The Kindred blog

VOTE NOW! Katie Treggiden is a design geek ready to confess! [MyDeco]

We’re very proud of Katie Treggiden, CSD at Kindred, who started writing a blog, confessions of a design geek, in April - because it’s been nominated for an award already!

mydeco have teamed up with London Design Festival to run the first ever 'Design Democracy blog awards', championing the best design blogs in the UK. mydeco got in touch with Katie back in June when her blog was just six and a half weeks old to ask her to nominate herself and other blogs she read. She was also nominated by fellow blogger Jenny Voyce, whose blog Design Trends is also up for an award.

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EVENT REVIEW: Stylist : "Confidence. The Final Frontier."

The night before last Anastasia Scott and I (both Client Service Directors at Kindred) went to the second Stylist (http://www.stylist.co.uk/) networking event; Confidence: The Final Frontier.
 
As well as a fine selection of canapés (well it was hosted at Claridges (http://www.claridges.co.uk) !), there was a great line up of entrepreneurial speakers: Sara Murray – Buddi (http://www.buddi.co.uk), Lisa Stickley - Lisa Stickley, London (http://www.lisastickleylondon.com/) and Jo Newton - Newton Network (http://www.newtonnetwork.com/), Jessica Huie - JH Public Relations (http://www.jhpr.co.uk/) & Colour Blind Cards (http://www.colorblindcards.com/), Kanya King MBE, MOBO Awards (http://www.mobo.com/awards) and Lisa Merrick-Lawless, Stylist. (http://www.stylist.co.uk/)
 
One thing that really stood out was how many obstacles these incredibly successful women had overcome. Two were single teenage mums, most had overcome initial failure in their business, all had been told they’d never make it. What they had in common, was not (they claimed!) any amazing talent, or a unique idea; it was simply hard work. Words like “persistence”, “stamina”, “passion”, “dedication” and “strength” came up again and again. As Kanya King said; “if you do what it takes for as long as it takes, success is inevitable.” I found that very inspiring.
 
Another thing that came across was the power of networks – Jessica Huie had started her career at Max Clifford Associates, and so had a fantastic network and Kanya King had built networks through sheer persistence – calling Tony Blair’s office repeatedly until he eventually agreed to attend her first event. She also advised of the importance of surrounding yourself with supportive, likeminded people. And Lisa Merrick-Lawless demonstrated a technique overlaying a mind-map of everyone you know onto a mind-map of your business, to see who could help you.
 
Inspired and motivated; we set about networking. I was once advised to go to networking events seeking what you can give rather than what you can get, and by this measure, we did quite well! I met a lady who wanted to know more about media buying / selling and invited her along to a lunch with one of our media partners, we gave some PR ideas to a lady setting up a dating site for Northeners, and we hooked up a wedding cake designer with a wedding stationery designer.
 
Fingers crossed for some good karma!   

- Katie Treggiden

Rumors confirmed : iPad spotted in the Kindred office.

The team just got its first play with Apple's new baby - the iPad.  Matt from Futureworks popped in to go through the features of the new device.  We're hooked.  Heavier than imagined, the team remarked on the ease of use and interesting new take on books and magazines.  'It's certainly a game changer if the publishing industry let it be' said Katie Treggiden, Client Service Director / Chief Inspector of Shiny Things (below).