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
Mindful Product Leadership
As a product leader, your most important role is to create a culture in which your team can do its best work and to develop future leaders to do the same. That's not easy when our brains are getting in the way. Learn how to recognize the most common ways our brains deceive us, why they do it, and some practices you can try (for yourself or with your team) to see things as they are.
Summary
Being a human in environments with high ambiguity and uncertainty is hard. Our brains try to help by using mental heuristics to lighten the load, but sometimes it chooses the wrong ones, and so we get cognitive biases. Teague will share some of the practices that have helped him cope with having a human brain, and the ones he has used to help his teams cope with it too.
Who it's for
Anyone who is looking to recognize their own unhelpful thought patterns to become a better leader to their team.
Key takeaways
You will:
Learn the underlying psychology of cognitive biases
Come away with at least one practice you can experiment with for yourself, or your team
About the instructor
Teague Hopkins is an award-winning entrepreneur and educator on innovation and product management who helps companies do better by being more mindful. He puts the spotlight on the traps that our minds set for us and how we can avoid being brought down by our own biases. He has helped organizations including PBS, Together Against Malaria, and the Obama White House adopt more innovative approaches to solving human problems.
He has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs on behalf of the US Institute of Peace, the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship, and TechStars, helping them see past their preconceptions to identify and test their biggest risks.