Connecting Companies & Facilitating New Business Opportunities. Information for Non-Members.

About Urbano (and Notes for 2024)
Urbano has been bringing together company founders, senior directors and other senior professionals from SMEs to PLCs across all sectors to connect, engage, learn, share, and develop mutual opportunities since its founder, Mark Herring, created his first business community in Shoreditch in the early 2000's.

There, he witnessed how important meeting new connections was to those creating and running fledgling tech companies, not only from a business development perspective in finding potential clients, but perhaps most importantly were the usually non-tangible benefits of being part of a wider community of different people.

Because actually when it comes to networking, what matters are the relationships that are formed between people. It is these relationships that lead to value and Urbano exists to primarily facilitate those conversations and introductions that lead to relationships and create the opportunities to learn, share and generate new business.

Top Tables
For our members, Urbano's primary role is to bring together those that create and lead SMEs, to meet, share knowledge and develop new business relationships in warm and relaxed surroundings, the highest of which are Top Tables.

Urbano Top Tables happen every four to six weeks and are hosted at great restaurants. Previous Top Table host places include The Hide Piccadilly, Café Murano, Quo Vadis, Anise at Cinnamon, 110 de Taillevent, Cafe Du Marche, and The Social Eating House). A three-course lunch, complimentary drink and usually between 24 - 36 (depending on space) company directors or equivalents.

Our next Top Table is on Wednesday September 11th at Cafe Du Marche in London's Clerkenwell. There, attendees - all directors or equivalents such as Partners and drawn from a range of sectors - will come together to enjoy a three-course lunch and complimentary drink. Over around three hours, the conversations will meander into different areas of business and new connections will be forged.

Speaker events
Urbano hosts a regular programme of speaker and speaker panel networking breakfasts, where themes and subjects of interest are discussed. Recent subjects include AI, retrofit vs new buildings, menopause in the workplace and procurement, which is a particular passion and area where the Urbano team has experience and knowledge (see below).

Our speaker events have included four out of the last five RIBA Presidents, George Clarke (twice!), Kevin McCloud and many others. For us, it also seems natural that our speakers reflect our audience, so 50% of our speakers have been women, as are 50% of our Top Table attendees.

We also host specific events to connect female members. The next is the Urbano Women In Business Community Top Table in October: WIB Top Table


We also promote our members' own events to help them reach new audiences. You can find all upcoming Urbano events and those of our members here:  https://www.urbanonetwork.co.uk/london-networking-events/list

Tenders
Urbano offers our SME members access to our affordable tenders service. We cover over 100 keywords relevant to their services and sift out the ones where they have a chance of winning work. This is included in the Company membership price, equivalent to £7.50 a week, not the usual £2,000 charged by organisations searching the same databases as we do.

We also have a proud record of helping our members develop and grow, including supporting them to find opportunities on the supply chains of larger companies and the public sector.

Find the latest live tenders relevant to your services by using CTRL + F to search your keywords here: Tenders @ Urbano

Urbano is owned and run by Talent Lab, a work winning consultancy run by Mark and Caroline. Talent Lab helps companies of all sizes – from PLCs to SMEs - win work from the public sector. Caroline leads on this and she would be happy to discuss if and where she can help you and you company, from training for bid teams to operating as an outsourced bid department helping directors with positioning, engagement and bid writing etc.

Urbano - The Sustainable Business Network
We call Urbano  ‘The Sustainable Business Network’, not just because we have hosted speaker events on ‘sustainability’ stretching back to 2004 and challenged companies and individuals to make active changes on this front, but also because of our experience of bringing together those that create and run companies to help them adapt to the ever-changing challenges of running a successful enterprise. We believe it is the diversity of our member companies, our own experience of running a SME that celebrated its 20^th birthday earlier this year and the mix of people and events that makes Urbano unique.

We continue to press for SMEs to be given a fairer chance at winning public sector work, including as part of project supply chains. Videos and podcasts on our Only Connect channel are available to download on different topics, including procurement, building reg changes, workplace design, menopause in work, sustainability in construction, and networking.

Membership Options and Fees
Urbano has three levels of membership..

Micro: For those with fewer than five employees. Payable by DD monthly.
Company: Includes tenders. Unlimited representatives can book Urbano events. Includes tenders. Payable by monthly DD or annual invoice.
Corporate: As Company, but we promote their own events via links on our mailers – which reach 60,000+ subscribers – and on our website.

For fees and to find out which option would suit you best, click here: Urbano Membership

We are quite honest. Not all companies understand how we can generate opportunities when our events are so informal and even fun. Many see networking events as a series of pitching opportunities for their sales teams.

For us, running our own small consultancy is that our work comes through relations and connections developed over years in certain cases. We work hard for our Talent Lab clients and for our Urbano members, sharing information and making introductions between members where we see potential value.

As the spider in the middle of this web of companies called Urbano, we can help you and the company or organisation you represent find brilliant new connections that can help your business develop and grow.

Because opportunities come attached to people and are revealed through conversations, so if you'd like to discuss being part of our community, chat with me at your next Urbano event, or drop me an email.


Mark Herring
Connector-In-Chief, Urbano Network