Podge: Simply The Best Annual Lunch Events

Podge: Simply The Best Annual Lunch Events

Podge: Simply The Best Annual Lunch Events

Phil Jones, otherwise known as the Podge Father talks to International eXCellence Magazine about the brilliant Podge lunches he founded 20 years ago for leaders in the fields of sport, media, digital and now music. The Podge lunches are brilliant events with fascinating people where fun and enjoyment come first. It's worth attending simply for the pleasure of meeting the founder Phil Jones who is a London legend (albeit a Mancunian).
The first Podge lunch was held at Quaglino’s in 1994 for 30 senior people from the world of design and celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2014.
 
Digital Podge is 12 years old and started out life at the Atlantic Bar & Grill for about 60 leaders from the world of digital. The theme for the 2014 lunch in November will be SURVEILLANCE.
 
Sports Podge is 10 years old and started out life at Langan’s for around 70 senior people from sport. All three annual lunches are now 250 guests and are held at the IoD on Pall Mall.  The guest list for Sports Podge 2014 is still live on http://www.sportspodge.co.uk/2014/athletes/ the theme was The commonwealth of Podge and we created 24 new countries with their own flags, each table in the room was a country, great fun.
As a Mancunian who grew up on a diet of pies and pints in the sixties I had a lot of mates who had developed nicely shaped podge bellies. And as my gathering of the great and the good at Terence Conran's newly opened Quaglino's in 1994 was meant to be a one-off I had a bit of fun and named it The Podge Lunch.
I also set out the Podge Rules (splitting the bill, moving between courses etc etc) and as it was in the era before mobile phones and email the rules were posted or faxed to the 30 highly regarded designers who made up that first gathering.
We all realised during the course of that very long lunch/supper that the people at the top rarely get to meet their counterparts at rival agencies and the amount of lifetime friendships that were forged that day was a real treat to be part of.
Since that day the lunch has thrown up all sorts of allegiances, including two weddings with five children between them. the two pregnant ladies bringing a new meaning to Podge.
12 years ago the digital community were going through the same issues, they all knew who their rivals were but rarely got a chance to meet them other than at awards ceremonies sat on different tables. Digital Podge was born in 2003 and with the advantage of emails, mobiles and other means of communication it flew off the track with a vengeance and is now 12 years old and a real whose-who of movers and shakers from the world of interactive.
Sports Podge will be celebrating it's 10th anniversary next year and despite the elevated status of the guests, world record holders, Olympians, TV personalities etc they all buy into the concept of meeting their peers (not to mention heroes) in the special environment that a Podge lunch seems to bring out in everyone.
20 years on from the first podge lunch we organized a fun golf day at the stunning Stoke Park and pitted four teams against each other representing Design, Digital, Sport & Stodge lunches. It was also the 50th anniversary of James Bond Goldfinger being filmed at Stoke Park and we had our own Bond characters playing for the hell of it on a gloriously sunny day. A far cry from the design legends who kicked off the podge lnches back in 1994.
The North of England design and digital communities wanted their own version and five years ago we created Stodge Podge and the award winning Harvey Nichols chef makes sure the menu emulates what the name says on the can.
 
We made the decision to have our first Music Podge at The Café Royal. The club director Ian Palmer hosted several of the Podge lunches at The Arts Club in Dover Street and completely gets it. He thought it would be lovely to host a music & entertainments version at his venue and as I originally came to London to become a songwriter back when Elton John had a voice I have always fancied doing something fun as a non-commercial venture.
 
So that’s the background, the Podge lunches work because we choose great people, split the bill between us all, the guests are always a great mix who want to have fun and meet others from the same industry. Normally when these people get to go to events where there are auctions, speeches, sponsors etc and they don’t get a chance to just chat to people at their level in a relaxed environment. The food is always exceptional and the vibe in the room is brilliant.
 
So Music Podge. In 1973 David Bowie famously retired Ziggy Stardust at The Café Royal and invited his mates from the music industry, see http://www.5years.com/supper.htm. It famously became known as THE LAST SUPPER.
 
The guest list of those who attended in July 1973 was a virtual Who's Who of top music and film celebrities in London at the time and included: Paul and Linda McCartney, Keith Moon, Lulu, Tony Curtis, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, The Goodies, Cat Stevens, Ringo and Maureen Starr, Mick and Bianca Jagger, Jeff Beck, Lou Reed, Barbara Streisand (she was in London to film a TV special), Ryan O'Neil, Sonny Bono, Elliot Gould, Britt Ekland, Spike Milligan, Hywel Bennet, DA Pennebaker and Dr John who supplied the live music for the evening.
 
Music Podge is themed THE FIRST SUPPER. Bringing a great music crowd back to The Café Royal for a long, long lunch with no agenda, no speeches, no auctions, just a superb venue, great food and wine and a high quality guest list from the music world. The guest list for the first lunch is on www.musicpodge.com/lineup/ and an illustrious list it is.
www.podgelunch.com
Screencult put together a short video of Design Podge day at Royal Thames Yacht Club: http://bit.ly/podge2014
www.digitalpodge.co.uk
www.sportspodge.co.uk
www.musicpodge.com
www.stodgepodge.com