what's it all about? #podgehistory

The first Podge Lunch for the creative community took place in the private room of Quaglino's 18 years ago in 1994 and Digital Podge hit the ground running in December 2003 at the Atlantic Bar & Grill. It coincided with me retiring and becoming one of those "non-exec types" who get paid for what they know rather than what they do and on our upcoming 10th anniversary of Digital Podge I was very proud to be Inducted to the Digital Hall of Fame 2012

A lot has happened in digital since the first Digital Podge lunch, not least that the publisher and editor-in-chief of New Media Age who encouraged me to organise the first one are no longer with Centaur, and neither is NMA itself. The merger of Centaur & Econsultancy heralds "all change" and it's nice that representatives from the past and present will all be with us at this year's lunch on 23rd November.

The raison d'être for the Podge Lunch has not changed since its inception in 1994, the aim is to bring together leaders in the field to enjoy a long afternoon chatting to people at the same level who have the same issues as they do and to share war stories and plan for the coming year with new ideas. Many collaborations have come out of the annual lunch not to mention two weddings, three babies and one on the way. No speakers, no raffles, no auctions, a superbly designed theme for each lunch and above all FUN. Usual Podge rules apply, nobody gets to choose who they sit next to and half way through the lunch half of the 240 guests will be asked to change tables. Those that don't obey the rules don't get to come again, Podge rules are very strict.