Glug London is an event for people from the creative industries to come together, have a few drinks and hear talks from some of the most creative designers and studios around. Each event has seen a steady growth with bigger names talking, bigger venues selling out and more people scrambling to get tickets. Needless to say, they’ve been busy. With this in mind, we thought it was time to catch up with founders Ian Hambleton and Nick Clement to have a chat about the event and see what they’ve got in the pipeline.
MD: It’s almost two years to the day since we last spoke with you guys — what have you been up to?
NC: Has it been that long? I’m sure you’ve snuck into a Glug in the past year lads! I’ve been busy consulting with agencies such as Saint@RKCR/Y&R, Fjord and Imagination working on digital advertising briefs, quite a lot of interface/app design and plenty of pitches for some great brands. This and keeping Glug going, spreading the word, hosting, blogging and meeting potential hosts.
IH: It’s been busy. Both on the Glug and work front. At Studio Output I’ve been working on clients like PlayStation, launched a few artists for Syco including the infamous if not universally loved Cher Lloyd, lots for the BBC. Oh and we also created ‘The Studio’ a partnership project with PlayStation. I’m sure there’s plenty I’m forgetting too.
MD: What have been some of the high and low points since we last spoke?
NC: With Glug in particular, I guess the highs are seeing it swell to the 4000 members on meetup which it is now and spreading overseas to Auckland. The feedback’s been great and we’re constantly trying to push it, make it better and innovate with the format, we’ve got some great ideas lined up for the next year and hopefully one in Europe on the cards. I guess the lows are few, which is great but expected.
On that note, there’s not much we can do about the beer prices in Cargo to be honest, that does get a few people’s backs up, you can’t please everyone as much as we do try.
We hope that people leave an event inspired, invigorated and full of beans (or should that be ‘beers’?). The working day can be quite tough full of highs and lows and we hope Glug gives people a chance to sit back, absorb, question and think about how lucky we all are to work in such a creative industry and especially now being what seems to be the most exciting time in history.
IH: Glug wise we’ve had a whole host of great people along. But the highlights for me have been our Airside event, and listening to Mike O’Keefe at our Music Video night. The guy’s been making music videos for more than 20 years so what he doesn’t know about them, ain’t worth knowing.
We’ve done a few events at other venues too. In the main these are mostly selling out so we must be doing something right. The Christmas event is going to be pretty epic! We thought it about time to shake things up a bit.
MD: So, what can you tell us about the next Glug event?
NC: It’s with INTRO, I’m immensely looking forward to this one, I’m a big fan of Julian House’s work. Come and see more at Glug this Wed 26.10.11 at Cargo to find out!
IH: What he said. I’m also quite looking forward to seeing what this Yarn Bombing girl is going to do. The Youtube video makes it all seem quite cool and moody, so interested to see if it’s as good in person.
MD: How did the connection with Intro come about?
NC: Best ask Ian about this one…
IH: Erm, we like their work. They don’t do many talks but are old industry heroes for us. Personally when we started Output, they were always an agency we’d aspire to be like. They’ve always done cool work for a diverse range of clients. I think I just emailed them.
MD: What can we expect to see at the event?
NC: It’s always a surprise to me, we don’t screen presentations in advance, we just emphasise that it’s the host’s stage to take as they wish and we’d like them to inspire, show process, collaboration and give a view of what it’s like to be part of the host’s company or ideology if just for 15 minutes.
IH: It’s going to be a bit different to the usual Glug’s as we have a Live PA on first. One of the bands Intro are currently working with and then after that it’s a panel of their Creative Director’s talking about the company history and the work they’ve done.
MD: Will anyone else be appearing?
IH: Live PA by Public Service Broadcasting
NC: Yes, we’ve a few more additions, best check the blog as it may have changed by the time this goes live.
MD: Is anything going to differ from previous events?
NC: Anything could happen, maybe we won’t have any technical hitches for once, that would be a bonus!
MD: You’ve introduced online videos as part of the Glug offering — was this a natural progression for you guys?
NC: Ian and I have talked about this for some time, it made total sense to show the rest of the world and obviously those that couldn’t make it to a Glug event to see what actually goes on at one.
IH: We’ve had a lot of feedback from people who want to see the talks again even if they’ve attended the events but also quite a few people from diverse places like Sweden, Amsterdam and America getting in touch. People who can’t attend the events but would love to see some of these people speak. It’s nice to get a record of them all, especially as we grow.
MD: What’s next on the agenda for Glug? Any big plans in the pipeline?
IH: Yes BIG, BIG, BIG. We’ve not really announced this anywhere yet but Christmas should be huge. We’re going to do a ‘Best of the Best’ night. Here’s the lineup so far:
Airside
Mr Bingo
Mainframe
Jason Tozer
Studio Output
Moving Brands
The Neighbourhood
Agency Rush
More to come…
It’s basically a selection of all the biggest and best speakers from the last 2 years, all talking about new projects since they last appeared. I know what you’re thinking, Cargo isn’t going to be big enough for this, so we’re looking at a few other venues. We’d like to get 1000 plus people down to this event and end the year with a bang.
The date is confirmed Thursday 24th November, and also we’re going to try and raise a shed load of money for Shelter. It’s pretty cold that time of year, so a good time to be helping out all those people sleeping rough.
NC: See you there I hope chaps, we’ll buy you a schnapps.
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Big thanks to Ian and Nick for taking the time to chat and make sure you get yourself along to the upcoming Glug events, details of which can be found on their blog. You can also find out more about Glug and hear what the boys have to say for themselves here and here.
Thanks for reading
MD
