Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Is dedicated networking
Festival organiser to his CV
services,” Edd reveals. He runs the page with Canterbury Ghost Tour operator John Hippisley, who effectively acts as its membership secretary, making sure that robots – software application that runs automated tasks – don’t join the group. Failure to spot one could result in numerous spamlike posts appearing.
Edd started the group in August 2014, partly in response of animosity towards young people generally.
“There was something of the echo chamber about it and it struck me I could start a group which could be broader in scope.
“We started off with 100 members and have just kept going from there, with all sorts backgrounds, jobs and ways of life.”
Edd confesses that he is often perplexed at the attitude some of his members have to the mainstream media – in particular the Kentish Gazette, which celebrates its 300th anniversary this year.
“I’ve had to go on to the page and defend the Gazette quite I lot of times,” he reveals. “It seems that some people don’t get the idea that social media is just another way of talking, another way of passing information.
“Some people seem to get very irked, for example, that the Gazette might use information on the residents group as the basis for a story.
“Many people don’t understand that journalists are under time pressures and don’t have the time to spend hours investigating things or scouring police records.
“Personally, I don’t see what the problem is with using the group as a source of information.”
Edd estimates that some 30% of the Canterbury Residents Group are students, a healthy ratio in a small city which boasts more than 30,000 students during term time. Edd has become well-versed in the student culture since he moved to Canterbury from his native Croydon a little more than 10 years ago.
Studying forensic investigation at Christ Church, he lived in what he refers to as “the student bubble” for his first couple of years here, but soon began to connect with the wider city.
He worked at the Student Republic promotions company until last year. And last summer, along with
‘Some people don’t get the idea that social media is just another way of talking, another way of passing information’
Conservative city councillor Oliver Fawcett, he resurrected Pride festival.
The organisers suffered a setback earlier this month when Canterbury City Council refused it a grant of £1,000. Despite this, Edd insists the festival will repeat the success of last year.
He has also seen his dessert delivery company Bake Mates thrive. It tapped into the growing market for home deliveries of all types. So successful has it been that the company is to be expanded and relaunched next month.
It is clear that Edd Withers’ star shone brightly over Canterbury in 2016. It promises to shine even brighter in 2017.