CREATIVE COFFEE LEICESTER, 14 AUGUST 2013

At Phoenix this morning, for the regular fortnightly meeting of Creative Coffee Leicester. It’s a quiet day today (being in the middle of the summer holiday) but there’s still a mix of old faces and new. More new than old, I’d say, which is a good thing.

Becky Wilson (Social Media Geek) is steering the ship this morning. That's her in the photo above, sandwiched between Harry and Grace.

CREATIVE COFFEE LEICESTER, 31 JULY 2013

At Phoenix this morning, for the regular fortnightly meeting of Creative Coffee Leicester. I've been unable to attend the last three sessions (since 5 June) so am glad to be here today - although I can only stay for the first hour.

I'm pleasantly surprised to see Julie-Ann and Barry Heath here. I'd be pleased to see them here any time, of course, but it's especially the case since I'd been with them at Cathedral AM hardly an hour-and-a-half before. Julie-Ann is in her civvies, here to follow up on a recent exhibition of her art at LCB Depot.

I meet, for the first time, Hannah Patterson, presenter and voiceover artist fort TV, radio and the web. Hannah used to work at BBC Radio Leicester. I mention about occasionally having been on the station, doing things like Thought for the Day from time to time. Hardly do I say this when my iphone rings. It's John Florance, from BBC Radio Leicester, asking me to come in to the studio and record a Thought for the Day!

That's Hannah on the right in the photo above, with Michael Tedstone, composer and musician, one of the regulars at Creative Coffee Leicester.

Just before 1100 I dash round to Curve, for a workshop for members of all those working on Leicester's bid to be declared UK City of Culture 2017.

CREATIVE COFFEE LEICESTER, 5 JUNE 2013

It's the fortnightly meeting of Creative Coffee Leicester this morning at Phoenix. After having had speakers or "table experts" several sessions on the trot, today is a bit of an Old Skool turn, with loose and relaxed conversation among a smaller number.

Stacey Beazer & Cynthia Rodriguez

As is always the case at these meetings, there are a few first timers, among them Stacey Beazer of Dance Select Agency. I'm pleasantly surprised to discover that Stacey and I have something in common: we both have experience of working at the Watershed Youth Centre. I used to work there for ReMit (Leicester City Council's education service for adults with long-term mental health issues) and Stacey works there now (part time) for the City Council's Young People's Services. These two agencies of Leicester City Council shared that space in a somewhat uneasy and unequal relationship for several years, till ReMit shipped out to Leicester Adult Education College in Wellington Street. We may have crossed over in our working time at the Watershed, but neither of us can recall meeting each other there.

As well as chatting with Stacey, I catch up with Cynthia Rodriguez, of Cynthiaescribe. Over the past few months, Cynthia has become one of the stalwarts of these fortnightly gatherings.

CREATIVE COFFEE LEICESTER, 22 MAY 2013

Bianca Holman of Go MAD Thinking

It's the fortnightly meeting of Creative Coffee Leicester this morning at Phoenix. We enjoy a brief presentation in the Screen Room by Bianca Holman of Go MAD Thinking (MAD stands for "Make A Difference"). She introduces us to their Think Leicestershire project. Here's a helpful quotation from the Think Leicestershire website (emphasis in original):

Think Leicestershire is about helping YOU improve the way you think so that you can achieve whatever you want.

The website offers help with thinking, through various techniques and tools, turning "hindering thinking" into "helpful thinking". These are free to use for anyone who lives or works in the city or county. Think Leicestershire is in the process of recruiting 1,000 "community coaches" to support local people and organisations, providing face-to-face personal contact, supplementing the resources available online. Since March, they have recruited 250 people for this role (just under 50 of them in the city).

Amit Modhvadia & Laila Osman

As is always the case at these meetings, there are a few first timers. Among them are Amit Modhvadia (Principal Web Consultant at HTML5 Consultancy) and Laila Osman (Holistic Complementary Therapist at Laspire n Do It: Rebalance With Energy). I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of Laila's flowery Docs, which I notice only as she's leaving Phoenix.

This is where Mohan Subramaniam keeps his business cards: a miniature briefcase!

CREATIVE COFFEE LEICESTER, 8 MAY 2013

At Phoenix  this morning, for the fortnightly meeting of Creative Coffee Leicester. Our session overlaps with one of Phoenix's "Silver Screenings" - a new addition to their programme of "weekly matinee screenings with our senior citizen customers firmly in mind (but open to all)". This means the cafe bar is a bit busy - and since we're having a presentation this morning, we adjourn to the Screen Room. The presentation is by the creative trio who make up animatID, which animates logos. A lot of creative people, companies and organisations have difficulty expressing in a few words what they do. These guys animate logos: simple as that. So you can know a bit more about them, here is some bio info about each of these guys, taken from the animatID website:

Mair Perkins is an award-winning animator and illustrator, having done work for the likes of RSPCA, Vodafone, ASDA and several UK Universities. Mair claims she can put both legs behind her head and walk like a crab, although she has yet to prove this. Mair owns Mair Perkins Ltd. Animation and Illustration and two cats.

Ben Haynes creates short audio idents with music and sound effects for AnimatID. His music once made a bunch of celebrities donate £1.5million to a charity auction. His jokes are generally rubbish so don’t get him started. Ben owns Haynes Music Productions and a look of general bewilderment.

Richie Phillips specialises in SFX, animation and motion graphics and has done work for loads of clients such as Sky Sports and Sports Tonight Live. When asked whether he can fit his whole fist into his mouth, he said yes but he meant no. Richie owns QuimbyCo and his very own Geordie accent.

CREATIVE COFFEE LEICESTER, 10 APRIL 2013

At Phoenix  this morning, for the fortnightly meeting of Creative Coffee Leicester. The main attraction this morning is our speaker, Tim Grayson. Tim is an English Symbolist poet English Symbolist poet, playwright and Cultural Ambassador for Leicester City (as appointed by Leicester City Council in 2009). He works for Tudor Rose Publishing and lectures on a visiting basis in poetry and creative writing at the University of Leicester. Tim is also a regular panellist on BBC Radio Leicester, Patron of the Royal Society of Literature, Chair of the Leicestershire Order of Chivalry, co-founder of the Brothellian Movement, British host of international literary show "The Poetry Brothel" (others in Chicago, Barcelona, New York, Athens, New Orleans & Vietnam) and has been published in literary journals on both sides of the Atlantic. In November 2012, the University of Leicester named Tim one of "the most significant and influential writers of [his] generation."

I sit through Tim's talk beside Becky Wilson, whom I've met at Creative Coffee three or four times now. Becky is a card-carrying geek - quite literally, as you can see from the photo below. Her card says, Becky Wilson, Social Media Geek.

I decide to find out just how much of a geek she is by saying that I find this the name of this morning's speaker especially interesting as it's a mashup of Tim Drake (the third Robin, sidekick to Batman - now Red Robin, leader of the Teen Titans in DC Comics' New 52 continuity) and Dick Grayson (the first Robin, now Nightwing). I've barely started saying this when Becky finishes it for me. By George, I think she's got it! I experience a lightbulb moment and ask Becky, "What do you think of the idea of holding an international ComicCon in Leicester in 2017?"

CREATIVE COFFEE LEICESTER, 27 MARCH 2013

The fortnightly meeting of Creative Coffee Leicester at Phoenix takes place this morning.

After having speakers for the last two meetings, we have a couple of table experts this morning, with whom attendees can book a free 15 minute consultation:

• Tom Simpson, Accountant with Torr Waterfield Accountants and Business Advisors. Torr Waterfield have a number of clients in creative industries.
• Russ Pacey, Business Coach for LCB Depot and Phoenix Square. Russ works on the Enterprise Hub Scheme to help startups but also supports SME businesses.

CREATIVE COFFEE LEICESTER, 13 MARCH 2013

The fortnightly meeting of Creative Coffee Leicester at Phoenix takes place this morning. For the second session in a row (unusually for us) we have a speaker: Jim Willis, founder of Leicester-based digital agency, Bulb Studios. The numbers are holding up really well, with more than 35 attendees today.

I'm glad of the chance to catch up with Sophie Hardwicke, who used to frequent Creative Coffee as a freelance artist and illustrator - with (and I quote myself here) "probably he loveliest business card I have ever seen". Now she's working for Shinebright Creative Communications as their Account Executive. Sophie's new business card is an example of clean, effective and modern style. We have a bit of a lark round our table inventing job titles that would raise an eyebrow on anyone's business card, such as "Account Hunter" or "Client Wrangler". While attending an occasion like Creative Coffee may be considered essential as a freelance, a couple of hours out of the office has to be justified as productive use of time when you're gainfully employed as part of a team.

A quick meeting of the Management Team follows at the end of the session (well, four of us anyway). We agree that we'd like to build relations and do complementary work with other networking groups and occasions in Leicester, so that those engaging in such activities can have more of a joined-up experience and will be able to find whatever it is they're looking for somewhere in the mix.

CREATIVE COFFEE LEICESTER, 27 FEBRUARY 2013

At Phoenix this morning for the fortnightly meeting of Creative Coffee Leicester. We have a speaker today: Julia Harmer, Marketing & Service Development Manager at LCB Depot, talking about Makers Yard in Leicester's Cultural Quarter, the oldest surviving hosiery factory in the East Midlands, which is opening this month as a dynamic and inspiring workspace for creative entrepreneurs. That's Julia in the photo above, speaking with Jed Spittle of Manic Music (who is based at Phoenix and is also a member of Creative Coffee Leicester's management team).

I benefit from a brief chat with Emma Fitzpatrick (Concept Designer and Visualiser) which inspires me with some new ideas for useful ouptuts from the "resilience audit" that I'm working on with Leicester City Council.

CREATIVE COFFEE LEICESTER

At Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre for the fortnightly meeting of Creative Coffee. I missed the last one, so it's reassuring to see a good turnout this morning. We appear to have developed a core support of a dozen or so (including, today, all the members of the steering committee) with around the same number of occasional or new attendees.

The presence of "Table Experts" has become well established. I spend a useful quarter of an hour speaking one-to-one with Kelly Fisher, Business Development Executive at Peninsula, who's here to give advice on employment law.

At noon, we have a brief meeting of the steering committee. We discuss updates on the new logo (which I think we finally approve today), the website (including old and surplus domain names, a trail of which have been left behind since the old days when CreativeCoffee Club met in the Graduate Bar at De Montfort University), the blog, use of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and business cards. There's a brief but interesting discussion of how to use information entered into Eventbrite when attendees sign up to create an accessible database - including ramifications related to Data Protections - and the difference between "Creative Professionals" who attend our meetings and everyone else. This last point highlights a creative tension that (in my experience and opinion) energises and fuels Creative Coffee: it has never been (and cannot be, if it wants to retain its distinctive spirit) a meeting place for professionals only. Most of the people who ask me about Creative Coffee don't fall into a technical definition of "creative professional" - nor do most of the people to whom I recommend it. To me, much of its attraction comes from how it provides a regular opportunity for creative people of all sorts to meet and mingle.

CREATIVE COFFEE: LEICESTER EVENTS GUIDE

At Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre for the fortnightly meeting of Creative Coffee. That’s two separate words and no "Club" from now on - or, to give it its full name now, Creative Coffee Leicester. We have a speaker this morning: Rav Kaur (with backup from Sean Clark) for Cuttlefish Media, on the Leicester Events Guide. Their website is currently in beta testing. You can follow Leicester Events Guide on Facebook. We follow the regular session with another brief meeting of the committee. There are some good ideas put forward for advancing Creative Coffee Leicester; I look forward to helping put them into action.