Partnering with U+I on their next ‘U+I Think’ event: Meanwhile Worthwhile Forever

Tickets were only made available a few days ago, but we’re delighted that there’s been such interest in the next ‘U+I Think’ event, which we are helping to organise in partnership with U+I. Only a few spaces remain. Book in now if you’d like to join us for an informal evening of drinks, networking and a vibrant panel discussion on the future of meanwhile use chaired by urban regeneration advisor David Barrie.

From pop-up swimming pools to urban gardens, cinemas, supper clubs and street-food festivals, boutique Boxparks to waste recycling centres, creative and useful ‘meanwhile’ uses for empty tracts of real estate in our cities have become a well-rehearsed form of urban entertainment.

Across the country ‘temporary’ uses have become a permanent fixture. At Elephant & Castle, an alphabet soup of mobile gardens and shipping containers is fast turning into a new community of growth entrepreneurs. ‘Pop Brixton’ is now seeding many new ventures, capturing and applying the energy and excitement of the entrepreneur to dead car parks and a derelict sweet factory.

Have we reached Peak Meanwhile? Do the Cinderella Spaces of our cities need a new generation of Prince Charming? And who will be the new communities of the future, once the current cast of hipsters, hustlers and hackers have moved on?

Thursday 29th June
6pm for 6.30pm
U+I, 7A Howick Place
London SW1P 1DZ

Register now

Host: Richard Upton – Deputy Chief Executive, U+I
Chairperson: David Barrie – Regeneration Advisor & Social Impact Entrepreneur

Panel members:
Katharine Hibbert – Founder and Director, Dot Dot Dot
Roger Wade – Founder, Boxpark
Eric Reynolds – Founding Director, Urban Space Management
Reza Merchant – CEO, The Collective
Dan Taylor – Programme Manager (Regeneration), London Borough of Southwark
Anna Strongman – Senior Projects Director, Argent