When I was in my final year of University, I based one of my French speaking presentations on Marne-La-Vallée, a massive urban planning project that took place in the eastern outskirts of Paris in the 1980s. The project was the largest such project undertaken within France via partnership with a private corporation — The Walt Disney Corporation. Although a cultural dichotomy (concerns of American cultural imperialism were already bubbling in France), the project has been mostly hailed as a success on the urban planning front, especially when compared to the disaster that was Disney's first attempt at building an entirely new town from scratch, Celebration, on home turf in Florida. I find the tricky balance of political, economic, architectural and social interests fascinating when it comes to this topic, with the Disney projects providing a great jumping off point for my interest in the topic.

I'll never forget watching a video on the New Yorker's website about the light in LA. I was in the peak of my Instagram addiction, and also living in the most photogenic city in the world (Paris). All it takes is to catch the breathtaking way the light reflects off the limestone facade of the Haussmann architecture at sunrise or sunset to know that no city beats Paris when it comes to the light. And so kickstarted my habit of sunrise and sunset walks, as a time to think and reflect, but also as a time to capture the light in Paris. Because it's perfect.

I ran competitively through high school, then fell completely out of love with it at University, but then back in love with it as I dotted around Paris, New York, and San Francisco. Initially it was my way to explore a new city, but then when lock down hit, it was the only way for me to legally get out of the house. I'm now thoroughly back in love with it. It's literally free endorphins.

A quick copy paste of my experience and projects to date, so that you don't have to endure the pain of opening LinkedIn:

🍦 Zenly, Brand Marketing (Paris)

I look after all things brand marketing :)

🤷‍♀️ Shrug Capital, Calendar Specialist (The Internet)

During my time at Shrug, I worked on the creation and distribution of the Shrug Calendar. Outside of my calendar responsibilities, I talked to founders, helped out with diligence, and had the great pleasure of working closely on social & community with portfolio companies like Yolo, Cabin, Supergreat, and Massless.

👾 Betaworks, Social & Community (NYC)

My time was split between the Betaworks Camp and Betaworks Studios teams. For Camp, I helped launch and run 2 early-stage pre-seed programs: Livecamp & Synthetic Camp. At Studios, I took care of the social accounts, made a lot of GIFS, and contributed to the Render conference series.

⌚️ Withings - Social & Community (Paris)

Joined the team just in time to support the launch of the Steel HR watch, the first hybrid smartwatch on the market. Focused on creating social content and community challenges for Withings users all over the world, bridging user engagement between the app, email and social. Worked on the brand transition after Withings was acquired by Nokia.

🔎 Google - Marketing Internship (London)

Planned a pilot program to match digitally trained talent in Europe with Google Partner marketing agencies. Also learned how to use Google Apps like a pro (naturally).

👕 Cross & Freckle

AI-generated t-shirt company, as featured in WIRED.

👩‍🚀 Jane VC

Developed the tone of voice and community-building social content for Jane VC (now January Ventures), an early-stage VC fund.

🥁 Create:2014

A first-of-its-kind project in Northern Ireland, bringing together inspirational speakers in the tech and creative industries from around the world, for a day-long conference for young people in Derry~Londonderry. The conference was partially funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign (fully funded in 48 hours) and generous donations from industry leaders.

Last updated: February 2022

'Hello' GIPHY sticker by Cat Frazier

'TTYL' GIPHY sticker by Megan Motown