London Nightlife Taskforce - Meeting Minutes (February 2025)

Date
24 February 2025

Time
1pm

Location
Union Street and Microsoft Teams

Members of the Taskforce
Cameron Leslie (Chair) - Co-founder and Director, fabric
Alice Hoffmann-Fuller - Consultant
Georgina Wald - Corp Comms Manager at Fuller, Smith & Turner PLC
Lily London - DJ, Radio Host, Organiser and Promoter
Mike Kill - CEO, Night Time Industries Association (NTIA)
Nadine Noor - Founder, Pxssy Palace
Nathanael Williams - Founder, Colour Factory
Provhat Rahman - Founder, Daytimers Collective
Sam Spencer - Head of Operations, Broadwick Live
Sophie Brownlee - External Affairs Manager, Music Venue Trust (MVT)

Apologies
Kate Nichols - CEO, UK Hospitality

Secretariat
Paul Broadhurst - Manager, 24 Hour London
Sam Mathys - Senior Policy Officer, 24 Hour London
Julieta Cuneo - Policy Officer, 24 Hour London
Francesca Gluščević - Policy Officer, 24 Hour London

Guests
Lutz Leichsenring - VibeLab 
Amir Salem - VibeLab
Julian Siravo - Autonomy
Tony Sophoclides - UK Hospitality

Introduction
Welcome from Cameron Leslie, Chair

Introductions from all attendees.

Item 1: Research Themes, Scope and Priorities
Proposed research themes, timelines, future meeting dates and scope for the London Nightlife Research project were presented. 6 research themes were agreed by the group. Taskforce members were asked to confirm which if the research subgroups they would be involved in. All agreed the importance of Nightlife communities feed in and shape recommendations.

Item 2: Member role and responsibilities
Members had received requests for support from nightlife colleagues. All agreed that these should be routed to the GLA and other relevant colleagues (e.g. Music Venue Trust Emergency Response Service) or encouraged to feed into the engagement programme once it is launched in Spring. The role of the Taskforce members is not to support individual venues but to create a strategic plan that integrates all 6 themes that have been identified.

Item 3: Research Definitions
Definitions of nightlife were discussed. The following were provisionally agreed:

• nightlife includes activity between 6am – 6pm, where possible measured in 3-hour increments
• If a venue has programming as a feature of how it operates at night, it is a nightlife venue
• definitions of nightlife must be clear and flexible, to capture the diversity of London’s nightlife offer
• ensure the research aligns with international standards where possible by adopting shared definitions and methodologies used in other cities. This will enhance comparability, allowing for benchmarking and the exchange of best practice.
• ensure that different types of venues are adequately represented, such as pubs and bars

Item 4: Communications
Members are keen for public and other stakeholders to be able to sign up for news and updates, as well as express their interest in engaging in the research and providing ideas and feedback. A website and the use of the London Nightlife Taskforce Newsletter was proposed, concerns were raised about data sharing.

Conclusion
Members were thanked for their contribution to the first meeting. All future meetings are now scheduled, and the next one will take place on 1 April 2025.

• Taskforce members to propose stakeholders within their networks, who would be interested in research participation
• 24 Hour London team to present a proposal on how stakeholders can express interest in research participation and feedback
• 24 Hour London team to diarise research subgroup meetings
• VibeLab to present definition of Nightlife to Taskforce members for agreement.