My First Experience of Silicon Valley, September 11th & the importance of creating connections.
It was 2001, I’d just finished school and had planned a dream year. Working on a placement in the US, doing a Ski Season & travelling the world doing a few odd jobs along the way.
In preparation for the US I applied for what felt like hundreds of jobs in New York City, a few rejection letters came — more applications were ignored than anything else. It was then I discovered a Student Work Experience scheme that was run out of San Francisco called Experience America. I went through the process and interviews, applied and got myself a placement at a company called Gumps.
As I came into land I was excited as to what the next few months would bring. I was working in the events and corporate gifts department. Brent the overall boss was part of a team Sandy, Chloe, Jocelyn & Danielle. At the time presentations were done with printouts and I suggested I could put together digital presentations to help in the meetings — this was novel and word spread and I soon became known the powerpoint guy.
As it fell, I was in San Francisco during September 11th. That tragic day, I woke and walked into work as usual. I was then sent home as the office was closed and the world was realising what was happening as the second plane went into the Twin Towers. What dawned on me that say and since, was the fact that the majority of jobs I had originally applied for were downtown New York and some of them were even in The World Trade Centre. I could have been right where it all happened.
The next few weeks that followed were challenging times. People were laid off, at the same time I was keen to make the most of the opportunity, I kept asking for more work and was exposed to various parts of the company. Over the course of the next few weeks things became harder at work there was less for me to do and I wasn’t being challenged. The event we were meant to be hosting was cancelled and despite everything that had happened I still wanted to make the most of my time whilst I was away. Rebecca the local representative from Experience America agreed for me to get a placement at McCann Erickson where I was working on the Sony Pictures Entertainment account for free film screenings which was fun — but also not so challenging.
It was then for my final week I got my first taste of a .com start up. Workshare. A document collaboration company. Open plan offices, breakfast and bagels and each week a different department got up and shared with the rest of the office about their roles and what they do.
13 years later in June 2014 I was presenting at a conference before Julia & Kevin Hartz the two of the three co-founders of Eventbrite. They stood up and gave an awesome presentation about culture and their vision — Bringing the World together through live experiences.
By chance they showed a photo of their first offices and it turned out to be the office that Workshare was in with their logo emblazoned in the middle at the top.
It is amazing how far what’s happened in the time between. It’s a fantastic city to visit having been back a couple of times since it certainly feels at home. If you’ve never been I’d encourage you to go if you’ve not already.
Back to my time away, I had booked flights to San Francisco and returning home from New York in November 2001 — so was always going to go to visit New York as part of the trip. Despite the tragedy of September 11th I still decided to go to New York but for less time.
As I walked through Ground Zero seeing the flowers and memorials dust still covered areas in the street it was a city at a loss. I was reminded again on how set I was on having wanted to be in New York and the likeliness of me being within the square mile of the Twin Towers or even inside. When I heard about Experience America and the placements were in San Francisco I didn’t even have a frame of reference so it aside from the fact it simply wasn’t New York which I had my mind set on. Having been back since it’s a city that’s alive and has a pulse — there was definitely something that was missing.
Despite these atrocities including the most recent attack in Manchester & London I believe people deep down are good and we’ve seen the rise of community and support. People coming together to rebuild and help. Facebook created a support function where people can list how they can help or if they need being helped.
Causr has been built on these foundations. Like minded people are often found in similar places — no where in the world is this truer than San Francisco and Silicon Valley — the tech hub of the world. We’re seeing similar effects in Berlin, Tel Aviv, Silicon Roundabout in the UK, Silicon Canal in Birmingham as well as closer to home Camden & Kentish Cluster.
Whilst a crisis or tragedy often gives people a reason to come together. The route of these tragedies often come from disconnection, isolation and lack of understanding. It’s why AIESEC was set up after World War Two by a group of students to promote cultural understanding, fundamentally if people go and explore the world, live and work submersed in another country they’ll be less likely to want to go to war with one another. It’s one of the reasons I got involved in AIESEC when I was at University and kept connected every since.
The vision for Causr is to create millions of meaningful connections for people nearby all around the world everyday. It’s just the beginning, we’ve a lot more to do but we hope you’ll join us. Let’s create the world we want to live in and build community and connections before the misunderstandings occur and it’s too late.
Causr is a location-based app that introduces its users to others within the local area. It makes finding nearby professionals with similar jobs, interests and ambitions easy. Scroll through a network of users, see who’s free, meet for coffee, share business advice or simply connect. Causr plans those chances encounters, and makes missed opportunities a thing of the past.
Download the App to see who’s nearby and start connecting today. Now available on the Apple App Store. Pre-register for our Android release here.
