BigShinyThing

In a bid to turn the Facebook trend into something useful, the club in London (which holds events such as the recent Banksy/Warhol face-off) has launched a social networking site. The difference between the Hospital Club Online and the likes of Facebook is that the former is what the club’s CEO, Will Turner, terms “a walled garden”: in order to join up you either have to be a member of the club (at a cost of £600 a year), or you have to be signed in by a member, each of whom is allowed up to four invitees.

We want to ensure that people who join are the right people, that they are in the creative industries and that they are truly creative. This is not about adding hundreds of thousands of people each day, it’s about adding tens of people who we have checked out”

The site, he says, will allow media people the “opportunity to promote yourself and your services to a community of your peers”.

However, there is a philathropic element to their plans. The ethos of the Hospital is to encourage its members to also put something back into the creative industries, particularly by mentoring Britain’s up-and-coming talent. So the social networking site, which will also be home to some 30 blogs divulging gossip on all sectors of the creative industries, is designed to allow members under 30 (who get half-price subscription) and other young invitees to target the more well-known and successful in their sector and to seek from them “insight and intelligence”.

Turner says:

We don’t want to be for people who are sitting there smugly having made their fortune. We want people who are actively engaged, who are excited about hanging out and interacting with people who have yet to make it, and who are younger, frankly.

And they really mean it. This week is one of the biggest in the Hospital Club calendar, when it distributes its annual awards to those deemed to have made the biggest contributions in television, publishing, journalism, interactive media, advertising, film, art, design, theatre and fashion. Turner says: “We say to the winners, ‘If you are going to say “yes” to winning this award, then you have to commit to spend some time mentoring during the year.’ I have been pleasantly surprised that everyone so far has agreed.”

Source: The Independent.