OpenCoffee Christmas

The next OpenCoffee Bristol will be on Tues, 2 Dec from 8.30am in Starbucks on Park St as usual, it’ll be the last until the New Year when I suggest we start again on Tues, 13 Jan (I’ll send a reminder around before then).

Everyone’s busy working through the Chancellor’s Pre-Budget Report (or mini-budget announcement depending on your view). With changes to VAT, small business lending, income taxes, fuel duties and more, there’s plenty to digest.

Amongst this continuing turmoil Startupslive.co.uk are celebrating new businesses in Jury’s Inn on Tues, 9 Dec and the Pervasive Media Studio is launching their Sandbox funding competition on Mon, 15 Dec. Proof, if proof were needed, that innovation and innovative business is alive and doing ok in tough times here in Bristol.

I look forward to seeing you on Tues, 2 Dec from 8.30am in Starbucks on Park St, or at other events around Bristol and wish you a peaceful Christmas and holidays.

November 27, 2008 | Filed Under opencoffee | 1 Comment 

Meeting on 18 Nov

Another new Bristol start-up came along to today’s Open Coffee, Ed Brown from Ad-Eon (holding page). Ed’s looking to disrupt the online adversing world with a more open marketplace approach to publishing and hosting ads. A tough business to be sure.

That led to a discussion around various ad models, the economics of the business and what constitutes a ’successful’ ad. Nigel joined us with his perspective on how market researchers are using free text responses on questionnaires to better understand their customer needs (and where they’re falling down). This should lead to better products & services or at least better ads that provide us with the information we need rather than the pitch the company wants.

We also touched on the investment and money markets in the South West for pure internet businesses. There should hopefully be a couple of success stories in this area shortly but it’s harder than ever to launch on equity funding. It wasn’t all doom and gloom with Nigel off to London for the Insight Show and reporting strong growth in both new and repeat client work.

All of which led to the subject of office space and incubator support. With several options in Bristol (The Hub, eOffice, SetSquared and others) there should be something for everyone. It was interesting to see how the pricing and support packages were distinctly tailored to support different businesses and needs. While there’s undoubtedly some overlap if you’re just after a desk and phone (in which case the many coffee shops with free wifi will probably do), as you delve more into each business’s needs there are clear benefits for each provider.

A smaller than normal turn out but excellent discussions around business development, growth and success; ideal!

See you all in a fortnight if not before.

November 18, 2008 | Filed Under opencoffee | Comments Off 

Next Open Coffee 18 Nov

Good Morning,

A few people have noted that it’s hard to know what’s happening with OpenCoffee Bristol outside these emails since there’s no permanent presence. That has now changed with the launch of www.opencoffeebristol.org here you will find announcements, write-ups, diary dates and more.

With the next crop of web developers and budding entrepreneurs gathering in the Watershed tomorrow (12 Nov) for the Web Developers Conference, what markets and business sectors will be strongest and first to exit the recession? This is hot on the heels of Bristol being awarded “Most environmentally sustainable City in Britain” the the Forum for the Future. What new products and services exist between environmental sustainability and new digital technologies?

OpenCoffee is the fortnightly gathering of business professionals, developers and designers interested in growing the digital sector. We’ll be in Starbucks on Park St from about 8.30am next Tues, 18 Nov.

Yours
John

November 11, 2008 | Filed Under opencoffee | Comments Off 

Welcome to OpenCoffeeBristol.org

OpenCoffee was relaunched in Bristol 6 months ago. In that time its grown largely by word of mouth to become a vibrant and regular meeting between software developers, creative designers, business developers and professional advisers in the digital sector.

Quite a few folk have supported this growth but its been spread between Upcoming, Facebook and my own company’s blog; there’s never been a central place for updates, news, comment, etc… until now.

Anyone that wants to write a review or comment on Bristol OpenCoffee, connections that have arisen as a result of meeting over coffee, or thoughts on future meetings and activities that will help support the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Bristol is free to post here (and link back to their projects, partners, etc).

Log in as “Guest” with the password “OpenCofee” (both are case sensitive) and you can write and post your own articles here. If you want to post more regularly then let me know and I’ll set you an author account to identify your articles.

Since this is my blog (by which I mean I’m paying for the domain and hosting) I reserve the right to withdraw this open access if it gets abused. :)

November 3, 2008 | Filed Under opencoffee | Comments Off 

Survival planning

This is a re-post from http://www.jbsh.co.uk/2008/10/07/survival-planning/

My London Tea Towel

Capt Tim with London Tea Towel

On a dark and stormy Tuesday morning, with tales of economic melt down on R4, I wasn’t sure if anyone would turn up to Open Coffee.

I shouldn’t have worried, Bristolians are made of stern stuff. We even had a friendly bank manager type along to see what the excitement was about.

In addition to Andy, we had Peter Weeks from Business Link and two entrepreneurs Dave Cropley and Chris Keegan from newly formed evans & finch (holding website). Joel Hughes was back hoping to show his new social canvassing app, along with Sam, Nigel, Craig, Tom, Melissa, Mark, Janice, and apologies to anyone I’ve missed!

A fresh pot of finest ground coffee and some gluten-free chocolate cake kept everyone talking and mixing until after I had to leave.

From the conversations I flitted between there was a common thread that, while the impending financial apocalypse will hit, for most businesses it’s not here yet. The exception, as Andy admitted, is for those trying to raise or extend bank finance. Survival planning was largely around three themes that also came up at a Bristol Enterprise Network event a couple weeks back (Growth Opportunities in a Recession).

  • watch the cash flow (and reduce it everywhere)
  • provide an excellent customer experience (keeping existing customers is easier than finding new ones)
  • innovate

These last two in particular are being exemplified by 3 Bristol companies. Mark and Tom at The Web People are using their new SWiM service-as-a-service management software to provide excellent customer experience and innovating by licensing it to other web development and management companies. Nigel at Katugas Research Services is providing excellent service through analysis reports and multi-lingual support, and innovating through budgeting approaches that help both their client’s and their own cash flow. Dave and Chris at evans & finch are also planning both consolidation of cash flow through longer term client relationships and a new service that is still under wraps.

It may be grim out there, and things will probably get worse before they get better, but there are still some great business opportunities out there.

November 3, 2008 | Filed Under opencoffee | Comments Off 

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