Author Archives: Kevin Peyton

Creative State North West – 7th June – Discovery Session

Posted on 5 Jun 12 | Leave a comment

Attend the free Creative Sector Discovery Session in The Model, Sligo on Thursday 7th June to hear all about the new fund of over €100,000 that is targeted at creative industries in the North West; specifically Mayo, Leitrim, Donegal, Roscommon and Sligo.

Hear from experts how this type of programme benefited creative businesses in the UK

  • Get practical insights from those who took part and learn how to develop your pitch in new business environments
  • Use this once off opportunity to network and meet other creative businesses working in the North West region

Hosted by The Creative State North West, they are Calling all Creatives to a workshop that will tell you about the fund and how to access it. You will be assisted to develop your businesses “elevator pitch” through a speed pitchingworkshop with an expert.

Registration is at 9.30am and the event finishes at 1pm.

For more details and registration – goto http://callingallcreatives.eventbrite.ie/

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Posted in Events, networking, sligo

April Open Coffee Sligo

Posted on 2 Apr 12 | 2 Comments

Open Coffee Sligo is on again this Thursday, April 5th @11am in the Clarion Hotel – all are welcome

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Posted in Events, sligo

March Open Coffee Sligo

Posted on 26 Feb 12 | 2 Comments

We’re kick-starting the Open Coffee meetups for 2012 this Thursday (1st March) at 11am in the Kudos Bar at the Clarion Hotel, Sligo.

This is our first meeting in quite a while – and will be very informal. If you have views or thoughts on what things you would like to see being presented and discussed for future meetings – then let us know this  Thursday in the Clarion.

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Posted in Events, networking, sligo

IIA Net Visionary Awards – Your votes are needed

Posted on 31 Aug 11 | 1 Comment

The Net Visionary awards are on at the end of september – and we have LookWest.ie (nominated in Best Use of Social Media) and Bua Marketing from Sligo  (nominated in Best in Digital Marketing).

Both Lookwest and Aoife in Bua have been great supporters in what we’ve been doing here in Open Coffee Sligo – so delighted to give them our support.

Closing date for voting is this friday – 2nd September – you can cast your vote here really quickly at  http://www.iia.ie/net-visionary/vote/

 

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Posted in Events

June Open Coffee Sligo – Collaborative Workspace Discussion

Posted on 25 May 11 | Leave a comment

We are pleased to announce that Vincent Naughton from Sligo based Verus Precision will be  discussing the possibilities of a commercially-driven collaborative workspace for Sligo based creatives and companies.

Verus plan this as a commercial venture – and are now seeking the input and interest of all those who would like to see such a space in the town centre.

Attendees of Open Coffee Sligo will be aware of some of the efforts we have made in the past (along with the survey we put together) .

To this end – Vinnie will outline the work that Verus has completed to date including office layouts, landlord engagement, fee structures, membership options, etc – and is looking for your input and discussion to progress these plans.

If you are interested – then please come along to the next meetup of Open Coffee Sligo in the Clarion on Thursday 2nd June from 11am-12.30pm.

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Posted in Office Space

Coming up at Open Coffee Sligo over the next few months

Posted on 3 May 11 | 1 Comment

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.

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Posted in networking, Office Space, sligo

April Open Coffee

Posted on 4 Apr 11 | Leave a comment

Our monthly meetup is on this Thursday 7th April, from 11am to 12.30pm or so in the Clarion Hotel Sligo.

We’re looking for suggestions on talks, subjects and speakers that you would to see over the next few months.

So if you have been to other conferences and events – and have any suggestions – then please chat to us.

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Posted in sligo

IT Sligo Enterprise & Innovation Week

Posted on 23 Feb 11 | Leave a comment

As part of Enterprise & Innovation Week – IT Sligo have kindly offered to host the March meetup of Open Coffee Sligo.

This will be on Wednesday, 2nd March @11am – in the Hub (canteen – 1st floor) of the Innovation Centre. If you have not already been to one of our events, it should be a great chance to meet and network with other businesses in the locality.

As we will also at this point have 3 newly elected TD’s in the constituency – we are planning to invite them along to this Open Coffee meetup.

No promises as of now as to whether they will be able to attend – but it could be a great opportunity to highlight to them the innovation and creativity of SME companies and Entrepeneurs in the Sligo area.

Let’s hope we see your there  – and again, please note the change Wednesday, 2nd March.

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Posted in opencoffee

Survey for Collaborative Workspace in Sligo town

Posted on 21 Feb 11 | 1 Comment

Following on from our last meeting – we have put together a survey which will help to gauge interest and appetite for a shared workspace/collaborative space in Sligo town.

If you are interested  then please fill out our survey
http://polldaddy.com/s/480D645D2974B547

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Posted in Office Space, opencoffee, sligo

Collaborative working and office space Sligo

Posted on 27 Jan 11 | 7 Comments

At our last Open Coffee Sligo meeting in December – discussion turned to office space and how people do a “nine to five”.

We talked about the advantages of home office space and shared office space – and the options that are out there for people in the Sligo area.

It seems to be that a shared office space – that supplements a home office and provides opportunity to chat and interact with like minded creatives on a day to day basis – might be something that would be of interest to a lot of people in the area.

Some of the examples mentioned of similiar spaces included FumballyExchnage.com and AmWorks (both in Dublin -  Irish Times article article on Fumbally )

We are aware of effort by a group of artists to use the Old Mill on Union Street – while there was some interest, it wasn’t followed through in the end.

So what would you look for in such a shared space if it existed (or if there was enough interest) in Sligo?

  • dedicated/shared workspace (desk area)
  • high speed broadband
  • access to meeting room
  • presentation/brainstorming media – projector, flipchart, whiteboard
  • PO Box
  • access 24/7
  • foosball :)

What do we mean by creatives? Not being smart here – this is really anybody who needs office space to run their business. In other shared spaces, typically the types of businesses include

  • Web and software people included programmers and designers
  • artists, photographers, film makers, media
  • people working in finance/architecture/legal profession

So don’t crack me down on this post guys – it’s just a quick note to gain an understanding of who out there might be interested. We have no idea of suitable locations, costs, legal issues with leases, etc – at this point.

If we had a group of say 15 people – then this would give the wherewithall to actually do some research and keep interested parties in the loop.

If you are interested in this – chances are we can be able to discuss it at the next Open Coffee Sligo meetup next thursday – 3rd February @11am in the Clarion Hotel Sligo. You can also drop me an email kevin [at] electricmill.com or drop a comment on this blog post.

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Posted in Office Space, opencoffee