Looking back through the smoke...

The 1st Irish Open Coffee Club BBQ took place on July 16th. As the organiser of this event it is now time to sit back and look back on a very succesfull event.
About 100 attendees from all over the country (North & South), more than half a dozen excellent and varied talks, 5 excellent entries for the start-up competition and a very enjoyable BBQ in a beautifull setting can account for the success.
Apart from all the people that attended I owe a great big "Thank you!" to all the sponsors. It was inspiring to see how individuals and companies are willing to support a "new" event without demanding an instant return. I can only suggest that everybody has a look at the list of sponsors and think of them you have to make a purchase decision or need to outsource work.

All throughout the day there was a lot of informal networking between people that already knew each other and complete strangers. At the same time there were presentations taking place in the Terryglass Community Hall across the road. The topics were varied and the discussions and feedback were positive and valuable.
What was also good to find out that most of the networking & Open Coffee "virgins" found the day extremely valuable and most expressed an interest to attend future events.

I think the highlight of the day was the start-up competition where 5 entrepreneurs got the opportunity to pitch their idea to a panel of seasoned business people. The winner would receive a prize-pot that would help them to get their venture of the gound. Prizes included a laptop, software, web hosting, office space, consultancy service, web design vouchers etc..
I was delighted to see that in spite of it being an day with a high tech content that the winner of this competition was Daudi Kutta with his innovative sports bag design.

After the prizes were handed out everybody headed down to Terrryglass Quay for the BBQ. There were copious amounts of food thanks to Deborah Hadley from Spicendipity and Mrs. Bopp as well as drinks thanks to Britvic and Bubble Brothers. The day ended around 11 pm at which time I had just about enough energy to drag my tired body home for a well earned rest...

However the next one is already being planned!

photographs courtesy of Will Knott esq.

Open Coffee Club BBQ (Ireland) gets it's own site!

The interest in the OpenCoffee BBQ in keeps growing so we have decided to give it it's own site/blog!
There is very little content there yet but together with Alex Leonard's help I am working hard to put up a nice them and more content over the next few days.

OCC BBQ part two..

I blogged about a proposed Open Coffee Club BBQ last week.
There has been a good level of interest and I've decided that a midweek in June or July would be the best date.
Rather than just pick a date I have decided to leave it to a public vote.
Below is a poll with the suggested dates. Let me know what dates suit you!

Open Coffee Club BBQ.

I've been harping on for months now about organising an OCC meeting somewhere closer to home. One of the locations that I have suggested was Terryglass, Co. Tipperary. It's not exactly the centre of the universe but it is in a great settings on the shores of Lough Derg within driving distance of Limerick, Galway etc.
Internet connectivity is also not a problem as I have installed a wifi hotspot in a local restaurant/pub with free public access.
There was never much interest until a few days ago when a discussion was started spanning both Twitter & Jaiku about alternative locations. I first mentioned that I wouldn't mind hosting an OCC meeting in the Technology centre in Birr, Co.Offaly where we have our offices. Then someone brought up my suggestion of Terryglass.
I chipped in with the mention of a suitable location and free wifi and things spun of from there.
Conor O'Neill mentioned planning it during the summer and having a OCC BBQ. An idea that was wlecomed by quite a few people!
As it turns out a friend of mine lives a few miles from Terryglass and he won the All-Ireland BBQ championships a few years back. I am sure that I can convince him to display the dark art of BBQ-ing Irish stylee.
So now it looks like we might be on to a good thing!
I am talking with some people in Terryglass today about venues and possible sponsorship. As some people might want to stay overnight I will also look into the accomodation options.
All we need to do now is pick a date....
Personally I think a mid-week date somewhere in June or July would be best. By avoiding the weekend we will possible have a bit more room to sit.
In order to get an idea of how many people would be interested I would appreciate it if anyone who thinks that they might like to attend would email me at evert-at-airappz.com
For those of you who are not familiar with Open Coffee Clubs I suggest that you have a look here.