Today marks a turning point in CreativeCoffee Club's fortunes, in more ways than one. A little bit of history might be in order here. CreativeCoffee Club was founded in 2007 by Toby Moores, CEO of Sleepydog media company, and Sue Thomas, Professor of New Media at De Montfort University. It offered something new on the local scene by providing a regular setting for business people, academics, teachers, public sector workers and managers to use emerging social media tools to network and exchange ideas, and to discuss how to foster creativity and innovation in the workplace. From autumn 2007 to the summer of 2009 CreativeCoffee Club Leicester was coordinated by Shani Lee and met at the Graduate Bar, De Montfort University, but since late 2009 it has been based at Phoenix Square in the heart of Leicester's Cultural Quarter. Under Jayne’s leadership CreativeCoffee Club has gone from strength to strength, gaining a substantial and very active membership.
We celebrate the regeneration of CreativeCoffee Club with a display of videos and photos from our past four years. There's one good shot of me in the display - from the back - and several less good ones. At least the black leather jacket looks good. Toby Moores and Sue Thomas say a few words about the origin of CreativeCoffee Club, its past and present and possible future, before they hand over their child to Phoenix Square. That's what's happening in the photo above with (left to right, stanging) Toby, Sue and Jayne - with Dean Williams @TheArtWizard conspicuously live-tweeting proceedings.
We celebrate the regeneration of CreativeCoffee Club with a display of videos and photos from our past four years. There's one good shot of me in the display - from the back - and several less good ones. At least the black leather jacket looks good. Toby Moores and Sue Thomas say a few words about the origin of CreativeCoffee Club, its past and present and possible future, before they hand over their child to Phoenix Square. That's what's happening in the photo above with (left to right, stanging) Toby, Sue and Jayne - with Dean Williams @TheArtWizard conspicuously live-tweeting proceedings.
Since 2007 CreativeCoffee Club has been funded by De Montfort University as part of the NLab project, established in 2005 to help small businesses respond to the opportunities and challenges of new media. Over the years, NLab has made a major impact on local businesses via its conferences, seminars, mentoring, research and networking opportunities, the most influential of which has been CreativeCoffee Club. NLab comes to an end this month, while CreativeCoffee Club has become a valuable spin-off which has taken on a life of its own. I wonder how many of those who have been attending recent meetings would even have heard of NLab, let alone appreciate that CreativeCoffee Club is attached to it.
CreativeCoffee Club's funding from DMU also draws to a close at the end of July. But thanks to its growing popularity and regular attendance, Phoenix Square has decided to continue hosting the networking events. Management and coordination of CreativeCoffee Club will be handled by to Phoenix Square from the beginning of August 2011. Phoenix Square is already an important partner of DMU and this move is further evidence of continued collaboration.
CreativeCoffee Club's funding from DMU also draws to a close at the end of July. But thanks to its growing popularity and regular attendance, Phoenix Square has decided to continue hosting the networking events. Management and coordination of CreativeCoffee Club will be handled by to Phoenix Square from the beginning of August 2011. Phoenix Square is already an important partner of DMU and this move is further evidence of continued collaboration.
In order to facilitate the continued hosting of CreativeCoffee, Phoenix Square is asking for a small group of people to form a voluntary committee to help coordinate the activities. Phoenix Square's representative on this committee will be one of its Assistant Operations Managers, Rebecca Harvey. Rebecca will play an active part in the planning, hosting and continued updating of the Eventbrite page, the blog and other social media. Phoenix Square is looking for volunteers who could also help CreativeCoffee Club grow and develop. Requirements of the committee would be for the CreativeCoffee meeting to be hosted by at least one member of the committee, to actively greet, host and prompt networking, and collect attendee names and contact details; to plan and deliver networking events, special sessions and continue to communicate with attendees through the established methods. Phoenix Square will meet quarterly with the committee to discuss ideas and assist in bringing those ideas to life.
I chat today with several interesting people (as always). I'd like to give them a shout out here:
- Sam, Joanna and Marialena of Ash Sakula Architects, promoting their Adaptable Futures project for Leicester Waterside
- Barbara Read, independent fashion designer, trading as Baska
- Kamalangi Costello, EFT Practitioner / NLP Coach, Finding My Balance
- Ruth Jindal of Cultivate, promoting smarter cultural working in the East Midlands
CreativeCoffee Club will be taking a short summer break (appropriate for our short summers) and will reconvene under new management at 1000 on Wed 7 September.
No comments:
Post a Comment