A stone’s throw from Silicon Roundabout and yet this was the Startup Engine’s first dinner at The Yard. Shame on us!  We had a large round table perfect for mingling and 9 diners talking all things startup. The Yard is known for its featured menu item, the yard of pizza. Probably not in line with many people’s new-year-eat-healthy resolutions, but it was ordered by a couple of ladies in a tandem dining operation – started me thinking that this should definitely be taken on by the Man V Food Crowd on TableCrowd on another occasion.

It was interesting to hear from Kevin Quincey about his project, the City Beach London. After building a large indoor beach in the US, Kevin is replicating that in Harrow in London. He’s building the UK’s largest beach complex in an attempt to get us Brits off our bums and out of the pubs. The complex will be a base for all sand sports – beach volleyball, footvolley, beach football, beach rugby, sand-minton and more, with an opportunity for everyone to get involved, especially beginners. I also understand that there will be a place to relax in a deckchair with a cocktail…

To my left sat Cheryl Ashman, founder and CEO of Designer Lookbook, where you can discover and shop from the best emerging talent in the fashion industry. Cheryl’s site displays lookbooks from emerging fashion designers. Time to shop!

To my right sat Nasrin Hafezparast, the founder of Which Web Design Company, which helps people choose the right web designer. It can be tough to choose the right designer for your project, so armed with a web design project management background, she has created a service that guides people through the maze of options by providing reviews from past clients. She has over 6000 designers listed, a very healthy resource.

As well as the exciting startups that we discussed over pizza and pasta, it is important to share with you that it was the first Startup Engine Dinner where we had more girls than guys. I never thought I’d see the day!

Amongst the other diners, some people were at the ideas stage and one diner had just escaped their city job that very day with a plan for their startup. Good to see that a couple of you have already joined next week’s table – bravo and see you then!

– Kate

@katejacksonk