A Jelly is born

How Colleen set up Taunton Jelly

Colleen Skinner recently moved to Taunton and set up Taunton Jelly. I asked her how she found the experience and what advice she’d give to aspiring Jelly organisers:

What made you decide to start Taunton Jelly?
I attended a couple of Jelly events in Winchester, and having relocated to Taunton, decided it would be a great thing to do. I find it quite isolating working from home, especially in a new town where I don’t know many people or places yet.  

What were the biggest helps/hindrances to you when you started to organise it?
There weren’t many hindrances at all to be honest. I set it up within just a few days of deciding to do it. I approached the first venue that came to mind, Cosy Club Taunton, went to view The Den there and have a chat to the Manager about it, and they agreed it would be a great idea.  
Following that I set up an Eventbrite page, got tweeting via my personal Twitter account and then set up a Twitter account for @TauntonJelly. It is an incredibly easy thing to do! 

What’s the best piece of advice you’d give someone thinking of starting Jelly?
Don’t let the idea that nobody will attend or you won’t have enough people put you off. I decided that I would make it a monthly event even if nobody showed up to the first one.  We had 7 people at our first event, some of whom only came for a few hours.
Think about the type of people you want – niche or varied – I wanted a real mixed bag of people from artists to techies. Many people work very happily and successfully without immersing themselves in social media, and so I have had some mini moo.com cards made up to promote the event to those who may not be online. 

What do you get from Jelly?
I really enjoy promoting, start up, social media, community and chatting – organising Taunton Jelly ticks all those boxes.

What are your plans for the future – both work and Jelly?
I plan to continue developing Splash Clean, my business in Hampshire, and to continue hosting and spreading the word about Taunton Jelly.  I don’t feel you need a large amount of people to make a Jelly successful. Going from working alone at home to working in a room of as little as 4 or 5 people is still a great positive change, and different people come and go.  If I could regularly have a minimum of 10-12 people at a Taunton Jelly I would be over the moon! 

Many thanks to Colleen for sharing her Jelly experiences. To find your nearest Jelly, check out the UK Jelly site. If there isn’t one locally and you fancy setting up your own, have a look at my How to Start Your Own Jelly guide. And if you have any questions, join the Jelly organisers Linkedin group and ask more than 80 members for the benefit of their experience. (Much as I’d like to, there’s no way I can advise on all new Jelly groups!)