Brits in LA turned 15 this week!
A big thank you to everyone who has joined us on this journey. When we first started out we had no idea that we would last this long and certainly didn’t consider we would one day have over 17,000 members!
I think our first official event was ‘Brits go to Mexico’. Craig and I rounded up a small group of approximately 20 – 30 people and hung out at a Mexican restaurant in Beverly Hills. It was such a nice night that we organized another jaunt. This one was called “Brits go to Memphis” which as I am sure you can guess was at a Southern style restaurant, this time over in Hollywood. To our surprise a huge crowd showed up – attendees from the last event brought their friends and everyone had so much fun they made us promise to organize another night out. Which of course we did!
Our initial plan was to explore the city of Los Angeles together and issued our friends an open invitation to join us. Looking back, I think one of the reasons for the popularity of our gatherings was that the majority of our circle were new to town and wanted a guide but the key component was the advancement in technology. We had all just got the hang of texting, instant messaging and following each other on MySpace. Not to mention the introduction of the Blackberry phone which really did give you the whole world at your fingertips.
Then along came Facebook and suddenly friends were able to invite their friends to our meet ups and before you knew it we were at 400 members. It only took a couple of years before we were in the thousands. With hindsight I would say the main reason we grew so rapidly is because of our open door/everyone is welcome policy. We always said ‘you don’t have to be British, you just have to like us’ whereas most organizations required you to fit a certain criteria – e.g. be a British expat, alumnus, an actor or at least in the industry and more often a rather steep membership fee to even get a look in. A lot of this still stands today – which can make it really difficult for those of us not in ‘the business’ to find a community we can fit into. Los Angeles can be such a daunting place, especially if you don’t really know anyone. Over the years we’ve had countless people contact us because they are in some kind of bind and they mostly want just a bit of advice but didn’t know where else to go – so don’t forget we are always here for you, and if it’s not urgent head over to our Facebook forums as our members are a mine of information and most can give far better advice than either Craig or I could.
As you can imagine this milestone has reminded me of how extremely proud and grateful I am to Brits in LA as I think my LA story could have been a very different one if it wasn’t around and I know many of you feel the same way. So let’s keep up the good work and see how we can build on it.
It is still just Craig and I running it so if any of you would like to get more involved please do get in touch – you can email us at hello@britsin.la – We definitely need some help planning our World Cup parties for later this year! Is it coming home (again)?
Cheers!
Eileen
