The Bodega, Cornmarket St, this Friday at 10:15am
There are no presentations or demos lined up this week, just open networking.

And at the Rubicon Centre, CIT, Bishopstown on Friday 18th at 10:15am
in a meeting room on the ground floor, and not the usuall place.
There will be a presentation at this meeting.

Want to talk at Open Coffee?
If you would like to give a talk or show off a new product for some feedback
at an upcoming Cork Open Coffee, please get in touch by emailing

Courses take place in:
· Mallow, April 17th, 2-5 pm for supervisors and April 18th, 9.30am-5pm for frontline staff and
· Blarney, April 24th, 2-5 pm for supervisors.

There are a limited number of places still remaining for both venues.
Contact Damien on 025 – 33411.

Frank Hannigan
As a founder and investor frank has been part of some of the most exciting start-ups in Ireland.
Has worked as a consultant to IT companies in Taiwan, Albania, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Serbia and Montenegro.
Been on BBC’s Dragon’s Den and featured regularly on TV, radio and print on both sides of the Atlantic.
Currently: Chairman at RigBag. VP of Alliances at Tenego Partnering. Director at Scurri.com

Aodan Enright
Qualified executive coach, certified facilitator & business mentor, experienced trainer.
Actively working with a diverse range of entrepreneurs, businesses and multi-national organisations.
Developing the Smarter Egg private learning network in the Munster region.
Currently: Founder at Smarter Egg. Advisor at Plato.

There will also be a presentation from Martin Forrest who is starting his own business, running self defense training for the over 60′s (the idea is that most over 60′s have a walking stick, and thus a weapon to hand!).
He will give a demonstration and has a short video presentation so it should be interesting!

And at the Rubicon Centre, CIT, Bishopstown on Friday 23rd at 10:15am
There will be a presentation at this meeting.

Want to talk at Open Coffee?
If you would like to give a talk or show off a new product for some feedback
at an upcoming Cork Open Coffee, please get in touch by emailing

corkopencoffee@gmail.com

More about Stephen here: and photography at UCC here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Photography-at-UCC/143207142438614 . Stephen has an astonishing breadth of experience from war photography to photographing silver tea pots (do you know how hard that is?!) to filming interviews and caves so bring along you image media questions for him. Look forward to seeing you on Friday.

A study is being undertaken by Dundalk IT in conjunction with ADA Security todetermine if it is possible to prolong self-sufficient living of the older citizens in Ireland.

Gerry o Mahony of ADA Security systems will be giving a presentation on an Assistive Technology Study this Friday at the Fermoy Youth Centre at 11:00am to examine if such technologies can help a person in their day to day living.

50 people are being asked to volunteer for the study and will be provided withinformation, training and the following equipment: tablet computers, room sensors, door sensors, blood pressure cuffs, weighing scales and a Pulse Oximetry device to record blood oxygen saturation.

For further details on the Study or to register your interest please contact Mary Allen on 025 33411.

The Bodega, Cornmarket St, Friday 13 January at 10:15am
There are no presentations or demos lined up this week, just open networking.

And at the Rubicon Centre, CIT, Bishopstown on Friday 27th January at 10:15am
To get OCC of to an inspiring start in 2012, Stephen Bean, photographer, movie maker, lecturer and media producer for UCC is going to give us a talk.

Come along for coffee and the talk will start at 10:30. More about Stephen here: and photography at UCC here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Photography-at-UCC/143207142438614 . Stephen has an astonishing breadth of experience from war photography to photographing silver tea pots (do you know how hard that is?!) to filming interviews and caves so bring along you image media questions for him.

Want to talk at Open Coffee?
If you would like to give a talk or show off a new product for some feedback
at an upcoming Cork Open Coffee, please get in touch by emailing

corkopencoffee@gmail.com

Yanky will have copies of his book with him for anyone to buy.

Fire in the Belly, An exploration of the entrepreneurial mindset

EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK:

• Fire in the belly is the fuel that drives you. With fire in your belly, you’re invincible
• With so many people now considering self-employment, it’s critical to make the emotional transition from employee to self-employed.
• Every entrepreneur has chutzpah – it’s in our DNA. Encourage your chutzpah genie to escape.
• The goal of the education system is to produce employable people who will fill society’s jobs.
• Families are incapable of giving “Recovering Employees” emotional support.
• Feeling lonely can be the number one challenge.
• To be your own boss, you must undergo deprogramming to ditch your employee mindset.
• People say that unless you are prepared to work hard, you should not start a company. Wrong. Unless you already work hard, don’t even think of starting your own business.
• Some employees should never be tempted to leave the employment world. Others should never have been employed in the first place. Asking whether entrepreneurship is for you is the wrong question. The real question is whether you are right for entrepreneurship.
• You’re never too old or too young to start a business.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT THE BOOK:

• Essential reading. Ruari Glenn, amazon.co.uk
• My business bible. Briain Smyth, Irish Independent
• Fire in the Belly tells anyone still beholden to employers how to discover whether they have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Sandra O’Connell, Sunday Times
• A truly comprehensive treatment of the topic. I read things that no one mentioned in all the years I studied entrepreneurship. Feargal Byrne Lostjobstartbusiness.com
• I have witnessed this book’s ability to change peoples’ lives. David Harrington, amazon.com
• I learned more from your book than from 4 years in college. Trevor Gillespie
• Reading your book gave me the confidence to start up my business with my eyes wide open. Everything you said was true. Cathie Clifford, Clifford Marketing & Associates
• Sorry to phone you at midnight. I’ve just finished the book. Now I know that in the morning I will give in my notice. CR
• The best book I have ever read on the neglected subject of entrepreneurial values. This will now be essential reading for all our business advisors. Gerry Moan
• It’s ironic and absurd that the issues tackled in the book were never even touched on during my MBA studies. What planet are these business schools on? Gaby Posen

Retail price: €15.99 + p&p

SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR BUSINESS NETWORKS: €10 +  €1.50 p&p

10+ copies: €10 including p&p

ORDERS: yanky@eircom.net, 086 8575162

The topic of the morning was Cork Open Coffee itself, to see if any members would like to make any changes to how OCC has been working over the past 2 years or so.

There was some great feedback and I took plenty of notes while we all talked. Thank you everyone for all the feedback.

In general, it looks like people want things to stay much the same with just a little more notice about events, some time keeping when talks are going on and keep it tech-based.

Below are my notes in no particular order. I will be working on lining up speakers to demo products and services for the next several open coffees so please get in touch if you would like to give a talk, even if you have given a talk in the past.

If anyone would like to sponsor 1 or more Open Coffees, which pays for Coffee and nibbles for 20ish people, please get in touch by emailing corkopencoffee@gmail.com. The cost of sponsoring a meeting is only 60 Euro. €30 for a coffee urn and €30 for some little cakes.

Here are the notes, if anyone would like to add, please comment below or email us at corkopencoffee@gmail.com

• Fortnightly is good, don’t change to once a month for meetings.
• Needs a little more structure for talks, a moderator for talks being given to prevent topics going on and on
• Every now and then, when doing the initial round-table introduction, give an individual in the audience a few minutes to explain a little more about their business, similar to BNI but not formal.
• A person/business doing a presentation to show their product or service could pay for the coffee?
• 10 – 15 minute presentations, 10- 15 minutes for discussion
• Have Topics for meetings such as SEO, Sales. It doesn’t need a presentation to be made, just a topic for discussion with a person to start it off.
• Send out the email notifications 1 week in advance, Mondays and possibly a reminder again on Wednesday
• Have some more conventional talks such as Sales / Marketing with a tech slant
• Leave behind the Open Coffee’s that take place in coffee shops in the city.
• Try out other venues such as the National Software Centre / Web Works with a board room type environment like the Rubicon.
• Possibly take in donations to pay for coffee & nibbles
• Possibly a Linked-In group for discussions
• If people are looking for someone at a meeting, perhaps have a minute when introducing oneself to say what they are looking for eg: A developer for a project, A designer for a logo
• A page on the website to list profiles of regular members.
• Perhaps recurring talks about relevant topics such as Sales/ Investment/Funding
• Looking into funding to pay for Coffee & Nibbles?
• Try to make resources available to OCC such as access to libraries.
• Have events trough out the year, such as Summer BBQ/Christmas Party events to break up the year.
• Invite in Kieran Moynihan (The new Entrepreneur in Residence at the Rubicon) to talk about his new role in CIT/The Rubicon.