246 Freelancers, One Room, No Idea Who's There

Two hundred and fort six people have registered for Kindling’s Freelancer Coworking Day on 23 July. Designers, developers, writers, consultants, founders between things. West London, full day, free coffee, free lunch, drinks at five.

Somewhere in that room is the person who needs exactly the thing you do. Right now, neither of you knows the other exists. And on the day, you will both find a desk, put your headphones on, and keep it that way.

That is not a criticism of the event. It is just how events work.

I should say up front that I am not just running the tech here. I am attending as a freelancer. Graphic designer, web and app design, UI and branding is my specialism. So I have skin in this in both directions, which is either a conflict of interest or the reason I built CameThru in the first place. Probably both.

Oneder Kindling have put the CameThru join link directly on their Luma page. Not in a follow-up email, not on a sign by the door. On the invite itself, under a heading that says “See who else is in the room.”

Which means you can join before the event begins.

That single fact is the whole product. You scan a QR or tap a link. Thirty seconds, no app, no download. You see who is coming, what they do, what they are working on. And then you decide what to do about it, in your own time, before you have to make eye contact with anybody.

You might spot three people worth finding at lunch. You might spot none and have a very productive day of deep work, which is a completely valid outcome and one I have had many times. You might message someone the following Tuesday when you have actually thought about what you want to say. That is the point. Nobody is forcing a lanyard on you and making you introduce yourself to the person on your left.

Coworking days evaporate. You have a great chat over lunch, you both mean it, and then the room disappears and so does the person. You go home with a first name and a vague sense of what they do. Maybe you find them on LinkedIn three weeks later. Usually you don’t.

That is not a failure of will. It is a failure of infrastructure. There is nowhere to follow up because there is nowhere to follow up in.

This is the part CameThru was actually built for. The room stays open. You do not lose access to it when the drinks finish at six. Everyone who joined is still there, still findable. The person you meant to speak to and didn’t is still one message away in November.

And for the first time at a live event, one message away means exactly that. In-app chat will be switched on for Kindling, so you can message anyone in the room directly on CameThru throughout the day. Shout out Meaghan for the idea to have chat on during the day only.

No hunting someone down on LinkedIn. No “great to meet you, here’s my email” scrawled on a coffee cup. You saw their profile, you know what they do, you message them. Done.

While I have your attention on Oneder, they are launching something called Thrive and it deserves a mention.

Every month they are giving away two complimentary bookings in the Kindling auditorium. Proper space, proper AV, the room you would normally pay real money for. It is for growing startups, CIC’s, community groups and non-profits who want to run something: a workshop, a panel, a talk, a networking event, a social.

If you have ever thought “I would run an event about this if I had somewhere to run it,” that excuse is now gone. The venue problem is usually the first wall you hit when you are small, and Oneder have just taken it down for two organisations a month.

The application takes a few minutes. They ask who you are, what the event is, and how you plan to promote it. That is it.

Apply here: Thrive with Oneder application form

Register for the day here: https://luma.com/3djtrpf7

Then join the room here: https://camethru.com/events/join/KMCPIV

Twenty-five people are already in the room as I write this. The event is still three days away. So the thing I described above, seeing who is coming before you have to make eye contact with anybody, is already happening. You can go and look right now.

Kindling with Oneder, Mediaworks, 191 Wood Lane, W12 7FP. Thursday 23 July, from 8am. Spots are limited.

I built a networking product and I am an introvert. Those two facts have never sat comfortably together and I have stopped trying to make them. What I wanted was a way to know who was in a room without having to work the room. That is all this is.

Come and find me on the twenty-third, or don’t, and just get your work done. Both are fine. But have a look at who else is coming first. Twenty-five people already have.