LYST was originally the Prince’s Trust Enterprise Centre and was started in 2001. Soon after the Prince’s Trust lost interest in running it so a couple of ex Prince’s Trust staff and volunteers decided it take it over in 2004, relaunching as LYST. LYST is the biggest providor of incubation units to young people in business of disadvantaged backgrounds, providing daily on site business support. What tools or resources do you use to keep in touch with people? Best networking resource is the free space we have at our centre where we can make our own tea!

Ailon Free is the founder of The Lotus Exchange - a network of wellbeing practitioners who deliver on-site services such as yoga, massage and drumming to businesses around the country. Ailon is also passionate about self-expression, creativity and in helping people to release their hidden artisitc talents. In his spare time he masquerades as a comedian, artist and percussionist. Ailon’s spoof yoga DVD “Yoga 4 Fellas” starring his alter ego Trev the Yogic Builder has just been released nationwide.

Alessandra Lariu (Ale for short) is a Senior Creative at Agency Republic with 13 years digital experience working for clients such as O2, Baileys, Mercedes-Benz, BBC, Kodak, Orange, Epson, London Underground, COI, Debenhams and Comet. She’s the co-founder of SheSays, an initiative to help women further their careers in online advertising. Through SheSays and her work Ale loves to talk about all things digital. She often speaks at conferences, writes opinion pieces for magazines and blogs and is collaborating on two books about digital marketing. Her work has won Revolution, IAB and BIMA awards and has been shortlisted for others including The Clios and Campaign. She has also recently judged for D&AD and BIMA.

Alexia is Membership Officer at Social Enterprise Coalition, the national voice for social enterprise. As such she is in contact with many people across the UK involved in social enterprise, either as entrepreneurs or as people offering support for the growth of social enterprise. One of Alexia’s regular tasks is to connect people working within the sector.

Alex currently combines running Generation 2 Generation with his law studies at the College of Law. Alex read History at the London School of Economics, where he was actively involved in extra-curricular activities like debate, journalism and student politics. Notably, he was the President of the Question Time Society - a debate forum based on the BBC programme - for two years and organised events on topics such as Blair’s legacy, the City of London and Football corruption featuring personalities such as Jon Snow (Channel 4 News presenter), Vincent Cable (former acting Lib Dem leader) and Charles Moore (former editor, Daily Telegraph). Alex won the LSE’s Gold Award for outstanding achievement with student society work in 2007. His involvement with activities such as Question Time inspired Alex to found Generation 2 Generation after graduating from university with the intention that young people both at school, university and in the world of work could meet high profile personalities and grow personally and professionally through such encounters. Whenever he gets free time from G2G work and his law studies, Alex enjoys playing and watching sport, cooking and photography.

Andrew Ferdinando decided to have a crack at running his own business after 6 years in corporate life. Not content with just one business, he currently has 2 ventures on the go. The first, The Hubworking Centre, is a meeting venue by Liverpool Street station offering meeting rooms and hot desks to small businesses and mobile workers. The second is 12questions.com, a social networking website for young professionals living in London.