Our first event: no agenda, no pitch, just stories
Let's be honest for a moment: how many of us actually enjoy networking?
A few people live for it, working a room like it's an Olympic sport, and fair play to them, though we suspect they are in the minority. Others like the concept well enough but recoil at the word itself. Plenty more do not fancy any of it, thank you very much. Whichever camp you fall into, we all know the same thing: it matters.
A good chunk of business runs on who you know, and every bit of advice tells you to get out there and build your network. Knowing you should do something and looking forward to it are two very different things though, and most of us have stood in enough function rooms, over a warm glass of wine, to know the difference.
So when we planned our first event, we wanted something else entirely. No agenda. Nobody selling anything. Just people from the same world, in the same room, swapping stories over a drink. A week ago we held it, and it turned out to be exactly what we hoped for.
Open Comms, number one
We call them Open Comms. The first was held at our HQ at Battersea Power Station on a Tuesday night, and it was open to everyone, members and non-members alike. No pitch and no sales, just a good evening with people who understand what working in this industry, or running a business in it, is actually like.
The room was a proper mix. Partners from across the network, members who are working, and community members who have just left service or are weighing it up, from the military and the Met, who came to get a bit of insight into what is on the other side. The sort of people who wanted to hear it straight from those who have already made that jump and built something afterwards.
None of it was about selling. It was about getting like-minded people in one place to share stories, experience and knowledge, with nobody trying to win.
Why we do this
Fraser opened the night with a few words on what the Ops Con means to him and why he built it. He warned everyone up front that public speaking is not his thing and that he tends to wander off on tangents, then mostly stuck to his script, which anyone who knows him will tell you is an achievement in itself.
He talked about leaving the military in 2014 and walking into most of the traps on the way out. About how the transition should not be as hard as it is, and how the thing that actually helps is not some programme, but like-minded people you can relate to and trust enough to ask a daft question when you need to. That is the idea the whole thing is built on.
We want to help those who have helped others. That's really all it is.
He said thank you too, to the partners and the members both, because the Ops Con does not exist without either. As he put it, this is by the community, for the community, and it always has been.
An evening with Sir Nick Borton
Our guest speaker was Lieutenant General Sir Nick Borton KCB DSO MBE, who retired from the British Army a couple of years ago after a career commanding thousands of troops. Fraser has known him since he was an eighteen-year-old joining the battalion in Cyprus, and introduced him as the finest leader he has ever come across.
Sir Nick spoke about how much of what he did in uniform carries straight over into the commercial world, and how the skills a service career builds are far more transferable than most people leaving ever realise. He shared anecdotes and lessons from a life in leadership, the good, the bad and the ugly, and did not dress any of it up.
What landed most was his take on leadership itself. His point was that real leadership is a balance: the confidence and authority to lead from the front when it is needed, held together with the humility and compassion to do it well. Coming from someone who has led at the very top, and taken people to places most of us never will, it carried real weight.
The company in the room
An evening like this only works because of who turns up, and we were lucky with who did. Friends and partners in the room included Pink Frog Studio, 242, S2K, Barham Protection Services, Belgraves of London and Pegasus Ops.
Left to right: Sam Hembury (co-founder), Fraser Coleman (founder), our guest speaker Sir Nick Borton, and Alice Coleman (partnerships).
Most of them are competitors on paper. A few of them bid against each other for the same work. They came anyway, and stood in the same room sharing what they know, because they believe the same thing we do: there is strength in collaboration over competition. That is not a slogan for us, it is the whole way the thing is built, and nights like this are where you actually see it.
What we took from it
The feedback afterwards was brilliant, and every bit of it pointed the same way. Chilled, supportive, meaningful. People did not just show their face and move on. They sat and talked properly with someone who has been where they are, which is worth a good deal more.
This was the first of these, and it will not be the last. There will be more Open Comms, in more places, and they will get bigger. If you missed this one, do not miss the next.
This is by the community, for the community. It always has been.
Whether you are on your way out of service, already working in the industry, or just want to see what we are about, you are welcome. Keep an eye on theopscon.com/events for the next one, and come and meet the team.
At a glance
Open Comms is our new event series. The first was held at our HQ at Battersea Power Station, open to everyone, not just members.
No agenda, no sales pitch, nobody working the room. Just like-minded people sharing stories over a drink.
The room mixed partners, working members, and people who have just left or are weighing up leaving service, from the military and the Met.
Fraser spoke on why he built the Ops Con: not a programme, but a community of people who have helped others, helping each other.
Our guest speaker, Lieutenant General Sir Nick Borton KCB DSO MBE, spoke on transferable skills and leadership as a balance of authority, humility and compassion.
Partners in the room included Pink Frog Studio, 242, S2K, Barham Protection Services, Belgraves of London and Pegasus Ops, competitors on paper, collaborators in practice.
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive: chilled, supportive and meaningful.
This was the first of many. Keep an eye on theopscon.com/events for the next one.
