The first Dublin OpenCoffee Club was held last Thursday in The Morrison Hotel and was a great success. While we had nothing like the impressive crowds seen in London, a great bunch turned up to talk about all things web and business. I don’t suggest we publish a roll-call for every event, but those brave enough to show for the first occasion definitely deserve a mention:
- David Barrett
- Paul Campbell
- Eoghan McCabe
- Larurence Veale
- Derek Organ
- Des Traynor
- Vincent Glennon
- Pawel Grabowski
Thanks to all that came or dropped a note to say they couldn’t make it. The interest in this is huge and it can only get bigger. The jury is out on how often it should be held. I don’t think we could sustain a meetup like this once a week just yet, so I won’t be calling one for this Thursday (but don’t let that stop others if they’re up for it). Please let me know how often you think it would work.
Aside: I’d like to mention two Irish projects I left the meetup thinking about. The first is Vincent Glennon’s useamap. It’s a simple service but one I’ve been looking for for a long time. I’m surprized something like this isn’t already built-in to Google Maps. The second is Derek Organ’s 1time. 1time is a web-based time and expense tracking app that I’m told rivals Harvest. 1time launches today after nearly a year of beta testing and development so go check it out.
9 Comments
lol Vincent Glennon…. took me a while to figure out who you were talking. Yea I love vinny’s UseAMap.com - TinyUrl but for Maps. An Irish experience it’s been his baby for a good while now and it’s looking great.
We (us based ruby on rails development firm) have had issues with google maps in Ireland (see www.touristr.com) - we are looking at switching to yahoo maps instead.
second you mentioned harvest and 1time.com - but checkout www.LessAccounting.com
Appreciate the mention, cheers. The OpenCoffee was good. I think its a great opportunity for web entrepreneurs to team up and help each other out with ideas and making business connections.
Just so you know we have a new website name now: http://1timetracking.com
Good to hear it was a total success. It’s no doubt a great concept. In addition it provides a common framework to connect OpenCoffee events held in different cities across the world. Here is my attempt http://www.manojranaweera.com/2007/03/07/is-manchester-ready-for-opencoffee/. Perhaps I may need to think of an early start - driving and parking is a major issue.
Regards
Manoj
Why don’t you pick a venue that people would like to work from? I personally prefer smaller/intimate happenings that help to create better collaborative environments. So, if there isn’t a great turnout, people won’t mind as they can just get on with work outside their normal environment. It doesn’t say much if you don’t get any investors there though - either lack of awareness or lack of interest. I doubt it’s the latter so perhaps EI can do something to help promote it.
Why do I always come across these things the day after they happened?!
When’s the next one, can you add me to the mailing list.
How was yesterday?
Paul: I think it might be the latter. The events have had reasonably high levels of publicity within the blogging scene. For the next one, I think I will contact Enterprise Ireland and some other bodies to see how they might be able to help. Thanks for the idea.
Maryrose: The meeting yesterday went well, thanks. But it was still small. If you subscribe to this blog, you’ll be kept up to date with plans for the next one. I’ll mail you a reminder too.
Eoghan - best to assume that the majority won’t have a blog… why don’t you pick up the phone to investors (big and small) as well as startups you hear about… not trying to tell you what to do here :) just some ideas as I’m not based in Dublin most of the time, so it’s not as if I can help much!
Paul: Thanks for your help. I will definitely make a few calls next time.
3 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[…] Starting with Saul in London followed quickly by Eoghan in Dublin and James/Jan in Limerick, it looks like the OpenCoffee Club idea really does have legs. The core idea is that a regular informal meeting is held in a coffee shop where we try to bring together entrepreneurs and investors to discuss topics of mutual interest, learn from each other and hopefully build lasting business relationships over time. […]
[…] The first Dublin OpenCoffee Club was a whole lot of fun and I met some great people there. I’m going to call the next one for Thursday, 22 March. If you came to the last one, please come again. If you missed the last one, now is your chance. If you think you might be interested, but you’re not really sure, stick your head in the door and see if you like the look of us! […]
[…] Dublin’s second OpenCoffee Club will be held in The Morrison Hotel this Thursday, 22 March at 9AM. All are welcome. The first one was a whole lot of fun but the group was relatively small. From the feedback I’ve got so far for this second event, I expect it to be at least twice as big with some new names and faces planning to come. […]