About Urbano

Hello!

You have been brought to this page following visit to an Urbano event or by a curious click on a link on one of our mailers.

Hopefully, the experience of the event you attended, including the friendly welcome, the relaxed and warm atmosphere and the quality of the members 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 £7.50 a week membership costs and enjoy the benefits of being a new member of the Urbano community.

Best

Mark

I have been running Urbano for 15+ years – and business communities from my earliest days in Shoreditch in the early 2000’s - 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.

My primary aim as the Connector-In-Chief at Urbano is to bring together members to meet, connect, learn, share business issues and generate opportunities. Our mix of member companies, for the most part SMEs, and the diversity of their services, plus our own experience running Talent Lab and working with a mix of PLCs and SMEs, helps create a business community that is an active valuable resource for our membership.

Being a catalyst to such a diverse range of companies remains and will remain at the heart of what I try to encourage and facilitate at Urbano. Read on for some more information of what membership brings.

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

Why? Because it is memberships, our community and event sponsors, and 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
• Full contact details of every person for the events which you have attended, including yesterday, and accessed through your private member’s Dashboard on joining
• Weekly Opportunities list, including tenders and 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

UPCOMING URBANO & MEMBERS' EVENTS

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 19th - Urbano Women In Business networking lunch to celebrate International Women's Day (Chiswell Street Dining Rooms, City of London)

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

Thursday March 19th - Urbano Women In Business networking lunch to celebrate International Women's Day (Chiswell Street Dining Rooms, City of London)

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.

For more details, 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