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Adobe Breakfast,London
An invite only networking event, at the Adobe studios in London. How on earth did I wangle this one!?
Now, I haven't been to any networking events since I was an Account Manager at a branding agency many moons ago - I'm talking 12+ years ago and back then, I had to be suited and booted to fit the vibe of the agency I worked at - which as you can probably tell, by my green hair and colorful website, really wasn't my style at all! So, representing other people's businesses at networking events wasn't really something I was down with, but you know, you have to cut your teeth somewhere and I cut mine in agency land!
Anyway, back to Adobe…. I kind of hadn't realized how nervous I was going to be, until I got off the tube at Old Street and walked across the road to the building that I recognized from Google Maps… I had no idea what to expect from this event, no idea how many people would be attending, or who they would be and in a way I'm quite glad I went in with no expectations and no idea of who these big players were who I was likely to be talking to!
Woah, well I'm not exactly sure how I managed to get on the invite list for such a prestigious event, but when I was invited to this exclusive invite-only event down in London, I knew I just had to make it happen!
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Sometimes, having the gift of the gab and talking to the right people, really does get you into the right rooms! Amazingly, one of my goals for this working year, 2025, was to get out more - and by that, I mean attending more networking events and meeting people from my industry in real life. Well, I wrote that down on a huge piece of paper in January and two days later I was chatting to someone on Insta DM’s, who asked if I would like to attend this breakfast at the Adobe Studios down in London! Well, I couldn't believe my luck - of course I was gonna have to make it happen! I was actually already planning a trip down to London, as I wanted to meet up for the first time in real life with my wonderful VA Lucy, to take her out for a working lunch so I managed to kill two birds with one stone!
Needless to say, I felt pretty old, as there were a lot of young content creators and hipster types there, but I found my groove and plenty of friendly people to chat to, as we all waited outside the building to be greeted by the Adobe staff.
There was an amazing breakfast buffet spread arranged in our honour and a coffee cart serving fresh hot drinks, so I got in the queue and started chatting to some of my fellow attendees. I was drinking my tea and eating a crazy, colourful croissant, when I suddenly recognized someone I vaguely knew from Instagram and went over to introduce myself! “OMG it's you, I have some of your earrings!” I said to the incredibly colourful, statuesque Elizabeth Wibley! To my surprise she was ever so down to earth and friendly and seemed decided immediately that we were going to be BFF's for the day! And of course, I was totally fine with that I've been fangirling Elizabeth from afar (ie through the Gram) for at least four or five years now!
Before we knew it, we were all being called into the main room for the panel talks and to listen to Industry Experts talking about everything going on behind the scenes at Adobe. Wow, talk about inspiring! First, we heard from the fantastic Kristine Arth about her branding career and how it's taken her all over the world - from working with huge brands to setting up her own agency, Lobster Phone, living the digital nomad lifestyle and moving from San Francisco to Barcelona. She was wonderful, but also so funny, and sweary and just herself!
Next, we heard from some of the Adobe Product Marketing Team about developments within Adobe's many apps - it amazed me how open and willing they were to take on ideas and recommendations from all the creative talent out there using their software! They really made us all feel like we were part of the Adobe family too! This was followed by a brilliantly inspiring panel of ‘Social Insiders’ who talked about building community. I felt particularly drawn to Daisy Morris who runs ‘The Self Hood’ and have since found out that her whole concept is based around networking events and co-working with fellow creatives, so I'm really hoping to convince her to come up to Leeds and do an event in my city soon… Watch this space!