jbsh

Uploaded on July 23, 2006 by AB

There was a distinct whiff of entrepreneurial planning (if such a thing isn’t an oxymoron) at yesterday’s Open Coffee. The trigger was the launch of this year’s Seedcamp and the ensuing conversation about how we could encourage local start-ups to apply.

Things quickly moved on to running something in Bristol to encourage regional entrepreneurialism. Drawing on Seedcamp, Mashed, etc the idea was to give people an outcome orientated brief (i.e. build something that lets me communicate to a group) and then let folks come up with their own solutions. Critically, each idea would be judged not just on it’s technical/interestingness merits, but also on the marketing/presentation of the idea and on the business case. It sounded like more than a weekend event since we wanted to provide people with lots of plenary events and workshops to help round out ideas. Having said that we quickly came up with a whole bunch of people in the area that would have the relevant expertise to cover pretty much everything.

Sam Machin was fresh back from Mashed08 where the range and variety was outstanding (and the geekiness unsurpassed), but he thought there was a need for a longer event where the wider aspects of building a viable application could be rapidly prototyped. Clare was also along from the Pervasive Media Studio and we bounced a few ideas around on how this could be done and who would be instrumental. There was also a recognition that we needed to include Falmouth, Plymouth, Bournemouth and benefit from the many hotspots across the region.

Lots more to follow I’m sure!

Apologies to the folks on the other side of the room, there was plenty of intense discussion going on but I didn’t get over to join in. Hopefully we’ll hear what that led to shortly.

Uploaded by klauspost on
29 Jan 06.

Another great OpenCoffee with more new faces to the OpenCoffee networking scene. Yesterday we welcomed Katie More from Business Startup Community. With over 500 subscribers and the prestigious conference series in London, Katie promises to be a valuable addition to the Bristol entrepreneurial ecosystem.

James Gareh was back from South Africa where he’s been specialising in company turnaround projects. It’s good to have him back in Bristol where his skills in identifying and driving growth plans will be put to good use I’m sure!

I had to leave a bit early but the conversation around supporting company growth and connecting business needs with solutions was in full flow.

Next OpenCoffee Bristol is on 3 June, from 8.30 in Starbucks on Park St.

Uploaded by suresh_gundappa on
17 Aug 06, 9.27AM BST.

The nominal theme for this morning’s Open Coffee was ‘articulating your message’, or the art of the elevator pitch. Without wishing to do anyone (including myself) out of a job - go to this blog post and read it.  Actually might as well read the whole site if you’re looking at the investor path.

Having suggested that Matt from Montage Communications might get the ball rolling with a few pithy words on communicating complex ideas in compact spaces, by the time I got downstairs at Starbucks on Park St, the conversation was in full flow!

With roughly 2:1 entrepreneurs to business support professionals there was plenty of discussion and swapping of business cards. Everyone I spoke to had met someone new and interesting.

My new connection was with Rob Cox, launching a new motivational and self belief workshop and mentoring service for kids to “Dream, Believe, Achieve“.

Thanks go to Hannah at Montage Communications for handling the coordination with Starbucks and to Rosie (Interim Store Manager, Starbucks) for keeping the (free) coffee and cakes flowing.

The next Open Coffee is on 20 May, same Starbucks on Park St., please sign up or leave a comment here so that Rosie can order in enough fresh muffins!