Hosting an Urbano event

Urbano and our host venues
Created in 2010 from our early days running a vibrant business community in Shoreditch from the mid 2000's, Urbano Network is an independent networking community that connects senior business people from across different sectors.

Urbano acts as a pro-active catalysts to connections and facilitators of opportunities for our membership, including our Host Partner venues, making introductions online and elsewhere where we know one offers a service that the other requires, including introducing restaurants and bars to our members and associates looking to take clients for lunches, or to find spaces for their Christmas and other functions, including their own networking events.

For more details on Urbano, our background, history and approach, please click here: Member and Supporter Deck

How does Urbano help our Host Partners?
Urbano's members and associates are company founders, owners and directors. We are  selective who we work with and our host venues include Cafe Murano, Hide Piccadilly, The Italian Greyhound, OXO Tower, Lambeth Palace, Social Eating House, Cafe Du Marche, Conrad London St James, Carmel Fitzrovia, Quo Vadis and Cinnamon Kitchen.

Our list of events and host partners can be found here: Urbano events & hosts

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.

Recommendations: At the centre of the Urbano web, we often get asked to recommend venues for client and team meals, parties, networking events etc by member and associate companies.

Introductions: Opportunities come attached to people. Often it is impractical for venue marketing, sales and events teams to come to events, so we make sure we are their 'eyes and ears', looking for and listening out for opportunities to promote them across our community and beyond.

Urbano Host Partners can also promote their own events via our weekly Events & Opportunities Notices and the first monthly events mailer, which features links to our Corporate Members own events. Members event calendar

** ALL MAILERS FOR HOSTS OF OUR AUTUMN AND WINTER EVENTS WILL INCLUDE DETAILS OF THEIR CHRISTMAS PACKAGES **

Urbano Events Calendar - to December 2024
(Events listed in bold = venue confirmed. Those in italics = venue TBC).

Wednesday September 11th - Top Table networking lunch, Cafe Du Marche, Clerkenwell

Thursday September 26th: Urbano Speaker breakfast with Christian May, Editor of City AM (Watson Farley Williams)

Wednesday October 9th - Urbano Women In Business Community Top Table networking lunch, The Harben Room, The Pem, Conrad St James's

Thursday October 24th - Urbano speaker breakfast with the senior team at John Lewis Partnership Build-To-Rent development team.

Wednesday November 6th: Urbano Build Community Top Table networking lunch

Thursday November 14th - Urbano business networking breakfast

Thursday November 21st: Urbano Christmas networking evening (Shoreditch)*

Wednesday December 11th - Urbano Christmas Top Table networking lunch

* This event's drinks are being sponsored by an Urbano Member based in Shoreditch so we are looking for a suitable venue in the area

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 18-24 attendees. 

Networking Lunch: 12:30 - 14:30 - Host provides showcase lunch menu for 18 - 28 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 50 people.

Top Tables: These exclusive events, usually consisting of three-course lunches, are usually part-sponsored by the venue and are negotiated on an event-by-event basis.

FOR ALL HOSTING ENQUIRIES

If you think Urbano is a community where you would meet serious businesses with budget for their own events and like to showcase to them what you offer, please email Mark Herring, Connector-In-Chief at Urbano, in the first instance to discuss hosting an event in 2024.

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