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 2016
The line-up
Anna Miedzianowska
Principal Product Manager, Ocado Technology
While Anna's names might seem unpronounceable at first (it's pronounced A-N-A, by the way), she is defiantly not someone who is hard to understand. Making complex things simple is at the core of what she does. For the past 4 years, Anna has been applying that principle at Ocado Technology. Her first role at Ocado was to improve the lives of their delivery drivers by providing software that helps them be the best they can be. She did this by regularly asking them what they needed (I know, who does that?). Now Anna is Head of Product and her goal is to keep Ocado at the bleeding edge of customer experience by tightening feedback loops, assessing value and validating delivery. Sounds simple? It is, thanks to Anna.
Nilan Peiris
VP of Growth, Transferwise
Prior to TransferWise Nilan was VP Growth at HouseTrip, in charge of scaling the company’s growth in the European market. He’s also worked as Chief Marketing Technology Officer at Holiday Extras, where he was responsible for all areas of technology, marketing and customer acquisition. Nilan also advises a number of early stage startups on growth and getting to traction.
Shaun Russell
Product Manager, Lyst
Shaun is a Product Manager at Lyst, a fashion retailer based in London. In the past he has developed products for digital marketers, as well as an MP3 marketplace for independent musicians.
Heather Taylor-Portmann
Learning & Development Lead, ustwo
Heather is a strategist, coach and facilitator. She helps organisations and people get more from operating with purpose, and learning through making. Heather leads Learning & Development at ustwo London; working with individuals, teams and leaders to build a culture of continuous improvement.
Hugo Cornejo
Head of Design, Monzo
As Monzo's Head of Design, Hugo defines the design principles that shape an easy to use yet powerful bank. A bank truly built for your smartphone. Back in Spain he helped big corporations (BBVA, Globalia) and startups (Ticketea, Chicisimo) to design world-class customer experiences. Follow him @hugocornejo, it will make him very happy!
Simon Rohrbach
Head of Design, Deliveroo
Simon heads up product design for Deliveroo. Simon and his team look after the user experience for the company's consumer, riders and restaurant products across its 12 different markets. Prior to joining Deliveroo, Simon held various design related roles at startups and telecommunication companies in the UK and Switzerland. Being Swiss, he likes cheese, and despite his love for watches, is chronically late for meetings.
Antoine Sakho
Head of Product, busuu
On a mission to break down language barriers, Antoine is Head of Product at busuu, an app used by over 80 million humans around the world to learn new languages. Antoine started as sole product manager at busuu in 2014 and was quickly promoted to build and lead a team of exceptional PMs and designers. Antoine dived into product as he co-founded France's first mobile payment startup, Skimm, in 2012. After a failure rich in learnings, he leveraged his experience to help fledging startups build their products, most notably Voodoo.io, the world's #3 app publisher, which recently raised $200M from Goldman Sachs. A polyglot himself, Antoine likes to eat his own dog food (or drink his own Champagne) and just passed his A2 Goethe Institute certificate.
Phillip Caudell
Product Lead, Founders Factory
Phillip develops early stage product concepts and prototypes at Founders Factory, a corporate backed incubator and accelerator. Part developer and designer, Phillip uses a blend of techniques to validate his and the team's ideas. Prior to joining the Factory, Phillip was leading design and development efforts at 3 SIDED CUBE, an award winning mobile development agency.
Monica Viggars
Product Manager, The Guardian
Andrea and Monica are two old friends and colleagues who now work together as UX architect and product manager on the on-platform team at the Guardian. Both worked in editorial before making the move to product development. They love colourful dresses, Marty Cagan, and cheese.
Andrea Jezovit
UX Architect, The Guardian
Andrea and Monica are two old friends and colleagues who now work together as UX architect and product manager on the on-platform team at the Guardian. Both worked in editorial before making the move to product development. They love colourful dresses, Marty Cagan, and cheese.