Location: Cairns Bar, 5-15 Miller Street, Glasgow
The table is in the back corner beside the ladies' toilets
Back in the olden days, journalists went to the pub after work. We went straight from the office, which is where the term "straightfae" comes from.
There, we discussed what went wrong on page seven, whether or not Beavis and Butt-Head is hyphenated – it is – why the chief sub is an idiot, the time the editor got locked in the toilet. All the important stuff.
We also, without realising it, made friends, contacts and allies who would be useful for years, indeed decades, to come. We learned about other roles in our own work and across other organisations. We secured shifts, freelance gigs, heard about jobs coming up, learned who was moving to where and what chances that might create.Mass redundancies, working from home, the move to out-of-town offices with a driving culture and the general reduction in booze consumption (which is, industry wide, a good thing) have pretty much seen off the "straightfae".
All that informal learning, networking, intelligence gathering and team building has gone with it. Which is why WiJ Scotland is bringing it back. Not every night but once a month, in a bar in Glasgow city centre. We have chosen a friendly, old school pub that is really central with great public transport options. We've booked a table for a couple of hours, so folk can drop in for one drink or make a night of it and go on elsewhere afterwards.
It's open to any women in the business who wants to come along so it's an ideal opportunity to bring a colleague/pal and introduce them to the WiJS community.
Will this work? We have no idea. But if we don't try, we will never know. And if it's not popular, then we'll move on and do something else. If it's a huge hit, we can try it in other cities too.
We really hope that everyone who misses the olden days, or who missed out on the sociable, beer-soaked era, will come along. It will be so fun.
Who's in?