After the great success of the last MiniBar and of course the monumental moment the official mini-bar community was launched on Webjam, it seems only natural I should wax lyrical on the future of web start-ups in the big smoke. After hearing the presentations (and the bantering background noise at the bar) it is clear that the enthusiasm for the future of our young industry is not waning.

I am sure that you enjoyed the presentation of ‘Web-Yam’ (aka Webjam) by the indomitable Spaniard Alberto Barreiro, co-founder and Creative Director as much as I did. During which, - I am sure like me, the concept of Webjam lit flames of ingenuity in your mind like a match to a petroleum canister. Quite seriously though, the mini-bar event presents us with a real vat of talent and product that can be integrated with our oh-so flexible platform.

After the launch of our Strawberry platform and the encouraging reviews we received, it became very clear to us we had struck a real chord in the industry – and internally with a now-stable platform (not for a minute suggesting that the initial beta version was not!), it set our eyes, ears and minds to the task of how we can take Webjam to the uber-mainstream and how we can use the talent around us in our fair city to take us there. Understanding if not anticipating the needs of the (novice) internet user with a purpose through a powerful and nonetheless easy-to-use service remains the goal which drives us. Thankfully the growing flow of testimonials we now receive every day shows that we are heading in the right direction by making it easy to answer the basic question : what do I want to share with whom, how and why.

Now deep into 2008 we keep building Webjam thinking that the social networking market is going to evolve into a more mature social publishing market, something we are proving ourselves with the recent online launch of a London magazine on Webjam, which publishes the user-generated content from its community (www.theothersidemag.co.uk).