April 2025 Newsletter
Message from the co-ordinators
We know we said we’d switch to doing newsletters every two months, but we wanted to create an opportunity to more widely share about the Genotin Road hot desks that are now available for ex-Metaswitch and ex-AFO employees. They’re also investigating making this available in the Edinburgh office. Take a look at the Discord post for more information.
What a great way to keep connected with others in this community! There’s also plenty of updates from recent local meet-ups that we wanted to share, as well as news about upcoming events!
Local Upcoming Events
Cambridge
Cambridge are very active so check out the #cambridge-events channel on Discord to keep up to date.
Edinburgh
May meet-up
We’re aiming to organise a more active meet-up for May, something along the lines of bowling, mini golf or laser tag. More information to follow in the very near future!
Keep an eye on WhatsApp and the #scoff-chat channel on Discord for updates!
Enfield/London
As trailed above, the most exciting Enfield news is that Alianza have agreed to allow former employees of AFO/Metaswitch to use hotdesks in the Enfield office. Full details on Discord but the aim behind this is to give people who live locally but work remotely, a place to work with people around them and also add to the Enfield office community. It’s not too late to sign up - so get in touch with James Cox if you want to join.
Details of the monthly pub trip should appear on #enfield-london-events on Discord in the next couple of days. Current provisional date is Friday 2 May. Pub TBC. Thanks to Andrew Robinson Hodges for organising!
A reminder that there are regular lunchtime sports still going on in Enfield. Check out the #enfield-london-sports channel on Discord if you’re interested. All abilities welcome and you don’t need to be a MSFT employee to come along!
Things you can get involved with
We’re looking for a new local meetup rep for the London and/or Enfield areas so if you’re interested in helping ensure regular alumni meetups happen in this area, get in touch!
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Events round up
Edinburgh
Scoff Wine - Along with the Scoff Whisky group I mentioned in the last newsletter, we now also have a Scoff Wine group. On April 3rd, we held our second Scoff Wine meet-up and Sven, our local qualified wine connoisseur, brought along a selection of 8 different wines for us to try including an orange wine, a sparkling red and a port. Steven Taylor hosted us all and put on a great cheese and charcuterie board!
April meet-up at the Hanover Tap - On April 9th we had a meet-up at the Hanover Tap pub in Edinburgh. Around 12 people turned up and enjoyed a couple of drinks and some food before they put on a football match which drowned out all conversation!
Enfield/London
Pub meet thanks to Andrew Robinson Hodges
Aksular lunch thanks to Ken
Belle organised a fantastic meet-up in Market Halls near Oxford Circus which was well attended and a great time! Such a good time that we sadly forgot to get photo evidence…
Updates from the community
Job updates
There have been a couple of new job updates shared in the Discord channel lately including:
Jim Wilkinson starting as an Engineering Manager at LocalStack
Tracey Smith starting as a Business Admin at Alianza
Steve Orbell starting as an Engineering Manager at Hargreaves Lansdown
Chris Paterson starting back at Alianza
Hazel Tyler starting as a Business Analyst at Jigsaw24
Keep sharing your updates, we love hearing where everyone is moving to!!
Other updates
If you have any updates that you’d like to be included in the next newsletter then email metaswitchalumni@substack.com or message Alice Walker on Discord! There’s also a #job-and-life-updates channel on Discord if you want a more low-key way of sharing news and keeping up with others.