It All Began In 2013
You Are The Media started in October 2013. Here is what the very first email looked liked. Would you subscribe to this? No thought not.
A Book In 2015
The Content Revolution was published that set out the principals of building you own audience and to grow your business by having the proof that people will stick by you (in hindsight, it should have been called You Are The Media!).
Lunch Club in 2016
In May 2016 we had the first You Are The Media Lunch Club at Steele Raymond and Oli Perron from Lunchd was the first guest. There were 22 people who turned up. It is still going strong today.
Found A Home
As Lunch Club started building momentum, the team at Media Lounge helped give the live event a new home. Thanks to Marcus Wincott for making this happen.
A New Look
One thing has always remained constant, the weekly You Are The Media email. It is still sent every Thursday (apart from a Christmas break and after the YATM Conference), here is how it looked in 2017.
Podcast In 2017
As more people were subscribing, it was time to introduce the You Are The Media Podcast and speak to those people who are creating and doing good work when it comes to creating a narrative. The first guest was Ian Rhodes.
It Changed Again
At the end of 2017 and 2018 the email started to have a new look. Not quite there, but represents these tiny changes that have always been a part of You Are The Media.
Awards In 2017
By the end of 2017 it was evident there was an audience who felt a part of YATM and belonged to something. We had an awards evening during December 2017 to recognise those who were part of the community. Here is Fleur Cook who won the Rising Star Award.
A Conference Idea
During 2017, there was an idea to put on a conference in a 19th century theatre on the clifftop (Shelley Theatre’s first performance was 1850).
New Podcast Host
In 2018, it was time to recognise that for You Are The Media to work, it had to be led by other people. Here is Chris Huskins who is host of the YATM Podcast.
First YATM Website
Originally, this site you are now on was just for the YATM Conference. It didn’t house the blog, the podcasts and the events, just a place for info on the conference.
Conference In 2018
During May 2018 we had the very first You Are The Media Conference that brought speakers from overseas and within the UK to head to the seaside. It was fantastic to have Mark Schaefer over from the US.
Didn't Win Award
In 2018, You Are The Media was up for an award in the Dorset Business Awards in the Creative Impact Category. We didn’t win, the award went to work for The Commonwealth Games.
The YATM Social
Kerrie Reeves had the idea to introduce the YATM Social in 2018. It’s a way to bring people together on a Friday. No agenda, no talking shop, a way to get to know others better.
Here's Oli
When we have YATM Lunch Club, food is such an important part, it’s when people sit together and chat. This is looked after by Oli from Lunchd.
A New Look In 2019
At the start of 2019, the weekly You Are The Media email had a look that everyone is familiar with today. Thanks to Lee Groombridge for the idea of adding quick links at the very top of the email for the busy people (that certainly worked with extra click throughs).
Trevor Came Over
The PR Warrior, Trevor Young, was travelling throughout Europe and stopped over in Bournemouth for the YATM 2019 Kick Off event, in January.
SchaefAtTheSeaside
We started the month of the You Are The Media Conference (during May) with a visit from our good friend, Mark Schaefer, who delivered his Marketing Rebellion talk. He received a standing ovation from 5,000 at Social Media Marketing World, he got the same at Urban Reef, right on the promenade.
Conference in 2019
The 2019 You Are The Media Conference brought more great speakers to the seaside, including Andrew & Pete, Margaret Magnarelli, Janet Murray, Jake Moore, Doug Kessler, Steven Lamb and Jon Burkhart.
Focus Group
Always important to get feedback from others and make sure that the direction You Are The Media sales in, is what people want. During the summer of 2019, we had a focus group on the intentions to introduce workshops to the YATM activity.
Disaster
In the summer of 2019, the YATM email subscriber main database was deleted by mistake, no back up. It was built again, but lost 1,200 people in the process.
It's Better Together
The world is better when you don’t live it behind a screen. So many people are part of YATM, the reason it works is because of the people who are part of it.
Said Hello To Bristol
In February 2020, we launched our second YATM home, in Bristol. We tried to launch it in October 2019, but only six people booked (read here), so we cancelled. Three months later, we sold out. We now have a second home! Love Bristol.
We Won't Be Broken
As the Coronavirus brought the world to a standstill from March 2020, it presented the perfect opportunity to introduce YATM Lunch Club Online. Same lunchtime format but now our main guests are from around the world and we have a wider reach.
We Keep On Going
To everyone who reads the email, listens to the podcast, comes to the live events, thank you so much for being a part of this. The digital world has supposed to have made the world smaller, it has also made people detached from each other. Let’s see if we can address that.
