An Evening With Fred Wilson
We’re super-excited to announce that on Friday 8th August, Old Broadcasting House will be playing host to prominent venture capitalist and internet industry investor, Fred Wilson.
Fred’s spending a month in Europe this Summer, not only vacationing, but seeking to understand how entrepreneurs, with a different worldview to that of North America, are thinking about the power and potential of the web.
Through his appreciation of Sheffield Wednesday and acquaintence with Carl Griffith, cofounder of local startup ensembli, we’ve managed to tempt him into speaking about his experiences in two decades of investing in web and software ventures and hopefully to introduce him to the emerging technology ecosphere of the North of England.
Beginning with Euclid Partners, through the cofounding of Flatiron Partners and latterly Union Square Ventures, Fred’s been responsible for identifying, growing and exiting some of the industry’s most exciting startups, including Bug Labs, del.icio.us, Etsy, FeedBurner, outside.in, Tumblr, Twitter, Wesabe - some of which have been acquired by Google and Yahoo with others seeking to reinvent areas as diverse as personal finance, blogging and real-time communication.
Alongside his career at Union Square Ventures, Fred is one of the web’s most prominent bloggers, writing about topics ranging from technology and investing, to politics and music at his blog, A VC.
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With such a stellar reputation, we’re really very honored to host Fred and hear his thoughts on the state of the industry. The evening will begin at 6pm with drinks, followed by a talk from Fred, an open Q&A session and a chance to network with other guests and also with Fred, before concluding around 8pm. We’d love to have you join us…
{ Register Here! }
Linda Broughton @ Going Solo
Yesterday, nti’s Linda Broughton was invited to speak at the inaugural Going Solo conference in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Linda took part in a panel discussion with Pistachio Consulting’s Laura Fitton and Stephanie Troeth, focussing on going Solo in a Networked World and notably her experiences in establishing a coworking space here in Leeds.
By all accounts, Linda’s contribution generated a lot of interest and questions from Going Solo attendees and I’m sure we’ll hear more about her impressions, right here.
In the meantime, conference organiser Stephanie Booth, has rounded up coverage of the conference for those who couldn’t make it to Lausanne, including streaming video of various panel sessions and keynotes; notes from Jaap Stronks and Suw Charman (including a transcript of Linda’s panel) as well as the official photo gallery.
Well done Linda - and congratulations on joining Twitter!
Update: Some photos of Linda in action on Flickr!
Coworking & Childcare
Springwise recently ran an article - More work spaces for parents - covering the development of coworking spaces that include childcare.
New York’s TwoRooms and San Francisco’s Cubes & Crayons both offer care for pre-school kids, randing from a few months to five years old. Alongside workspaces are playrooms and activities for children.
Cubes & Crayons goes a step further in encouraging the cohesion of its community, be asking parents to volunteer several hours each month, depending on how many hours they’re using the facilities; a wonderful way of deepening bonds between coworking colleaugues! I wonder when we’ll need a creche here at Metspace…
Find out more at Springwise…
Coworking in Lausanne
Stephanie Booth, a social media consultant, prolific blogger and the force behind the upcoming Going Solo freelancing conference, has recently been given the chance to develop a coworking space in her hometown of Lausanne (incidentally, Steph’s grandmother is from Leeds!).
The space itself is a 120m² of spare office space in central Lausanne; perhaps enough to accommodate 15-20 people and a meeting room with a monhtly cost of around 4000 CHF. We’re hoping that we can help Stephanie develop this space with the experience and insight we’ve gained in establishing met:space over the last year.
In the meantime, here are Stephanie’s initial thoughts…
*Another* Evening with Clive Grinyer
Hey everyone - as you may recall we planned to host Clive Grinyer in mid-April for an evening of discussion around his thoughts on design. Sadly, he broke his leg, just days before our planned event and he had to cancel.
However, we’re super-pleased to announce that Clive has rescheduled and will be with us for the evening of Thursday 1st May - next week!
For those unfamiliar with Clive’s work, here’s a quick recap…
Clive’s career has taken him from physical product design, to user interface and the full customer experience - as a consultant, corporate manager and at the head of national design organisations.
Currently, he is the Director of Product Design at France Telecom’s Orange, developing and overseeing the next generation of Orange products and developing design as a tool for innovation and technology development. Next month, Clive will be joining Cisco’s consultancy service as Director of Customer Experience.
Clive’s past includes…
- Senior Design management roles at IDEO.
- A co-founder of design company Tangerine with Martin Darbyshire and Jonathan Ive (yes, the designer of the iPod!)
- the Director of Design for Samsung.
- Head of Design for TAG McLaren Audio.
- Director of Design at the Design Council, creating the Design Demonstration projects with UK manufacturing and technology companies.
Clive is a passionate advocacy of design and design thinking is more than apparent in his popular talks, The Silence Of Design and Lipstick On A Pig, as well as his book Smart Design: Driving Technology To Suit Our Needs.
The evening will begin at 6pm, with drinks followed by a talk from Clive, an open Q&A session and a chance to network with other guests and meet with Clive.
Designers, creatives, technologists, entrepreneurs and innovators will find great insight and passion in Clive’s work; as such this is an event that you cannot miss!
Do let us know if you’re coming and book your free place by emailing info@ntileeds.co.uk or calling 0845 122 1555.
{ Register here! }
Innovation North Postgraduate Showcase 2008
This coming Thursday, Leeds Met’s Innovation North faculty is holding its postgraduate showcase at Old Broadcasting House.
Though the VIP evening is by invitation-only, projects on creative technology, digital imaging, music, IT and computing will be on show for visitors from industry.
Find out more at the Innovation North site…
An Evening with Tony Platt
Tony Platt is a freelance music engineer and producer with over thirty years experience. Starting at Trident Studios Tony moved to Island Studios, working with artists including Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney and Bob Marley amongst many others. On leaving Island Tony turned freelance, becoming studio engineer for Mutt Lange on records by AC/DC, Foreigner and the Boomtown Rats as well as working on documentary film soundtracks.
More recently Tony has worked with a number of artists in various genres from blues to rock, hip-hop and jazz and to this end currently shares a small studio at The Strongroom with Haydn Bendall, former Abbey Road engineer/producer.
In addition Tony is a trustee of GETSET, a director of the Music Producers Guild and regularly provides guest lectures and workshops for universities worldwide.
An Evening with Tony Platt will begin at 6 pm and end at 8 pm. For details and to book places, please call us on 0845 122 1555 or email: info@ntileeds.co.uk
GeekUp: Yahoo UI - Javascript Evolved?
Tonight sees Old Broadcasting House hosting a special edition of GeekUp Leeds (a grassroots community for web developers, designers and technologists), with guest speaker Christian Heilmann of Yahoo! UK.
Christian’ll be talking about the Yahoo! User Interface Library and his work with the Web Standards Project.
Oh - did we mention there’ll be a free bar, serving complimentary drinks and snacks 
Let the organisers know you’re coming at Upcoming.
UPDATE: More at the NTI Leeds website…
Coworking in the news…
I awoke this morning to Twitters from coworking gurus Chris Messina and Tara Hunt pointing to a pair of articles - in the New York Times and SF Gate - covering the burgeoning culture of coworking across the globe…
There’re some interesting insights including larger companies - Timbuk2 - setting aside their own corporate space for use by coworkers and the serendipity that’s accompanying coworking communities in various locations - how business and creative opportunities form quite organically between freelancers and people sharing a space…all without too much overhead.
We’re starting to see that here at Old Broadcasting House too - with residents collaborating on events like tonight’s special edition of GeekUp.
In the next few weeks, we hope the number of residents reaches a critical mass where such serendepitous opportunites and collaboration are commonplace; we’re gonna try help this along with themed coworking days as pioneered by Manchester’s Paul Robinson.
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