Myles asked this morning about Eventbrite tickets so he didn’t have to remember when Open Coffee Bristol was on (every other Tues, next one is 14 June). Anyway, here’s the registration; 
Tag Archives: business
Lots of new people at Open Coffee
Thanks to everyone that came along to this morning’s Open Coffee. Despite having to crowd around the tables a bit it was great to see so many new faces.
I missed a lot of the discussion at the far end of the table between Stephen (@stephenmaudsley), Greg, Nick (@nicksturge), Matt (@PRBristolblog) and Andy, but Bob, Christine, Nigel (@nigellegg), Andrew and myself had a good discussion around hydrogen fuel-cells & alternative fuels, managing multiple websites & social media monitoring. There were also discussions around the future of Local Enterprise Partnerships and what that might (or might not) mean for people around the tables.
We had a few people on holiday and forgetting their bike locks, but a really good turn out. If I didn’t catch your twitter name and you’d like a shout-out, let me know in the comments.
Look forward to seeing everyone again on 24 Aug, same time (8.30am), same place (Boston Teaparty).
<Updated with links to ppl’s twitter accounts>
Business networking – the Bajan Rum Punch way
When my dad was introducing me to mixing cocktails he taught me the classic rhyme to remember the best punch recipe, ever:
“One Sour, Two Sweet, Three Strong, Four Weak.”
This morning we had one IP patent attorney (Chris Vigars), two connectors / evangelists (me & Martin Coulthard), three support professionals (Zoe Chalk, Charles van der Lande & Robin Beecroft), and four entrepreneurs (Mark, Ray McConnell, Nigel Legg, and Sam Machin). Seemed like a pretty good mix.
Then I spotted Ian Burden talking to Charles, Zoe and Nigel, and my analogy rather breaks down from there onwards (especially as most people had mixed interests).
Oh well, the discussions were flowing freely. The new influx mixing well with the more regular OpenCoffee folks and a couple of business ideas are already percolating (just to mix my metaphors).
Apologies to anyone that I missed, especially as I had to leave early. Special thanks to Nigel for helping to look after everyone after I left.
and lo there was Cheesecake
Cheesecake at OpenCoffee Bristol on Twitpic
Much to the consternation of Nathan from Veale Wasbrough Lawyers (who had just been to the gym) we were surprised with cheesecake at this morning’s OpenCoffee!
Which was nice.
We stayed upstairs and had pretty soon taken over most of the comfy chairs. Matt from Catalyst Venture Partners, Mark from Information Processing Ltd, Nigel from Katugas, Richard from Mobile Pie, Ed from Tonsho, Charles from Roxburgh Milkins all helped me demolish the cheesecake over discussions about the use of Open Source in the public sector and how to get past the gatekeepers.
As the Open Source discussion moved into the business benefits of the freedom of an open platform to develop your applications, we moved more into the mobile world. Richard described their experiences with taking ideas through conception to listing on the Apple iStore both as commercial and free apps. While there were undoubted hurdles, having a captive audience and known boundaries within which to operate actually helps the process for a small developer.
Richard is also working with the Android / Cupcake. I’d hoped this would be another common software platform, but Richard thought that different devices would require some versioning to deliver the same user experience. For the smaller developer this could be enough to put a lot of people off.
I had to dash to another meeting so missed the last 45 mins and any later arrivals.
The next OpenCoffee Bristol will be Tues, 24 March in Starbucks.
The next Demo Session will be on Tues, 21 April at SETsquared, courtesy of Nick Sturge.
Help shape Open Coffee Bristol 2009
To help shape Open Coffee Bristol please contribute to the short online questionnaire, there are only 5 short questions so it shouldn’t take long.
Click Here to take survey
Thank you
John