What's On: Beards In Wonderland - Q&A with Bryce Keane on the start up/agency gathering

Beards in Wonderland is the 11th event in the Digital Sizzle series from 3beards. It aims to bring together the whole digital ecosystem for a night of meeting new people in an informal party environment.

Digital Sizzle is about crossing cultures: Marketing agencies, startups, creative agencies, investors, PR agencies and the larger tech companies too will all gather on the 17 May at 8pm at Rohan Silva’s new Second Home space to have fun and make connections in a really informal way. Come along and see what happens: you might meet your dream business partner or you might just have a really good Saturday night out.

Why have you chosen the Alice in Wonderland theme?

The theme was chosen to give the party a fun focus and to provide something to help start conversations between people that might not otherwise speak to each other or have the opportunity to mix socially.

In true 3beards style, I think the thought process went something like this: "We should do something creative to celebrate the long awaited arrival of Spring in London! Everyone loves London in the Spring, when the winter finally breaks!

"OK, what sort of things represent Spring?

"Birds?…nope. Flowers?…nope. Rabbits? Yes, Rabbits!

"…Wait, what can we do with Rabbits? Anyone know any famous Rabbits?

"…the Easter Bunny? Nope. What about that rabbit in Alice in Wonderland? Wasn't there a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party in that? Alice in Wonderland themed Digital Sizzle! Job done."

In all seriousness, though, we wanted to do something really creative that everyone - start-up, investor, agency or brand - could have a bit of fun dressing up at and, most importantly of all, not take themselves too seriously, have fun and mingle.

Why are you so keen for agencies and tech start-ups to get together at this event?

Digital Sizzle was our very first event, and is still our largest event to this day. However, way back when we started 3beards (long before it was even called 3beards) we originally started Digital Sizzle as a BBQ to bring together creative agencies and tech start-ups together. Agencies have clients who are always on the hunt for innovation and start-ups have innovation but often lack clients.

Also, although both industries had events - most of those were siloed and targeted and one industry or the other. When we started 3beards, 2/3 of us weren't even in tech - we just had a strong interest in it, yet we remember quite clearly what it was like to go to tech events and not have anyone talk to you because you were somehow perceived to be an outsider despite your very useful professional experience. So our mission was to create a welcoming and inclusive event where these two groups could get together over a beer and a BBQ and swap war stories and make new connections.

As we added more events to the 3beards portfolio (the weekly Silicon Drinkabout, monthly Chew The Fat and monthly Don’t Pitch Me, Bro!) we found ourselves much more involved in the start-up world. Digital Sizzle 11: Beards in Wonderland is our attempt to get back to our creative roots for our biggest event to date and proactively open the start-up community doors up to the agency world once again.

And here’s the kicker - the perceived difference and the actual difference between the two are not the same thing. Both are hugely creative and strive to come up with the next best product, service, advert or campaign. We believe that the best ideas come through collaboration and exploration of where people's interests and skill sets crossover. What better way to spark off those types of conversation than on a Saturday night with a drink in your hand? Something else that the two type of company have in common no doubt!

How can marketing agencies benefit from such a partnership?

As I mentioned earlier, at the heart of it agencies have clients who are always on the hunt for innovation and start-ups have innovation but often lack clients. At 3beards, we’ve been very lucky to be at the centre of East London’s growing start-up ecosystem as well as nine other cities around the world and counting every week with Silicon Drinkabout.

However, the two questions we get asked most often are ‘I’ve been working in X industry / agency for many years and I’m keen to help / get involved in a start-up - do you have any advice on how I can get involved?’ or ‘I work with a number of global brand name clients and all of them are searching for innovation, have you chaps come across any start-ups disrupting X part of the marketing services industry?’

The answer to both questions is the same - get involved and pay it forward. Your skill sets as a creative agency person are incredibly valuable, and spending even a small part of your time mentoring or giving back to the start-up community will go a long way. It will also help you spot interesting or disruptive technologies ahead of your competition and be able to test and implement meaningful tech innovation for your clients much faster than your competitors.

For example, Signkick is an incredible start-up that allows any small business to do hyper-local targeted outdoor advertising (down to the billboard or bus stop) for a fraction of the cost of using a traditional media agency. This becomes particularly interesting for agencies wanting to target different parts / buildings / people in London with different messages. Great for stunts!

Another one would be any agency that creates online video advertising should probably pay close attention to former Seedcamp winners Brainient, who have now locked down most of the commercial TV stations in the UK for interactive online advertising. Interactive online video advertising is an amazing area which every digital advertising agency should already know about, but if you want your ads to appear on the websites and players for Channel 4, 5 or ITV you’ll probably need to start using the Brianient platform pretty soon. Lucky for you, they are now an established start-up so they’ve made the platform so easy to use anyone can make interactive ads!

Are there any particular agency/start up partnerships that you guys look to as a successful example for others to follow?

Europe’s first start-up accelerator, Seedcamp, has had a select group of senior agency people as mentors since day one.

The Collider Start-Up Acceleration programme has an even stronger agency and brand-friendly focus and successfully shown how agency involvement, expertise and mentoring can help start-ups, as has Telefonica’s global start-up accelerator programme Wayra.

Albion London was the first agency to open to a dedicated start-up co-working space in their Shoreditch office that has been home to some of East London’s biggest start-ups including leading adtech start-up Brainient, international currency transfer service Transferwise, Etsy, ChemistDirect, Gilt Groupe and Silver Rail among others.

In fact, one of London’s most famous start-ups, ‘Code in a Day’ school Decoded, was founded by advertising great Steve Henry and ex-Ogilvy superstar Kathryn Parsons! The two worlds are really starting to mix and foster new ideas all over, which is exciting!

Check out more industry events taking placing in the coming weeks over at The Drum's What's On listings guide.