So just to let people know that there is no ‘official’ Open Coffee Sligo happening this thursday (5th May) – but we plan to have some interesting gatherings and discussion over the coming months.
First though – I want to mention where we are at with some of the ideas we were throwing around for a collaborative workspace in Sligo. Back in our January meetup – we discussed what a shared work space might look like, and the type of person that might be interested. To move this forward – we compiled a survey so that we could get an understanding of what the level of interest was like.
To date – we have received 15 responses; If you have not already completed the survey but are genuinely interested in a shared workspace – you can complete it here:
http://polldaddy.com/s/480D645D2974B547
Unknown to us while doing all of this – a local Sligo based company is interested in providing a facility like the one that we had imagined. To this end – they are going to be a outline and present the workspace – along with fee structures, membership options, etc – at our next meetup. More details on this to follow – but if you want to have input on this, the June meeting is definitely one to be at.
Moving on to some topics we covered in April’s meetup – one thing we know very well at this point is that predefined topics, with a speaker – always provide great interest to attendees. With that in mind – we brainstormed a few topics that would be of interest to lots of people. These included individual sessions/discussions on
- Search Engine Optimisation (surprise surprise)
- The Sales Process
- Creativity/Innovation for SME’s
- Monetising Facebook (paraphrased as making best use of followers)
- Google Ads & Analytics
- Employment issues for SME’s taking on staff (contracts, motivation, self-directed working, etc)
We agreed that much of these topics would NOT be 101 type stuff – we have moved beyond that – but would actually provide insight and real experience from practitioners.
With that in mind – we have made some initial exploration on the possibility on getting people from Facebook/Google to an event in Sligo – but it appears travel beyond the pale is out of the question.
So while we have not scheduled any of these topics just yet – this post should provide readers with a good update on our thinking, and of the range of topics that we might cover over the upcoming months.
Great topics, all really useful. Would be great aswell to get some feedback from folks on any conferences they have attended (free or with a fee) that they felt was worth the cost / time /travel as once again there aren’t a huge amount happening in the Region, so would be good to figure out the ones worth travelling for, especially from a networking perspective!