The following are the next OCCs in Cork:
- Tomorrow Friday 18th - Luigi Malones on Emmet Place 10am. No formal demos but as always feel free to whip out a laptop and show us all what you are working on.
- Friday August 1st - No OpenCoffee. We tend to have minimal turnout on Bank Holiday weekends
- Friday August 15th - Joint OpenCoffee-SohoSolo meet-up in the National Software Centre in Mahon. We are starting this one early at 9am (running until 11). CorkBIC will give a short talk on the services they offer businesses in Cork. On a personal note, I found have found them and the associated Business Angels Partnership very helpful.
Just a few notes on the latest from Cork OpenCoffee.
- We’re in today’s Examiner! Half page piece including a picture I took at the Tapasol Demo in the Rubicon Boardroom.
- Aileen Cussen wants to thank everyone who donated last Friday. She raised almost €700 from a total of €4000. In addition, she got multiple offers of help and expertise for the trip to Uganda including Wifi/internet guidance, laptop configuration, CD burning and local contacts. I’ll write more on this over the weekend in the context of the power of the network. An extra big thanks to Margaret in the Rubicon for rounding up lots of people on the morning.
- Next OCC is probably in NSC in Mahon next Friday 18th. Details TBC shortly
- OpenCoffee BBQ is on next Wednesday in Terryglass. We’re carpooling from Cork with cars currently planning to leave Cork at 9.30 and returning pretty early (4ish). If you haven’t already contacted me about getting transport (bus or car) please do ASAP. If you have, then I’ll be mailing the carpooling details shortly.
As many of you know, Evert Bopp is organising OpenCoffeeClub BBQ in Terryglass in Tipperary on Wednesday July 16th. It sounds like there are quite a few from Cork OpenCoffee interested in attending. If you are one of them (and I need definites), would you be interested in sharing the cost of a mini-bus to take us up and down? Please e-mail conor AT loudervoice DOT com if you are.
The day sounds excellent with over 70 confirmed attendees and 11 talks. Like OpenCoffee, it’s an informal gathering of entrepreneurs, start-ups, investors, EI/CEBs and anybody with an interest in business and technology who want to tell their story, network, do deals and learn from each other.
There will be a “Dragon’s Den” section where they want to give startups or entrepreneurs the chance to present themselves and their ideas. A panel will choose the best entry (or entries) and these will be awarded prizes that will help them to get their venture of the ground.
Of course there will be BBQ and beverages!
The event is free for all attendees and Evert will ensure full Wifi coverage for the day.
He is still looking for sponsors, particularly in the Finance space for the Dragon’s Den segment. Please contact him directly on contactevert@gmail.com or 087 6324042 if you wish to sponsor any aspect of the day.
Hope to see you there.
The next OCC would normally not be in the Rubicon but we’ve decided to have a special joint-one there this coming Friday, July 4th at 10am.
Aileen Cussen, who is an EI D.A. to many of you I’m sure (including ourselves) is going to Uganda to help build a school and educate some of the local children for a period of several weeks. It is being done as part of the Lake Lyantonde project which was initiated by the Kabata Farmers Group and run by the local community with an aim of creating awareness of, environmental conservation practices, safe water and sanitation, sustainable agriculture, HIV/Aids, and fostering general development for the community living near Lake Lyantonde.
If you feel like donating to this on Friday, please do. The coffee and scones are sponsored by the Rubicon Centre. One thing which I’d like to hear about is how business is doing in Uganda and what are the specific challenges they have. I have read about the mobile phone and mobile internet being a great enabler in Africa and I wonder if that is true in Uganda too. Also, is Fair Trade working for them?
- We won’t have a Demo session on Friday as a result.
- Suggestions and offers of coffee/scone sponsorship for the next one on July 18th somewhere in town?
- If you have interest in Coworking in Cork, have your say over on Pat Phelan’s blog.
I’ve arranged a dinner for this coming Tuesday night in Cork City (final venue decision imminent). It is to wish fond farewell to OpenCoffee stalwart Tom Raftery who is moving to Spain with his family.
If you would like to attend, please let me know by e-mail to conor AT loudervoice DOT com by Saturday night at the latest. It should be a great night.
The next Cork OpenCoffee is on Friday June 6th in Luigi Malone’s on Emmet Place at 10am. The one after that is back to the Rubicon Centre in CIT.
We won’t have a formal demo slot in Luigi’s but as always everyone should feel free to whip out their laptops to show us what they are working on.
The Demo Slot on the 20th will have Paul Harrington show us MapEnable.
Map Enable allows you add mapping functionality to your website
without having to make any code changes to it. When adding an item to
your site that you want mapped, you:
- Insert a line of HTML code along with the item into YOUR website
- Add information about the item into the MapEnable system
Our second last OpenCoffee was in Luigi Malone’s where Pat Phelan, from Cubic Telecom, demoed TwitterFone to us all. We were all sworn to secrecy until the official launch which happened last night. The response, as we all predicted, has been overwhelming.
Apart from the fact that it’s a fabulous service, there are some strong lessons to be learned from the TwitterFone development.
- Do it, do it, do it do it. Don’t talk about it, just do it! Pat has had such amazing successes because he executes brilliantly
- Partner with like-minded companies. If your offering is going to be stronger combined with someone else’s, then don’t be afraid of working closely with them.
- Use your networks to find people who can help you build your vision and get it launched more quickly
- If you are a service provider, focus on mutual value not price. Even at the simplest level, think of the free publicity you’ll get with the launch of something you helped build.
- Demo and solicit feedback as early as possible. Keep the vision but stay open to suggestions of your peers.
I know of two OCC regulars who have kicked into high-gear on their app development as a result of Pat’s Demo and advice in Luigi’s. I hope we see even more.
Well done Pat!
The guys from Tapasol have built some very interesting bare-metal provisioning and deployment software. I remember looking into this area in EMC a few years back and being disappointed by what was out there.
It’s great to see a local company doing something in this space, particularly one that came about due to the Motorola closure. The guys also recently won an award in this years Genesis Programme.
On Friday the 23rd they will talk about the challenges of deploying software on Unix servers and give a demonstration of their automated solution to build a Unix server from bare metal with a single command.
