For years I’ve been thinking about organising drinks for a group of people interested in the future. I did it once at Imperial College, which was a disaster. The mindset of some people at Imperial was that the drinks had to have an ROI – a measurable result. Yup, you spend £200 and it has to be justified with an immediate outcome.

I remember arguing about this a bit and thought I’d won. I hadn’t. I showed up to a room above the Polish Club in Exhibition Road and there were whiteboards, Posit notes and pens.
I assumed another event had run late, but no. The idea was to ask people what they wanted to discuss and cluster like-minded individuals around the whiteboards. I wondered, is this how these people organise their dinner parties? Does a lamb kebab require an ROI?

I got a bit drunk. So did a professor of computing, who at the top of his voice declared “Richard, we are now friends, that’s the fucking outcome:”

Anyway, I’m foolish enough to try this a second time. All I need is a date and most importantly a venue. I think a nice pub in the backwaters of Belgravia, near Victoria Station.

Watch this space…

We may be a decling power, but at least we still have a sense of humour and a touch of eccentricity bordering on the bonkers (who is the Banksy of knitting?).

I few years back someone said that certain people were weak signals, the implication being that I was one. Well if that’s true welcome to the emerging Techno movement.