About Urbano

Hello!

You have probably been brought to this page following visit to an Urbano event or by a click on a link on one of our mailers, so you probably already know a bit about Urbano. Or, if you have just browsing, hopefully the information below will give a picture of what I have been doing as Urbano over the past several years.

Hopefully, the experience of the event you attended, including the friendly welcome, the relaxed and warm atmosphere and the quality of the companies in the room, has made you consider Urbano as a community worth joining.

Or that curiosity that made you click through to this page is driven by a desire to explore whether Urbano has potential to help you develop valuable new business connections and opportunities.

Either way, the information below may help you decide to risk the £7.60 a week membership costs and enjoy the benefits of being a new member of the Urbano community.

Best

Mark Herring
Connector-In-Chief, Urbano Network

About Urbano (and me)
I have been running Urbano for 20 years. Urbano grew out of a business community I created in Shoreditch in the early 2000’s. There as new companies related to what we now call digital technology, plus others from different sectors, wanted to meet their neighbours.

This grew over the years to include different events, including speaker breakfasts, where experts shared knowledge and companies shared experiences, and networking evenings and lunches where people could meet others from a range of different sectors.

All people benefit from making new connections and having conversations (I run networking training for those who have team members struggle with this).

I like to think Urbano offers any business – especially those that run and create them - the kind of convivial, relaxed conversations with quality companies and connections, information and support not easily found elsewhere.

Since Covid, Urbano focuses on connecting those at the top of their companies, the people that create and run businesses. Their time is more precious and the chance to escape the grind and stresses of running a business means that our Top Tables offer them three hours each month to connect and chat with others in their position.

I must stress Urbano events are always relaxed and informal, but the companies that attend are serious about business. We don't push numbers. And we set maximums as it benefits networking. We usually attract between 18 - 36 (our maximum, though speaker breakfasts sometimes have more).

Our speaker breakfasts and evenings allow those at non-director levels to attend and enjoy Urbano, especially where they can learn from experts in their areas of work.

But Urbano is not for everyone. We are not a network where sales people run around a room pitching their services to others doing the same thing back at them. We are a community of connected companies who are lovely humans and like to meet one another - and then work out where the future business opportunities will reveal themselves.

Being a catalyst to connections between companies and people remains and will remain at the heart of what I try to facilitate at Urbano.

Read on for some more information of the value and benefits of joining Urbano. 

Membership
Urbano is a membership organisation. Non-member companies can send representatives to a maximum of TWO Urbano event to gauge whether our approach to networking and the range and quality of our events and members matches your expectations as a business.

It is our members, sponsors, and member hosts that allow me to run Urbano at fees that allow any company to join. Membership is by COMPANY and by joining you and your business get the following benefits for the equivalent of £7.60 per week.

• Membership of a thriving, diverse, active business community of SMEs across a range of sectors, especially those in the ACTE, tech, environmental and creative industries
• Unlimited access for those who work for those member companies to book Urbano events
• Speakers at events on different themes, including industry experts and well-known names
• Unique access for company directors and equivalents to attend regular Urbano Top Tables
• Other special events including Women In Business lunch to celebrate International Women’s Day all designed to create a varied calendar and ensure a different mix of attendees at each one
• Exclusive access to the full contact details of every person for the events which you have attended through the Event Groups tab on your private member’s Dashboard
• Weekly Opportunities list, including tenders and invites to members’ own events
• Me! I am the spider at the centre of the Urbano web of connected companies. Besides hosting and facilitating connections at events, I make introductions between members where I see potential value and share information between and to members that hopefully leads to opportunities

URBANO EVENTS 2026

Thursday January 15th Urbano speaker networking breakfast - commercial Property Market - Outlook & Trends (hosted at Gatehouse Chambers)

Thursday January 29th Urbano Top Table networking lunch (Vinoteca Farringdon)

Thursday February 12th Urbano business networking breakfast (Conrad St James' Hotel)

Thursday February 26th Urbano Build Pre MIPIM networking Top Table (Cafe Du Marche)

Thursday March 5th How can SMEs demonstrate their purpose beyond profit? (SAGAL Showroom)

Thursday March 26th - Urbano Women In Business networking lunch (Chiswell Street Dining Rooms, City of London)

Thursday April 16th - Urbano April Top Table (Venue TBC)

For all upcoming events from Urbano and its members, click here: Urbano Calendar

The calendar of Urbano and our member events can be viewed here: Events @ Urbano

Tendering
I use Urbano to connect small businesses to opportunities to supply the public sector. I also use it to press for SMEs to be given a fairer chance at winning public sector work, including as part of project supply chains. I am looking to return to this once the government publishes its plans to improve the share SMEs can win through tendering in 2026.  

As Talent Lab, Caroline, supported by me, works on bids with large and small clients, including training and bid/BD support. Company and Corporate Members get access to our weekly tenders search service where we use members’ keywords to find opportunities. You can view the Urbano tenders archive here: http://www.urbanonetwork.co.uk/tender-opportunities

Fees
Company membership, the most popular Urbano membership, is £395 when paid annually and means different team members can attend events.

Corporate members for £495 per year get all the benefits of company membership, plus we promote their own events via links on Urbano mailers to our database of 60,000 business connections. This is the status for law firms.

For those with five or fewer employees, including start-ups, freelancers and sole traders, Micro Membership is available at £29.95 a month.

For more details on all options, including fees, click here: https://www.urbanonetwork.co.uk/membership

Our supporters and members pay for Urbano to exist and together we fund services we offer to the community. Often, the value of membership can be measured by one conversation and connection which Urbano creates during the year. Membership can be actioned with an email back to me stating your preferred status and payment schedule.

Start your journey with Urbano today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best

Mark
Email Mark