A Night to Remember: Friendship Lab's Launch in Pictures

What. A. Night.

On Thursday February 27, 2025, Friendship Lab was officially launched in the historic Music Room of Killik & Co. in Mayfair, London. It was an incredible night of music, spoken word poetry, visionary talks, moving testimonials, and laughter. This public launch marked the culmination of four years’ work on Friendship Lab, and the release of our On Demand course. It will be a night long remembered.

Cultivated Conversation

As guests arrived in Killik & Co’s incredible room, they were given a taste of Friendship Lab through special curated conversation cards that got stories shared quickly. (Want your own set? You can get a PDF of them here.)

The Night Begins

From the moment the lights dimmed, the countdown began, and the Friendship Lab trailer played, the applause and whooping was deafening. Friendship Lab Trustee Lois Fulton MC’d the night with warmth and humour, and Jer O’Mahoney from Killik & Co. welcomed us to the Music Room, explaining how it had welcomed no less than Strauss and Debussy in the past, before leading a toast to Friendship Lab.

Music, Stories, Vision

Singer-songwriter Andy Flannagan came next, performing ‘A Thousand Miles Wide and a Millimetre Deep’ - a song specially crafted for Friendship Lab on the need for deeper connections - before Friendship Lab founder Sheridan Voysey gave the organisation’s story and exciting details of what’s ahead, including offerings for business, health care, aid and mission organisations, and schools.

Testimonials

After a special congratulatory video from Care for the Family founder Rob Parsons, we heard about the scientific rigour behind the Friendship Lab Course, and its personal impact. Dr Amanda Berlan from the University Leicester described the impact she’d seen the course have on participant’s social confidence, before Lola Chapman from The Jungle, a community development initiative in Oxford, shared how it brought hope to her and others. Then pilot participants Nicky Sutton and Ben Haywood gave moving testimonies of the impact the course had on them. “It taught us what friendship is, how to spot toxic friends, and how to have difficult conversations. Two years later, we keep telling others all we’ve learned.”

Dance, Poetry, Cake

Next, TV presenter and Friendship Lab Course co-host Gemma Hunt led us in a spontaneous Swashbuckle pirate dance (showing who in the room was a parent of CBeebies-age kids!) before sharing what being involved in the project had meant to her. After some further words from Sheridan it was time to cut the cake, before author and poet Phil Knox brought the house down with a spoken word piece specially crafted for Friendship Lab.

And We’ve Only Just Begun

Friendship Lab exists to make your friendships thrive. You can find out more about us here, join our newsletter community, take our evidence-based course or help fuel our work with a donation. However you choose to join the movement, we can’t wait to partner with you to pursue our vision of a world of ‘2am friends’.