Hosting an Urbano event

Urbano and our host venues
Created in 2010, Urbano grew out of our early days running a vibrant business community in Shoreditch from the early to late 2000's.

Since then, as Urbano Network we have organised hundreds of events and used our unique database to promote our host venues to thousands of company founders, owners, directors and senior team members.

Since Covid, as leisure and work patterns have changed, our focus at Urbano also changed.

We moved away from running events for everyone, instead focusing on our core role to help and connect company founders, directors and senior people who are time-poor, over-burdened with responsiblities and who pick and choose the events they attend and the networks they join.

Urbano is now a business community that primarily focuses on organising events to bring together those at the very top of companies, using our calendar of speaker breakfasts, Top Tables* and the odd social evening to make sure that time spent at an Urbano event is a good investment of each attendee's valuable time.

But Urbano has always been more than just events. With me as Urbano's Connector-In-Chief, I facilitate introductions, share information and recommendations between members, including advising on where members can and should host their own networking events, team social evenings and client lunches.

And it is this audience and community we offer to our Urbano Host Partners.

Becoming an Urbano Host Partner
Hosting ONE event with Urbano in a calendar year opens up all sorts of possiblities to promote your venue to companies with our network and our database of 60,000 business connections.

Each venue hosting an Urbano event is promoted on at least two event mailers sent to our subscribers. Our mailers get read and opened by an average of 35-55% of the thousands who subscribe. 

This database includes people at the very highest level of companies, is cleaned constantly, and gets very few unsubscribes. They respect the brand of Urbano that we have created and trust it as a source of information and recommendations.

How does Urbano help our Host Partners?
Recent Urbano event host venues have included Cafe Murano, Hide Piccadilly, The Italian Greyhound, OXO Tower, Lambeth Palace, Social Eating House, Cafe Du Marche, Conrad London St James, Oliveira Kitchen, Princess of Shoreditch, Quo Vadis, Cinnamon Kitchen and Shuffle Club Shoreditch.

Our events help great venues connect to this audience in four main ways:

Promotion: Each Host Partner venue gets promoted on two event mailers sent to the Urbano's database of 60,000+ subscribers. Our mailers get read and opened by an average of 25% each cycle.

Sample statistics from a recent series of event mailers:

Total emails sent: 128, 554
Total Opens: 28,977
Average open rate: 18.3%
Click-throughs to host website, including details of venue's Christmas package: 1,828*

Connections: Those who book our event with you will enjoy a sample of your hospitality. They also share their experience via Instagram and other social channels, but perhaps more importantly tell others in their business networking circles.

At the Urbano event you host (except Top Table events), your team can mix and mingle with the event attendees. For every event, you also get exclusive use to the full contact details of those you have hosted (and we don't allow other venue representatives at our event with you).

* Directors or equivalent of Urbano host venues do get a free place at sponsored Top Tables, subject to agreement.

Promote your venue throughout the year
Urbano Host Partners can also promote their own events, such as wine tastings, Valentine's Day etc via our weekly Events & Opportunities Notices and our event calendar mailers each month, which features links to our Corporate Members and Host Venues' own events.

We also share thse on Urbano's social media channels, including Instagram and LinkedIn.

Urbano Members Events Calendar

Recommendations
At the centre of the Urbano web, we often get asked to recommend venues for client and team meals, members' own networking events, summer and Christmas parties etc.

Christmas
We list and promote our Host Venues' Christmas party offerings via links on our mailers. The sooner your menus are prepared, the sooner we can promote!

HOW TO BECOME AN URBANO HOST PARTNER

In return for sponsoring ONE URBANO EVENT - which includes all space, food and drink costs of an event type and date we agree together (see list below), we offer these venues in return a Host Partner Urbano Membership to run for 12 months from date of hosting agreement.

Hosting requirements

Networking Breakfast: 09:30 - 11:30 - Host provides showcase breakfast/brunch menu, including juice and coffee for 18 attendees. 

Networking Lunch: 12:30 - 14:30 - Host provides showcase lunch menu for 24 attendees plus a glass of wine, beer or soft drink. (Typical menus can be provided on request)

Networking Evenings: 18:00 - 20:00 - Host provides 2 drinks pp (wine/beer/soft drink) + canapes/nibbles. Space and hospitality for up to 30 people.

Top Tables: These exclusive events, usually consisting of three-course lunches. Sponsorship is negotiated on an event-by-event basis, starting with offering a  free glass of wine to attendees in return for promotion links and venue description on Top Table mailers.

FOR ALL HOSTING ENQUIRIES

If you would like to discuss showcasing and promoting your venue to our community of high-level business connections, please email Mark Herring, Connector-In-Chief at Urbano.

You can follow @urbanonetwork on Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin