More events, more coffee!

Not that things have quietened down, if anything things are busier around Bristol than ever, but this site has been bit neglected of late.

So I’ve updated the calendar with future dates out until the end of May, which seems like a good point to perhaps stop and reflect on life, business, and the future.
;)

I’ll also try and get back into the swing of posting mini-reviews of meetings and discussions, plus other items that might be of interest to an Open Coffee reader.

February 17, 2010 | Filed Under opencoffee | 3 Comments 

Fresh coffee & opportunities

Well 2010 kicked off in the UK with snow, ice, sub-zero temperatures and general chaos as public services ground to a halt.

But not Open Coffee and the entrepreneurs of Bristol.

Fortified by the best coffee that the Boston Tea Party on Park Street has to offer we gathered on their first floor to catch up after the break and discuss the future. By the end Steve Cayzer (HP Labs, LinkedIn), Rupert Russell (Carmen Data, LinkedIn), Helen Davies (For Effect, website), Sam Machin (Orange, personal website), Nigel Legg (Katugas Social Media, website) and Andy (who surname I’ve unforgivable forgotten, sorry).

Conversation covered the various tax implications of company car ownership, developing new brand images for the new year (and the difficulty finding a good printers these days), online marketing for small tourism companies and the challenge of getting good geo-location data, and that was just at my end of the tables!

The general opinion was that while the weather and economic climate might be a bit inclement (or just down right awful) there was business to be done and opportunities to be exploited. Business cards were swapped and a couple of new collaborations initiated.

So the New Year is off to a great start and looks to get better.

Look forward to seeing you at the next Open Coffee Bristol on Tues, 26 Jan from 8.30am in The Boston Teaparty on Park St.

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January 12, 2010 | Filed Under opencoffee | 2 Comments 

Open Coffee Bristol updates

It’s been a few weeks since the last fortnightly reminder email and quite a few developments have taken place.

We’re settling in well at the Boston Tea Party on Park St as our new ‘home’. We’re also trying out some ideas to keep Open Coffee Bristol vibrant and of value to local smaller & growth companies. Helping me in this are Nigel Legg and Stephen Maudsley.

The most tangible development the Skilswap sub-group on the LinkedIn OpenCoffee Bristol group. The concept is to provide a safe environment in which to seek advice and support. You can post needs, and a suggestions on your area of expertise, and then other OpenCoffee members can offer to help in return for some advice / support from you; in this way skills are swapped.

We’re also revisiting the idea of having invited speakers / presenters to talk about specific innovations that they’re working on or things that might of interest to the broad Open Coffee membership (129 on LinkedIn, visitors to this website, etc).

However, the consistant feedback from the surveys that I’ve run, is that people quite like the slightly informal format & engineered serendipity so we’ll try not to lose that in any future changes.

I look forward to seeing you again on Tues, 20 October from about 8.30 am in The Boston Tea Party on Park St and fortnightly from then.

October 14, 2009 | Filed Under opencoffee | Comments Off 

Help shape the future of Open Coffee Bristol

The next morning is scheduled to be 8 Sept (we’ll be in The Boston Tea Party on Park St as usual).

I’ve been thinking about how to keep developing / tweaking / improving Open Coffee and discussed the idea of speakers to a few people . However I’m not sure if there should be occasional speakers on a specific topic, or more of a rolling programme of themes to which we invite ’specialists’?

To help sort this out, please fill in this short survey (3 questions).

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=zkAnhZuUFbShQ4CEvnGAVA_3d_3d

Many thanks,

John

September 1, 2009 | Filed Under opencoffee | Comments Off 

Open Coffee summer networking

With the weather seeming to reflect the economic uncertainty, entrepreneurs around Bristol still welcome the relative serenity of The Boston Tea Party’s coffee garden (at least when the sun’s shining).

The storm in the social media teacup was the purchase of Friendfeed by Facebook, however, the discussions last Tues were more around the balance between strategic planning and tactical agility for a start-up.

The perennial topic of funding & finance followed the recent (highly unscientific) poll from Businesszone.co.uk indicated that many businesses aren’t even aware of the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (and those that are don’t seem to be having much luck with it); meanwhile the Regional Development Agency is seeing a return of business confidence in the South West (Economic Review pdf).

Plenty to discuss next Tuesday, 25 Aug from 8.30am in the Boston Tea Party on Park St (the garden if it’s sunny, first floor if is isn’t).

August 20, 2009 | Filed Under opencoffee | Comments Off 

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