Our TableCrowd members enjoyed themselves at two dinners this week covering the topics of how to get media coverage for your business and connecting established brands with startups. Journalist and founder Monty Munford spoke extensively on how to peak the interest of a journalist, whilst Jim Kite – Strategic Development Director at Starcom MediaVest Group – discussed how he encourages SMG’s big name clients to work with up-and-coming startups.

Dinner with journalist Monty Munford
As a writer for The Telegraph, Forbes, The Independent, Mashable etc – the list is long and extensive – Monty has a significant amount of knowledge when it comes to startups securing press coverage. Be sure to read Journalist rejects 98% of emails – Be the 2%. It’s a great insight into the bugbears of one particular journalist (that could quite easily be the case for many more) that came from Monty’s talk at dinner. With time being scarce in the media world, and the all important point of any story being ‘newsworthy’ – this dinner with Monty at Drake & Morgan at Kings Cross provided some fantastic advice to its diners to really drive forward any business’s presence in the media.

Dinner with Starcom MediaVest
It’s understandable that any new business will feel like it’s impossible to reach established brands and corporates, however over dinner at The Folly on Monday night, Jim inspired his fellow diners with his stance on why big names should be working with startups. By highlighting the positives of a startups, especially tech ones, it was clear that with the constant changes and advancements happening, particularly in tech, that a young startup is far more nimble in its ability to adapt to its surroundings than would be expected of its longer-standing counterpart. Jim had so many great tips we’ve created two blog articles that touch on elements of what he covered in his after-dinner talk, Top 5 tips for working with an Agency and 5 reasons media agencies work with startups.

Our speakers were joined by Innometrics, Keystone Law, JayKay Media, people.io, Jackopaw, TrafficLight Solutions, rewardStyle, Buto, Rezonence, Drinki, Amondo, Per4mance Insight, Fly Marketing, MindSightUK, Crossing-The Travel Company, Bubblo, OneLane app, Friends Recommend It, WiseAlpha Technologies, PawMetrics, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies and Grabr amongst others.

Special thanks to Jim and Monty for speaking at dinner.

Check out our upcoming dinners to see which one whets your appetite!