SPI and the SYP On The Town

Posted on July 2, 2006 in Uncategorized

Note from Web-Editor: The London SYP-ers are a well-travelled bunch, and enjoy nothing more than spreading the literary love – so we thought you might appreciate a report of what happened when we met our Irish cousins late last year… oh, and keep an eye on the Events page for upcoming expeditions.

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On the first Saturday in October (2005), the Society of Young Publishers (SYP) flew to Dublin to have a pint (or two!) of the black stuff with the Society of Publishers in Ireland (SPI). We were also there to help the SPI blow out the candles on their second birthday cake, and see how the two societies could work more closely together in the future. 

Founded in 2002, the SPI is a networking society for all those working in publishing and related industries. Much like the SYP, the society is a non-profit-making organisation, run voluntarily by a committee drawn from the trade. Reading the SPI website before I left for Dublin, I was pleased to find the following raison d’être for their organisation:

‘…giving people the chance to meet each other at informal social events will promote greater understanding throughout the industry and encourage a sense of cohesion and cooperation across the board. It will also, we hope, make working in the industry even more enjoyable.’

We were all looking forward to the trip enormously, and it was clear that, with the SPI’s philosophy on things, we would have a lot in common, both in terms of what we wanted to achieve with our organisations and the kind of people that ran them.

Due to work commitments and varying degrees of preparation (ahem!), the SYP committee and members who came to Dublin arrived over the course of several days and were scattered right across the city. Some stayed with friends, others chose backpacker hostels in the heart of Dublin’s lively Temple Bar area, and the latecomers eventually found lodgings some twenty miles from Dublin airport and a good eight miles from the city centre. These trifling logistical problems were laid to one side along with the best-intentioned sightseeing plans as some of us stepped into one of Dublin’s many fine pubs that Saturday afternoon, for a quick Guinness ahead of the evening’s party. 

The warm and welcoming atmosphere of the Dublin pub cannot be overstated. When one of our party clumsily spilt his pint of Guinness across the table whilst busy admiring a picture of himself drinking the aforementioned pint on his digital camera, the reaction from the bar staff was not at all what we expected. The good-humoured landlord came over and expertly stemmed the flow of the black and white frothy tide that was now cascading over the table edge onto our knees. He then refilled the upset pint for free, enquired if we were fine for drinks and asked us to give him a shout when we needed a cab later on. Needless to say, had such heroism been exhibited by a London landlord toward a hapless tourist, his face would have been splashed across the front page of The Evening Standard’s West End final!

While some of us supped, others took a sightseeing bus around the city, had a tour of the Guinness factory, visited the memorial gardens and bookshops, and had a very pleasant trip to Haagen-Dazs!

At seven o’clock that evening, at the Auld Dubliner on Temple Bar, the SYP gathered together before heading en masse for the SPI party at Café en Seine on Dawson Street. None of us were prepared for the wonderful venue that the SPI had chosen for the party. Café en Seine is purported to be ‘one of the most spectacular cafe bars in Europe’. Whether or not this is true, the place was a feast for the eyes due to its sheer opulence and size. It was, as one commentator put it, ‘like being transported back to the heady days of early 19th century Paris’: the decadent art deco interior boasted huge murals, marble busts, enormous mirrors and a 40ft glass atrium with outsize tropical ferns sprouting up in between ornate brass chandeliers that were slung low from the arched roof. Spread over three floors opening into the atrium, we eventually found our hosts on a wide balcony overlooking the slowly filling bar below. With DJs, drinking and dancing carrying on till 3am, a card behind the bar and some truly lovely Irish hosts, I couldn’t help thinking that the first meeting of the SPI and the SYP could only be a roaring success (or become infamous for all the wrong reasons!).

The guests at this joint birthday/welcome celebration came from right across the trade. From agents, rights executives and editors to marketing and publicity people – there was a welcome for even the most backward of minglers. The evening started very well, and so sociable were our hosts that old university friends Claire Shanahan (SYP Social Secretary) and Suzanna (SPI Committee Member) who masterminded the trip didn’t get a chance to have a good chat for quite a few hours into the party.  

Susan Rossney, co-founding member of the SPI, was delighted to see that so many of us had made the effort to come and meet them in Dublin. Susan, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and Oxford Brookes University, has worked in publishing for over six years. She explained how the SPI has formed close links with the large Irish publishers and been able to gain financial support and credibility through their involvement with the society. Such support is hard to find and we were all impressed by the way in which the SPI has achieved so much in just a few years.

Another co-founder, Emma Byrne, has worked in publishing for five years, and before that she worked on newspapers. Emma talked about how much the SPI has benefited from being inclusive in its membership policy. As a designer and artist she was able to bring skills to the society that no one else could, and she went on to give several other examples of this situation. The point wasn’t lost on us, as we are looking for people with design experience to help with everything from SYP marketing to web design.

SYP Chair, Victoria Nicholl, was seen lost in conversation for a long time with the SPI co-founder and secretary, Rachel Pierce, discussing the future of the societies and a closer association in the near future. Rachel mentioned that the SPI would be following InPrint’s example by publishing a quarterly newsletter for its members, though they will begin with an online version.

After a good few hours mingling, drinking and mini-sausage-on-stick-munching, it was time to cut the birthday cake and toast the SPI’s good health. An enormous chocolate and cream cake topped with silver ball lettering was sliced and distributed to us all before our glasses were charged once again for some serious drinking – Dublin style. As 3am approached, the SYP were flagging (tired, drunk or both), while our hosts looked like they had only just arrived. We eventually took our leave, thanked our hosts and scattered back across the city for a well-earned rest.

I hope that the SYP can learn from the SPI’s hospitality and from their ideas on sponsorship and socialising, and put it all to good use in next year’s calendar. For those members who didn’t come to Dublin, you missed a great night and I hope that you will come along to the next social event in London or Oxford soon. There was much talk about the SYP hosting an event for the SPI in London, so watch this space and get actively involved with helping us arrange a memorable event.

It may be a cliché that the Irish are an extremely friendly bunch and it may be libellous to suggest that all publishers drink like fish, but whatever the truth is … we all enjoyed the craic. I would like to extend a thank you to all those on the SPI committee from all of us at the SYP for a truly wonderful night in Dublin.