energy on developing the business,” he says with some pride. “That essentially means I can’t use a computer. The certificate is hanging in my office.” He cites this when he’s giving talks to schools. “It shows that qualifications aren’t the only marker of success — the only limit to success is yourself, and qualifications should be seen as a back-up.”

Having eschewed university, does he

believes in you is great,” he says. “They’re not there to tell you what to do, but Richard Knox-Johnston [founder of iwantoneofthose.com, which he sold for £10 million] will ask questions about the app and be there to support.” Knox-Johnston, now in his seventies, has dedicated the rest of his life to helping young entrepreneurs succeed. “He took a real interest in me, and introduced me to John Lewis, which awarded me seed investment for Zest.”

As a millenial manager, Anderson enjoys the collaborative aspect of office life and he rates having a great working space.“If you’re comfortable in your space it will show in your work. We have cool posters, lots of natural light, and we’re productive.” That’s not to say he doesn’t work remotely too. “My friends make fun of me because I carry around a portable charger for my lap-top, iphone, tablet — I’m very con-nected, but I have to be.”

He shuns labels and titles. “We’re a start-up and there are three of us — technically I’m the MD, but I don’t like the idea of job titles. Ideally, I’d like to

minimise their usage. Here, everybody has a say in how the company is run.”

So what is Zest, and can we expect another app to change our lives as thoroughly as Uber and Snapchat? Essentially Zest aims to streamline buy-ing beverages and snacks by linking up independent cafes so you can pre-order and save time. “One of my favourite stores on the platform is Yumchaa [which has just opened a new branch in Midtown next to Goodge Street Station] — I love their mango smoothies and their coffee is great too. They’re one of our link partners.”

The masterplan is simple — expan-sion. “In a year’s time I’d like to unite every coffee, tea and juice chain in London, reduce queue time, and allow anyone, anywhere to open our app. It’s a model that allows us to scale up eas-ily. That’s the dream — the future looks bright. It’s exciting.”

James Anderson chairs Board shorts in the boardroom: the rise of the millennial manager, on February 17, 2016, at Sodexo, bigideas.inmidtown.org

Download Zest at zesthq.co. Use the code Evening Standard to get a discount on your first drinks order.

■

■

Face of the future

Ad

riA

n L

ou

rie

. Pic

tu

re

d A

t t

he

ro

sew

oo

d L

on

do

n,

hA

ir:

An

ge

Lo F

ALz

on

e; M

Ak

e-u

P: k

Ar

is g

ibb

ins,

bo

th

co

ur

te

sy o

F P

riV

, ww

w.g

oP

riV

.co

M

Appy feat: James Anderson taught himself to code at the age of seven

evening standard Tuesday 13 OcTOber 2015 �

London’s leading business district | In association with inmidtown

IT IS awkward at work to discover that a new colleague is somebody you previously met through Tinder. Or that your client has been reading things you wrote about him on social media. The modern workplace is fraught with the potential for miserable communication experiences because technology keeps forcing cultural change on us. Here’s how to take back control.

Establish your own rulesThis is fundamental. If you don’t know how you want to communicate, you will always be firefighting. Write a policy for yourself. If you hate to receive emails at night and on holiday, stop sending them. If you like to feel connected, stop staring at your screen when with others.

Spread the wordMy own policy with emails is to keep messages short, use clear requests, tell people when no reply is necessary, avoid attachments, and to assume the best if I don’t hear back. I’ve written this policy down, and provide a link to it at the bottom of my emails. You might like to add an indication of which medium suits you best and when: calls, texts, FB messages, and so on.

Beyond that, your policy needs to consider how you’ll handle inevitable workplace difficulties, such as competition between colleagues; hoarding of information; hierarchies that smother open exchange; fear of failure, and of conflict.

Don’t feel sorry for yourselfWhen we get stuck in the “poor me” bubble we lose any sense of connection with others and meaningful communication ends.Catch yourself when you fall into this and focus on other people instead. (I know — you really don’t want to, but if you don’t, nothing will change.)

Stop gossipingIf you have something negative to say about your client on social media, there’s probably something you need to say to them directly. Find a way to say it out of a genuine desire to help: try to remember that you are in collaboration. So don’t tell them they’re wrong, or bad. Just explain your own difficulty and ask them to help you find an answer.

Listen betterMany people, instead of listening, are too busy planning what they intend to say next. The person who is speaking will always know, at some level, if you aren’t listening. Instead of pretending it hasn’t happened, say, “I’m sorry, I lost concentration for a second, could you repeat that?”

Be honest.Similarly, if something feels awkward — like meeting that Tinder friend in the office — it can be delightful to say so out loud because you’re probably both feeling it. Clear the air.

John-Paul Flintoff runs From faxes to Facebook: how to communicate better at work on March 8, 2016, at Mindshare, bigideas.inmidtown.org

■

AFTER I was “let go” from my first job on a national newspaper, an old Fleet Street hand asked me what had happened. I told him it hadn’t been a good fit and we’d decided to go our separate ways.

“A word of advice,” he said. “If you’ve just been fired don’t say you were the victim of cutbacks or you decided to spend more time with your family. Just say, ‘I was fired’ and leave it at that. Never complain, never explain.”

That turned out to be a useful tip because in the 25 years since I’ve been fired from the Independent, the Guardian, the Sunday Times, the Observer, the Mail on Sunday, the New Statesman and the Sun.

At one point I started a magazine, reasoning that I couldn’t be fired from a publication I owned, but after four years it went bust.

I then decided to emigrate to New York to work for Vanity Fair and I was fired from there, too. I stuck it out as a journalist in America for another few years, but it never worked out for me.

At this point, most sensible people would conclude that journalism wasn’t for them, but not me. I treated every setback as a reason to redouble my efforts rather than throw in the towel and, eventually, it paid off. I wrote a book about trying — and failing — to take Manhattan called How to Lose Friends & Alienate People and it became an international bestseller and was turned into a Hollywood movie.

After that, my life fell into place. I got married, had four children and, as well as forging a career as a freelance journalist, helped set up a chain of schools that are now among the most popular in west London.

Turns out I’m not the only person to fail upwards. Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, failed at every stage of his career, until he came up with the iMac in 1998. By the time he died in 2011, Apple was well on its way to becoming the world’s most highly valued brand.

Jobs attributed his success to his unwavering self-belief. Through sheer force of personality he persuaded everyone that they were wrong and he was right. His unsuccessful products had just been ahead of their time.

The same is true of Britain’s greatest-ever Prime Minister. Winston Churchill was considered a bit of a joke before the Second World War, having switched from the Conservatives to the Liberals and back again. He’d occupied most of the great offices of state, but didn’t manage to hold on to them for long. But Churchill didn’t just lead Britain through the most perilous passage in its history, he saved Western civilisation.

“Success consists in going from one failure to the next with no loss of enthusiasm,” he said.

The secret of a fruitful career, as I discovered, is not going up one ladder after another. Rather, it’s not losing heart when you slide down a snake. As playwright Samuel Beckett put it: “Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

Toby Young chairs History’s greatest imperfect leaders, with panellists including Sir Ranulph Fiennes, hosted by the British Museum on April 25, 2016, bigideas.inmidtown.org

■

Midtown stars

Why Midtown is a dream destination for the ‘bleisure’ seekers mixing work and playWant to take care of business, while experiencing a cool neighbourhood? Check out these hip Holborn hotels, writes Eleanor Ross

A HOTEL can have luxurious Egyptian cotton sheets and an incredible view, but it’s the memory of superlative serv-ice that lingers longest in

travellers’ minds.The number of nights spent in hotels by

UK travellers has increased year on year, fuelling higher expectations of hospital-ity. Five-star Midtown hotels like Rose-wood London, Grange Holborn Hotel and The Hoxton, Holborn know that a well-travelled clientele, also means a more discerning — even demanding — one.

Rosewood London is an iconic estab-lishment, located just off High Holborn. Its stunning architecture — set around a vibrant Edwardian courtyard — makes it a focal point for local residents, but the hotel prides itself on its service as much as its structure. “Warmth, knowl-edge and intuitive service is what defines

hospitality,” explains its manager Michael Bonsor. “Our industry is all about people. We want everyone who comes to be inspired but also surprised by the unique experiences we offer.”

For Sharan Pasricha, founder and CEO of Ennismore, which counts The Hoxton, Holborn in their growing empire, hos-pitality is also about the emotion that

service evokes: “Hospitality is the way you’re made to feel from the moment you walk through the doors. It’s the whole guest journey, from the first person they meet to the minute they leave.”

When they launched The Hoxton, Shoreditch in 2006 it was labelled the “no bullsh*t hotel” because of their eschewal of high-price minibars and high-rate phone-calls. “We became the anti-hotel,” says Pasricha. “We have never been just about offering a bed for the night. We want to be more than that, a place where people can eat, drink, work and play any time of day.”

The Hoxton, Holborn aspires to be a community hub, and rewards loyal guests. “We offer a place to hang out and curate an amazing events programme inspired by the area.

“This appeals as much to locals as to guests, with free weekly Pilates, creative

talks and cocktail master classes.” The Grange Holborn Hotel is slightly

more geared towards the business trav-eller. It has a connected, modern clien-tele who will “share” their expectations publicly. The hotel’s spokesperson Claire Farrington stresses the importance of continuous investment in technology and innovation. “Guests are bringing more devices with them than ever and hotels have to be ready to support that with high-speed connectivity.”

Bonsor feels that with so many five-star hotels, it’s important to be different. “Our butlers become extensions of the families that stay with us and are like PAs to our guests,” he says. The Rosewood strives to deliver a “relationship hospital-ity” that is intuitive and bespoke.

At the Grange Holborn, Farrington thinks the future of hospitality means understanding how to blend business

and pleasure, or “bleisure”, as she coins it. “A recent report suggests that 83 per cent of people use time on business trips to explore the city they’re visiting, so we need to have state-of-the-art facilities in welcoming, informal surroundings.”

The successful modern hotel antici-pates its customers’ every need. People are definitely after “more bang for their buck”, says Pasricha. “They’re valuing experiences and don’t want to feel dis-connected in stuffy hotel lobbies, but to feel part of the neighbourhood, where they can connect with locals.”

Has the success of short-term rental operators like onefinestay and Airbnb put pressure on hotels?

“I don’t think Airbnb has helped raise hospitality standards in the hotel industry — they are of a high quality, naturally,” says Grange Holborn’s Farrington. “But what has been brought to the industry’s attention, but not by Airbnb alone, is the personalisation of a stay. That feeling that you’re connected to the area you’re stay-ing in whether it be by a concierge, a hotel’s partnerships, or by a note from a host about their favourite things to do.”

Midtown hotels have always been the first port of call for tourists and busi-nesses. They’re perfectly located for the tourist hubs of Covent Garden and the c ap i t a l ’s the atre land, c re at ive Bloomsbury and high-tech Holborn, a dynamic area with a vibrant future that’s really going places.

‘At The Hoxton, Holborn we want to be a place where people can eat, drink, work and play at any time of day’

Called to the bar: Michael Bonsor, the manager of the Rosewood London, pictured, says: “Warmth, knowledge and intuitive service is what defines hospitality”

ad

Ria

n L

ou

Rie

Perfect failureNo one climbs to the top without sliding down a few snakes, says Toby Young

How to walk the new talk The modern rules of office communication, by John-Paul Flintoff It’s the clever central quarter where creatives spark off colleagues in

commerce and the law, while bold dreams and buildings take shape Julia RunagallSenior director, The Moment, an international content company What about your job makes you tick?The variety. I film Horizons for BBC Worldwide, about science and technol-ogy, and it can be so mindboggling. One day I can be talking about feeding the world with a Petri dish burger, the next I’m in Chengdu, China, documenting the levitating Super-Maglev train. What’s meaningful about your job?People just open their doors and let me hear their stories. I’ve been inspired by Bill and Melinda Gates (standing talking to the world’s richest couple, people you’d never rub shoulders with), talked to Richard Branson, and met people who are bringing change to the world.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen?A machine printing 3D organs was extraordinary. I saw them print an ear!

What’s best about working in Midtown?It has an energy and a buzz that makes you feel right at the centre of things. It’s well connected, fun and a great place to network. The local pubs are great.

Robin PartingtonArchitect, founder and director of RP Architectures

Why’s your slogan “built around people”?I love architecture, but in equal measure I enjoy the people I work with. We design buildings, yes, but they have to work for their users and community.

What excites you about Midtown?It’s dynamic, yet retains its strong sense of community, identity and place.

Samantha ClarkeHappiness consultant, lecturer and changemaker, the School of Life

What’s key to happiness at work?Feeling valued — if all we feel is that we’re

human beings on a spreadsheet then we run the risk of not being happy.

How can employers promote happiness?Anything from mindfulness classes to being more open and collaborative — people are more fulfilled when they feel they’re contributing to overall goals.

What do you love about Midtown?Being part of a vibrant and creative inter-section where people from all walks of life criss-cross constantly — students, older people, locals, and tourists.

Jennifer HealyChief Talent Officer, Mindshare, a global media agency

What’s exciting about your workplace?We describe ourselves as a playground where employees can invent the future of media. From receptionists to senior leadership, everyone’s encouraged to share ideas.

Is having a work-life balance important to Mindshare?Very, but we want to look beyond that. We don’t want people to leave their

home-self behind when they come into the office: we want to benefit from the personality and experiences they have to create in the working environment. We absolutely support home-working and working remotely — if people are inspired by the British Museum, go and work there. Or, if you like to hold walking meetings around Holborn, then we encourage that too.

Do you think people today worry more about the ethics of their workplace? Definitely. Last year we were founding partners in Giving Tuesday, where we encouraged employees to help support char-ities that wouldn’t necessarily have a m a r k e t i n g budget.

What’s best about working in Midtown?T h e a m a z i n g variety of shops

and places to eat. From Covent Garden to Oxford Street, Bloomsbury to Hol-born, it can be quite dangerous. Sally BrittonPartner, legal firm Mishcon De Reya

Why is Mishcon a great place to work?It really invests in people. Everyone is encouraged to have a life outside of work and our learning is not just focused on the law — various well-known figures come in and talk to us, from political and industrial leaders to celebrities. We get the chance to use our skills for pro-bono work, such as mentoring emerging fash-ion designers showing at London Fash-ion Week through the British Fashion Council. There are more unusual things too, such as looking after the bees on our roof and our chickens in Coram Fields.

What’s satisfying about your work?Helping people navigate intellectual property law, which can be complex. It’s great making a real difference to people and their businesses.

Janine McDowellCEO, Justice, Sodexo UK and Ireland

Tell us about Sodexo’s commitment to women in the workplace? Gender balance is increasingly seen as something that delivers growth and profit, rather than just a “women’s issue”. We found from internal research that gender-balanced teams delivered better results. We set up SWIFt (Sodexo Wom-en’s International Forum for talent), a group of senior managers from across the business tasked with increasing female leaders. Currently, 30 per cent of our senior managers are women.

Is there work/life balance?We recently profiled employees who had flexible working arrangements precisely to show it’s not just for working parents. One had agreed a set working pattern to manage his second career as a DJ.

Any Midtown haunts?For a business lunch, Coopers in Lin-coln’s Inn Fields. For meeting up after work: The Hoxton, Holborn.

Owen O’RorkeSolicitor, Farrer and Co working with clients in the arts and cultural sectors

What’s good about working with big cultural institutions?The chance to see some beautiful things. I pop into the Sir John Soane’s museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields when I can.

Are museums part of the digital age?Very much so — their retail opportuni-ties, their use of social media, and the way they interact with visitors. Where do you eat in Midtown?Chifafa Kebab. So fresh: how it should be done.

Caroline Criado-PerezJournalist, broadcaster and feminist campaigner

How can women push to be heard more in the workplace?Sometimes it’s finding one thing we can change. I just heard from somebody whose daughter challenged the wording of an internal policy document, chang-ing the pronoun from “he” to a more neutral variant.

What’s the biggest barrier for women in the workplace?We’re part of this big gender structure that discriminates against women and it’s obvious in the workplace. You only have to look at the pay gap that exists after women hit 30 and start having kids.

Where do you love in Midtown?Fleet River Bakery — the coffee there is incredible.

Tass MavrogordatoChief Executive, inmidtown

What sets Midtown apart? The central location, the growth and investment. As Crossrail develops, Totten-ham Court Road will become the front door to central London. Other districts are just associated with one industry, but we have a healthy mix from tech giants to world-leading museums, finance, law and big corporate brands, which is exciting.

What’s inspiring you right now?We’re working with innovative technology to help people experi-ence the area more fully and to give those working here a competitive advantage. Why did you create the Big Ideas Exchange, now in its second year?To celebrate this vibrant commu-nity. The biggest asset any company has is its people and we wanted to give these organisations the chance to share knowledge.

Midtown’s movers and shakers: From left to right, Julia Runagall, Robin Partington, Samantha Clarke, Jennifer Healy and Tass Mavrogordato all rave about the smart-thinking quarter’s rich mix

ad

Ria

n L

ou

Rie

� Tuesday 13 OcTOber 2015 EvEnIng STAnDArD EvEnIng STAnDArD Tuesday 13 OcTOber 2015 �

In association with inmidtown | London’s leading business district

CH

iRo

n C

oLe

The British Museum

In today’s uncertain workplace there are no sure bets: today’s Steve Jobs is tomorrow’s No Jobs. But there are ways you can ensure your continued employment and relevance until you reach that almost mythic goal known as retirement. Test yourself to find out how well you’ve future-proofed your career — and your life.

1. Your desk is:a) Like an unmade bed, where it’s impossible to find important documents under sedimentary layers of papers and plates of food — and empty, because you’re off getting a coffee/having a fag/pulling a sickie.b) Fitted with a moveable monitor and keyboard stand so you can work standing up.c) Wherever you find yourself — you can hotdesk anywhere with wifi.

2. When talking to junior colleagues you:a) Get their names wrong or forget

them completely, and have to gain their attention by snapping your fingers.b) Demand they get a round of teas in.c) Exhibit extravagant courtesy — they might be your managers tomorrow.

3. You use social media to:a) Retweet amusing pictures of cats, Instagram pictures of your lunch and post unwise selfies when drunk.b) Stay abreast of news alerts. And pictures of cats.c) Update current and future colleagues on your achievements, crowd-source the zeitgeist and network. And to retweet cat pictures (everyone needs a laugh).

4. Your ten-year career plan is:a) What ten-year career plan?b) Scribbled on the back of an envelope with facetious or unattainable goals (CEO of Microsoft, devise internationally franchisable gameshow, invent miracle obesity pill) crossed out one by one.c) Three years ahead of schedule.

5. For a meeting, you wear:a) An ill-fitting suit/dress bought from Topman/Topshop for a funeral or wedding.b) Gym kit, yoga gear, cycling apparel.c) Loose, unstructured clothes in dark colours that look equally at home in the boardroom, at the opera, or at a barefoot beach breakfast of ripe mangoes to discuss business with Richard Branson on his Caribbean hideaway, Necker.

6. If you were to run your life like it was a country it would be:a) Greece.b) The USA.c) India.

7. The single thing that would most improve your life would be to:a) Get to the next level of Candy Crush.b) Go to the gym more often.c) Master conversational Mandarin. And Arabic.

8. When you kick back with a Game of Thrones/House of Cards box set you are:a) Drunk, eating day-old pizza, and asleep before the first brutal murder.b) Taking some vital down time to recharge your mental batteries.c) Studying hierarchical structures, gambits and power plays.

9. Your senior colleagues have seen you drunk:a) Often.b) Sometimes.c) Never.

10. When it comes to your professional life your family are:a) Disappointed.b) Expendable.c) A valuable bulwark of reality and a reminder of what’s really important. 11. The person you most aspire to be like is:a) Simon Cowell/Karren Brady.

b) Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton.c) James Dyson/Sheryl Sandberg.

12. In completing this quiz you are hoping to:a) Distract yourself from work.b) Confirm to yourself that you’re A+.c) Sharpen your responses in a world that increasingly demands instant intimacy, candour and quick thinking.

SCORESMOSTLY As — Oh dear, you certainly haven’t future-proofed: in fact I doubt your life is planned any further than this evening’s drinking venue.MOSTLY Bs — Not bad, but you try a bit too hard (the gym/yoga gear) and your focus is somewhat internal for a marketplace that increasingly demands flexibility and lateral thinking.MOSTLY Cs — Congratulations, you’re as prepared as you could ever be for whatever vicissitudes the professional world throws at you. Fancy a job?

Have you future-proofed your career?Take our quiz to discover if you’re headed for the top or the chop, by Nick Curtis

Get connected Looking for thought-provoking debate and inspiring seminars? The Midtown Big Ideas Exchange — delivered by inmidtown, the business improvement district representing Holborn, Bloomsbury and St Giles — has, in association with the School of Life, devised a dynamic programme:

The future of business, philosophy and the wisdom of citiesBritish MuseumOctober 21. £15, theschooloflife.comMargaret Mountford, formerly of The Apprentice, gives an opening address, then participates in a debate with panellists Elliot Moss, Mishcon de Reya; Mark Hill, Sodexo; and Mark Stringa, AECOM. The chair is Ed Conway, economics editor, Sky News.

Are business goals a waste of time? Truth, lies and strategyThe Hoxton, HolbornNovember 3. Free, but book ahead Chaired by former Apprentice star Saira Khan, with panellists David Walsh, Mindshare; Mark Hawkins, The Moment; Ian Walters, Metro Bank and Robert Rowland Smith.

Where work works bestThe Hoxton, Holborn November 10. Free, but book aheadBen Hammersley, ex-editor of Wired, leads this interactive session.

Is there such a thing as the dream job? AECOM, High HolbornNovember 24. Free, but book aheadLBC’s Olly Mann chairs, with panellists including Julia Runagall, The Moment; and Adam Rawlings Smith, AECOM.

How to have a work life blendMindshareJanuary 12, 2016. Free, but book ahead Co-hosted by the Evening Standard. Broadcaster Emma Woolf chairs, with panellists including Joanna Blackburn, Mishcon de Reya and Jennifer Healy.

The future of cities — spaces, people and technologyMitsubishi CorporationJanuary 20, 2016. Free, but book aheadChaired by Brian Kilkelly, CEO of World Cities Network, with architect Robin Partington and historian Leo Hollis.

Meaningful work: is the role of businesses to create value for workers or generate profit?Mishcon de Reya, Africa House January 26, 2016. Free, but book aheadCaroline Criado-Perez chairs panellists

James Libson, Mishcon de Reya; Tony Matharu, Grange Hotels; Rachel Burton, Google and Susanna Halonen.

The hidden costs of free creative contentFarrer & CoFebruary 11, 2016. Free, but book ahead Filmmaker Martha Fiennes chairs a discussion between Anthony Misquitta, Farrer&Co; Adam Fulford, Mindshare; Alex McCrindle, Yahoo and Rod Judkins, Central St Martins.

Board shorts in the boardroom: the rise of the millennial managerSodexoFebruary 17, 2016. Free, but book aheadJames Anderson chairs a debate between Timothy Griffin, The Hoxton; Nigel Clarkson, Weve; Janine McDowell, Sodexo and Samantha Clarke.

From faxes to Facebook: how to communicate better at workMindshareMarch 8, 2016. Free, but book aheadWorkshop led by John-Paul Flintoff.

How to bounce back and be resilientGrange Holborn HotelApril 13, 2016. Free, but book ahead Gaylene Gould, writer, broadcaster and coach delivers a toolbox of skills. History’s greatest imperfect leadersBritish MuseumApril 25, 2016. £15, theschooloflife.comSir Ranulph Fiennes will talk of great imperfect leaders before Toby Young hosts a debate with panellists Andrew Fraser, Mitsubishi Corp; Ben Morel, NBA and Simon Ryan, Olswang.

Tickets: bigideas.inmidtown.org■

MidtownLondon’s leading business district | In association with inmidtown� Tuesday 13 OcTOber 2015 EvEnInG STAndARd

Holborn

AECOM

Mitsubishi Corpration

Grange Holborn Hotel

Farrer & Co

Mindshare

Sodexo

The Hoxton, Holborn

Cy

be

rC

ity

3D

Lim

ite

D. t

im H

ug

He

s: t

Hu

gH

es@

Cy

be

rC

ity

3D.C

om

or

ww

w.C

yb

er

Cit

y3D

.Co

m

Mishcon de Reya

Rosewood Hotel

Metro Bank

Thames and Hudson

Olswang

Google