Podcast 1 – This Week with Syed Kamall, MEP for London

Whether you like tech news, are interested in how co-working spaces could be improved, you are concerned about the markets or the EU referendum, then welcome to my first podcast!

This is a bit of an experiment but I hope you will enjoy what I`ve put together on this first outing. My aim is not just to update you with what I’ve been up to but also to bring you real stories of what is going on in London that could help you, your family, your charity work or your business even. If you have suggestions too on what you would like to hear or things you think I should do then tell me. I’m always interested in new ideas. Email me at

Syed.Kamall@europarl.europa.eu

Below you will find an outline of the programme but make sure you listen to hear all the interviews and clips of people speaking.

 

– OUTLINE –

1) TECH

Lets start with Tech which is something as you know I am hugely passionate about.

One of the events we visited this week was the Get In The Ring Tech pitching event. It’s very hard to define the event. It’s certainly not like many serious pitching events and a sort of combination of entertainment with some business in their too. One of the organisers described it as being a bit like Rap Battles for Startups.

The winner in the so called ‘middle weight’ category, Nick from NearStreet spelt Near- ST told us about how his app allows small shops to list their inventory online so that combined they create a sort of Amazon of small shops where you can order online but from local firms.

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Alessia Sannazzaro, from Choosic, won in the lightweight category. Their app helps people find new bands but she also hopes that some of London’s radio stations will be using their service.

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Neil Cuthbert is the principle of EyeOnStartups who ran the event, says that events like this can help to get the message across to a wider audience

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As you can imagine this week has been very busy so I sent along my team member, Richard to a couple of events for me.

Q: You went to to a talk on apps in cars with Jaguar and the opportunities for businesses in London?

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AND ALSO YOU WENT TO THE LONDON MAYORAL HUSTINGS?

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This week I spoke to a project in Lambeth, called Tree Shepherd, they take the ‘seed’ of a business ideas and then nurture it into a enterprise. They particularly focus on those who are traditionally seen as long term unemployed or even unemployable. I asked Colin Crooks who founded the organisation how it works.

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B/A and if you want to find out more about Tree Shepherd go to treeshepherd.org and you can hear the full interview on my website.

I’m worried about banking. In fact there are questions which concern me that we were also asking before the 2008 collapse.

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And finally but no means least, the EU referendum? Where are we.

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And I`m going to be releasing 2 pocket guides on these issues very soon. Keep an eye on my twitter feed @syedkamall on Facebook syedkamallmep or for more detail on everything my website at SyedKamall.com

Talking of website I have a new one coming very soon with lots of new information so I`ll update you on that as soon as I can.

I hope you found this podcast interesting, have a great week and speak soon.