Last week TableCrowd hosted dinner at Central Working, Google Campus, in honour of Social Media Week London – one of 250+ events which happened across London over the course of the week. Sorry there aren’t more photos, but I was too engrossed in the conversation!

We arranged “Tales from the Trenches – using social media effectively for your startup” to provide a front line view of how startups are using social media. We had a top class line up for our after dinner Q&A. We enjoyed a spread of delicious indian food and the format of the evening allowed everyone to engage in the conversation and ask questions relevant to them. Our wonderful expert panel included:

• Ruth Barnett of SwiftKey – prior to joining SwiftKey, Ruth earned the title as the media’s first Twitter correspondent. Ruth had tremendous insights about using social media. One memorable point for me, was the importance of retaining a personal and human approach, even in a global and rapidly growing company.
• Zoe Arch of Craft Candy – Zoe finds Twitter to be the most useful platform for Craft Candy, followed by Pinterest. She has grown her following through smart (and hard) work. She views Twitter as a database of potential users – and seeks out the relevant ones through searches and keywords.
• WenLin Soh of Edible Experiences – Wen focussing her social media strategy around the wonderful chefs and experiences which she lists on her site, not directly on her own concept. This is the content her followers are interested in and this is effective for her to drive email sign ups.

It was great to see some familiar faces back again and to welcome lots of new faces to their first TableCrowd dinner. To mention a few, we were joined by:

> Emily Hill, founder of blogging and social media agency Write My Site.

> Freelance writer Lauren Maffeo.

> Mike Bestvina of Compete Hub, a startup streamlining a triathlete’s world.

> Corporate lawyer Tim Bird.

> Chris Platts, founder of The Talent Rocket, who are shaking up recruitment.

> Jennifer Yong, founder of Jenius Social, a new popup hub in Islington where food and passion collide!

> Marco Ottolini, founder at Styloola, which is “Foursquare on steroids for fashion” (love this!)

Thanks to our panel and to everyone that made the evening a memorable one. Thanks also to our artwork sponsors nerv for their continued support.

Our next dinner at Central Working at Google Campus is for people working in e-commerce. If that’s you, check it out.

p.s. It is also important to mention that a new TableCrowd record was set last week. The last guest turned up 2 hours 17 minutes late. This smashed the previous record of 1 hour 45 minutes. Should we get a trophy made up for the holder of this title?