(Birthday) love from Scroggs

The following birthday note from James Scroggs was first published on Linked-in following our we’re-20-years-old bash at Lantana Shoreditch. We save it here for prosterity (or at least the next 20 years) partly for what it says, but mainly because Scroggs is a dear and beautiful friend.  

I was very honoured to say a few words, as 20 yr client, co-conspirator, unwavering fan, and friend:

–   To remark on the extraordinary vision of its founders Adam Scott, Charlotte Boyens and Ben Johnson two decades back, taking the principles of architecture, design, and storytelling into unique entrepreneurial, corporate, and place-making spaces and programmes.

–   And how 20 years on the deep belief and tenacity of Adam and team has proven that EXPERIENCE is the driving force of commercial and purposeful relationships within and beyond instititional walls.

It is what the true $ value of business has become, way beyond the assets on our balance sheets. More than consultancy, practitioners, authors of a singular book and course, Freestate has become a movement that some of the very biggest global brands have been joining.

Everyone should.

‘Free and a bit Statey’ – a mark worthy of (albeit temporary) tattoos.

Scroggs is co-founder of and CEO at New Working Class, a streetside lifelong learning programme that looks to reinvent education in the name of the missed, forgotten, and passed over. A hat-wearing man of many hats, he was marketing director at MTV, afterwhich he worked with a technology start-up, and then in music and fashion, and has all the time worked in youth services, mental health, and suicide prevention. It’s we that are honoured.