jbsh

Back from half term and there’s been a bit of a communications meltdown, or more accurately a freeze since there hasn’t been any communications.

The energy and enthusiasm of previous weeks is in danger of descending into chaos and anarchy.  Time to implement a more rigid adherance to process, agenda, action items and individual responsibility.

Fortunately Google Groups provide an excellent space to manage this through file uploads, email notification, calendar etc; unfortunately this group of digital natives aren’t the most familiar with online solutions

Then again, having just popped onto gmail - I see that they’re posting minutes! So things are looking up for the Agenda to be distributed ready for next week’s board meeting. Which is good as they need to pick up the pace to be ready for the Christmas Trade Faire here in Bristol towards early December. They also need to sort out their bank account, issue shares, do their market research, and produce their first-offs for market testing. Good job the enthusiasm of youth is present in abundance.

Last night was a UK Trade & Investment and Interactive Ontario double header in the Watershed, Bristol. 11 Canadian companies from Ontario came to meet around 36 South West companies.

The proforma presentations included an overview of the Canadian & Ontario business environment from Ian Kelso (IO & Canadian Interactive Alliance, CIAIC), an introduction to the Canadian companies from Jay Goldman (Radian Core Inc) and a quick spin around the SW digital media landscape from Mark Leaver (South West Screen).

Adam Montandon (HMC) fresh from their recent link up with Two Four Group (another South West success story) gave an overview of their many wild projects that gave a lively, enthusiastic and knowledgeable insight into his world of very commercial projects that are also great fun!

We then adjourned for the serious business of networking. I was there principally to build links and opportunities for Heliotrope (disclosure: I’ve written their business plan and am coordinating their funding, partnerships and client strategies). The folks from IO were keeping everyone to 15 min speed networking so lots of follow up emails and skype chats to come.

First up was a discussion with Jay Goldman, although a little outside their normal scope we had a very productive discussion around design, integration, platforms, scalability, time to market and how Radian Core work with partners. In fact, because Heliotrope is a little outside the normal it could be sufficiently interesting and challenging to excite.

I then caught up with Sabine Steinbrecher (Learning Library) and we discussed her compay and their e-learning, publishing and strategies for addressing Canadian schools, education boards and ministries.

While catching up with Peter McCowen (AIM) about Bristol projects, I learnt of another UK company that may be a useful partner / collaborator.

A quick chat with Michael Gibson (Zapdramatic) suggested that their very innovative soft skills games were not quite the right match for Heliotrope. However, we did have a very enjoyable discussion around the complexity of design involved in such morally and ethically delicate areas so that young people can learn to appreciate their taken-for-granted assumptions and how to recognise them early enough to avoid compromising situations later on.

I then met Rachel Noonan and Karen Bradt (Canadian Film Centre) about the many innovative programmes, support and projects they’re involved with. In particular their Media Lab and wide ranging R&D projects is one to look into more closely.

On the way out I had a quick chat with Julia Bennett from White Pine Pictures, there wasn’t a direct link with their documentary making expertise but a great way to round out a busy and productive evening.

Just out of the Board meeting with this year’s Young Enterprise company from Colston’s Girls School.

They’d decided that a freeform seating plan was adding to the normal chaos of starting a new company. So instigated a seating plan. They’d also identified some key issues to do with their development as a high performing team.
Team work
Communication
Respect
Support
Enthusiasm (this wasn’t a negative but they’ve so much enthusiasm it’s hard to direct).

I try not to interfere with the team building side of things too much but had to point out the forming-storming-norming-performing ideas of high performance teams before they got too disconsolated at the ’storming’ phase.

There were more storms in the meeting (and will be in the future I’m sure) but they got back on track and ended on a couple of high notes.

They’ve renamed the company and registered as stylECO (exact capitalisation to be decided). They also re-affirmed their starting product range and added decorative mirrors from recycled materials.

They also finalised the details on their first major finance raising idea.

Looks like being a lively and positive year.

I attended the Bristol Enterprise Network event last night at the Watershed. Part of a emerging series of events focusing around entrepreneurship, innovation, learning and new business.

The panel comprised John Acton (Compact Power), Ben Heald (SIFT), Jaya Chakribarti (Nameless), James Cook (Spider Group) and Giles Clarke (South West Ventures and host of others include chair of English County Cricket Board as Paul Harrod the compare for the evening pointed out).

Things were a bit slow to start off, and it never quite got beyond Q&A and into conversation but an excellence food table and wine ensured that folks hung around after the ‘formal’ part to chat, network, and build connections.

The ‘formal’ part was recorded and should be on the BEN website as a podcast in the near future. I don’t think there were any earth shattering revelations but two messages came through clearly for the growing entrepreneur - people are important (especially managing delivery and personality in a small and intimate team) - and that ,although there will always be too much red tape, there are finance options at the lower end of the scale.

One of the great things about advising a Young Enterprise start-up company (at least in my experience) is the total enthusiasm and energy. Undirected energy is just noise and can turn destructive. That’s why even in the most chaotic and creative meetings, you still need an agenda and focus.

The main focus today was to pick a name for the company, half a dozen were thrown up, several vocal discussions ensued (including a mobile phone conference call with the other MD and 4 other Directors that couldn’t make the meeting due to school commitments).  They did pick a name - Green with Envy - but may decide to change it before they register with Young Enterprise. There were a couple other very good names in the mix so they have plenty of material to work with.

They also (mostly) settled on four product lines that they can align with their environmental / ecological / recycling ethic.

I was caught out when the MD announced that they’d identified a company in Cornwall that would plant trees on their behalf to off-set any carbon emitted in the course of their business. Fantastic and very true to their business ideals.

A short discussion around the Christmas disco and when they can start selling shares to raise money (after they’ve registered) and the meeting was closed within 5 mins of the scheduled time. Very nicely managed.