London tech firm launches Nottingham operation

A London business which has developed ways of boosting attendance at business-to-business events has moved into Accelerate Places Nottingham.

Gleanin uses technology centred on social media to drive attendance at large-scale exhibitions and conferences, working with some of the biggest names in event organisation including UBM, Clarion and Easyfairs.

One of its founders, Ajay Mathur, has now launched a Nottingham office at Accelerate Places on Wollaton Street.

“I love working from Accelerate Places – I’m surrounded by companies at a similar stage to ours and have interesting conversations on a daily basis,” Mathur explained.

As Gleanin’s chief operating officer, Mathur has been based in London but decided to move to Nottingham because of its reputation as a tech centre which offers a better quality of life.

“London is one of the world’s great cities and it has a big tech community,” he said. “But it’s not so great when you have a young family – it’s expensive and my wife and I were starting to get worried about schools.”

He believes other London companies could make the move too as remote technologies enable them to stay connected but operate from lower cost locations which have a better quality of life.

Gleanin achieves a median increase of 5% in the numbers of people attending large-scale events – a figure which is rising all the time. It does this through referral marketing driven by social media widgets which its technology team has developed.

Mathur said: “The principle behind Gleanin is similar to word-of-mouth. For example, if you got a flier about a new restaurant opening you are unlikely to give it much attention, but if a friend tells you they’re going or they’ve had a fabulous meal there you’re much more likely to make a booking.

“It’s the same with major events – people are more likely to go if there’s someone they know there. So we ‘nudge’ people into registering for exhibitions and conferences via a social media account like Facebook or LinkedIn, and use that to show them who else is going along – which encourages them to spread the word and invite others.”

Gleanin has moved beyond start-up and is now in scale-up mode, with more than 80 events live at any one time across Europe. Its backers include Lord Hollick, the former CEO of UBM plc, Paul Birch of BirthdayAlarm.com and Bebo.com, and institutional investors EC1 Capital.

Mark Sanders, chief executive of Accelerate Places, said: “We launched Accelerate Places Nottingham based on the success we have enjoyed with a similar model in Hammersmith, London, where the next generation of scale-up businesses can come together to exploit the potential of the digital revolution.

“Gleanin’s presence here is a perfect example of what co-working space is about. It’s got exactly the kind of stimulating environment that these businesses look for, but it’s in a city which is much better value and much more liveable than London.”

Gleanin says it is continuing to expand their team and they’re currently recruiting for Ruby Developers to help with their next phase of growth.