People who meet me now find it hard to believe that as a teenager I was very shy. I remember that in my first job at the BBC as a secretary I used to loiter outside the newsroom waiting for someone else to go in so that I could slip in behind them, unnoticed. Today I must seem very confident, not to say loud, and I’m happy to speak in public to different audiences. But it’s taken quite a bit of effort to get there, for if I was shy when I was young, my brother Roger was even shyer – pathologically so. To try to get him to communicate at all with other people I just had to make contact with them myself. I think that’s where my interest in other people began and why today I can’t pass up a chance to put people together who I think might benefit in all sorts of ways from getting to know each other. At the last count I have over 40,000 people on my database and two books to my name on what I call the art of networking.
I first got a chance to bring very different people together in a big way when I became the Producer of BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions?, every week trying to get the right mix of politicians, business people, and leading figures from the arts and sciences and the media to make an interesting programme. And when I left the BBC I started a business along the same lines, putting together people who wanted to meet but might not have done so without a helping hand.
Recently I have been working as managing director of YouGovStone, a joint venture company which I set up with the online opinion polling organisation YouGov. I have a panel of about four thousand people which I consult on behalf of clients who want to know what opinion leaders – what I call the ‘Influentials’ – are thinking on a host of different topics.
And then in May 2009 I did something I have wanted to do for ages, I opened a club – TheStoneClub. We don’t have a permanent home: instead, members meet for different events in one of several venues in central London. My motto for this virtual club is ‘A Meeting of Minds’, and I have two tiers of membership. Silver members come to what I call my ‘In Conversation’ evenings, to listen to and question speakers like Lord (Brian) Griffiths of Goldman Sachs, Jeremy Hunt, MP, the Tory shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Tom Bower, author of devastating blockbuster biographies about people like Richard Branson, Robert Maxwell, and Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed. Future guest speakers I’ve booked for these events include the Doug Richard, formerly of Dragon’s Den and entrepreneur.
Gold members tend to be more business-oriented, and for them, in addition to my ‘In Conversation’ events, I arrange breakfasts with speakers like Vicky Pryce, the Director-General, Economics, at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and Adrian Monck, Managing Director, Communications, at Davos, the World Economic Forum. I’m much looking forward to welcoming Sly Bailey, the Chief Executive of Trinity Mirror, the UK’s largest newspaper publisher, to a breakfast soon.
Running a business that is all about people is really demanding, and of course there are times when I’m cross with myself for not having looked after one of my think tank or club members as well as I think should. But I’ll never give up trying, because to me people are a solace, the real joy of life.
The Stone Club is a fantastic private members club. For more info or to join, follow this link: http://www.yougovstone.com/content/the-stone-club.asp