This article was published on March 21, 2013

Technology jobs fair Silicon Milkroundabout becomes a startup to support London’s Tech City


Technology jobs fair Silicon Milkroundabout becomes a startup to support London’s Tech City

For any tech startup in the UK, undergoing a fresh recruitment drive can be a major headache. Silicon Milkroundabout has been making this task easier for the last couple of years, however, by running a free jobs fair that matches up firms with developers, product managers and designers.

Today, it’s launching as a stand-alone company and also hiring a full-time team. The effect should be more events, on a much larger scale.

“The growth of Tech City is phenomenal, but we are struggling to match the number of developers, engineers and designers required for this growth to be sustainable,” Pete Smith, co-founder of Silicon Milkroundabout and COO of Songkick said. “Our focus will be to help startups find the talent they need by offering more events and resources full-time.”

silicon1

Smith, along with fellow Songkick co-founder Ian Hogarth, came up with the Silicon Milkroundabout concept in a London pub. The first event was launched in May 2011, and brought together 40 startups with 100 job openings.

The twice-annual event now hosts up to 150 startups, with the most recent outing in November last year showcasing 900 jobs to over 2,500 candidates in the fields of product design and software engineering.

In many ways, Tech City, a media and technology hub stretching from Old Street to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, still feels a community struggling to find its voice.

Any events or gatherings that can bring some of its most recognizable brands together will help to boost its self-contained eco-system, and of course attract more top-class programmers and designers to the area.

silicon2

The next event, scheduled for May 11-12 this year, should see a dizzying number of technology firms including Badoo, Mind Candy and Moo.com on site to entice new candidates from across the UK and Europe.

Day one is tailored towards product management, UX design, intelligence/analytics and growth hacking, while day two will be focused on software engineering, web development and testing.

What’s interesting is that the Silicon Milkroundabout model has been so successful that it’s spawned a number of similar events around the UK, including the Silicon Milkround Cambridge.

“We still feel like we are just channelling that energy but it is so much stronger now, and deserves to be properly looked after,” Smith added. “With the tech ecosystem going from strength to strength the time is right for us to launch Silicon Milkroundabout as a startup in its own right.”

Image Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Get the TNW newsletter

Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.