The Cultural Marketplace

Monday 24 September 2007

Making Mesh Beta

Greetings!

It's been awhile since either Kay or I posted, but rest assured things are very busy at Mesh HQ. We have now launched our private beta phase of Mesh and 150 Founding Members are testing it as we speak. Here's a quick picture of a Founding Member's profile:



We've also been occupied with finalising the next phase of the website. The next phase will be built around our cornerstone concepts: showcase, support, share and socialise.

Showcase

Mesh Showcase will allow members to showcase their creative life to the community. For example, a DJ can upload music or an artist can upload a photograph of their artwork.

Support

Mesh is a trusted community and supporting one another is vital. Members will have exclusive access to interviews from our Mesh Mentors and will have the opportunity to connect with them for advice and support.

Share

Mesh Groups and Mesh Projects will allow our members to share information and skills amongst specific creative interest groups which will promote collaboration quickly and easily.

Socialise

Our events feature will allow members to promote their (and their friends')underground creative events to our exclusive community.

Mesh ya later!

Thursday 6 September 2007

We dare you to imPRESS us...

Just a quick update to say we were pretty blown away to have received our second bit of press from the Times. Yesterday, our viral, featuring the multi-talented Alex Liang, who also recently posted a piece on his experiences traversing the arts and business worlds, was mentioned in the City Diary:



Although the mention appears to question Alex's true identity, we can only think that it is really because some people have a hard time trying to accept that a financial consultant by day can actually be THAT cool. And as for the "read Facebook for the achingly trendy in the City" comment, well, as much as Jonny and I like to think we're cutting edge, to be honest, there's more chance of us getting debilitating paper cuts at work. All we're trying to do is to provide a trusted space for business professionals to express their creativity. When once a job was for life, now a job is maybe only until Christmas... and in the mean time, if a creative pursuit can bring happiness and a brighter side to the work-life balance conundrum, then so much the better.

We're here to revolutionise the suited stereotype, a point which is echoed by Alex in his blog: "I am so sick and tired of hearing about talented actors and dancers who have to make ends meet by working in Starbucks and it is so nice to finally meet other talented creative people who have managed to strike the balance of having a professional career that does pay the bills and pursuing one's artistic ambitions. It is a balance that one can strike and that is what Mesh is all about." Here here.

Another bit of coolio press we received recently was the shout out from our friends at Zubka: we thought their rundown of our launch was spot-on and superbly well written. We are tremendously pleased that people appear to "get" Mesh very easily - something that can be quite hard for some businesses. It makes us feel like we are well on the way to communicating the concept effectively, rather than being so far into the concept, we can't see the wood for the trees. We very much look forward to rolling out the beta phase in earnest next week and to the light at the end of the tunnel of this year, when we aim to have completed the initial Mesh online offering. Watch this space!