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! }

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! }

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…

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

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… 

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…

• Shared word spaces a wave of the future
• They’re Working on Their Own, Just Side by Side

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.

Oops, bad news - we’ve had to cancel this Wednesday’s An evening with…Clive Grinyer event. Clive contacted us this morning to tell us that he’d broken his fibula and will be outta commission for the next 5-6 weeks.

We thought about finding another keynote speaker, but this event was really about Clive and his amazing body of work, so we’ll be looking to reschedule in the Spring when he’s well enough to travel again.

However, we did manage to signup 72 people for the evening talk - that’s almost as many as BarCamp Leeds! Stay tuned, we’ve got a whole bunch of events coming up in the next few weeks, including a special edition of GeekUp.

Wow. We’re really spoiling you.

As a special pre-Valentine’s gift, Old Broadcasting House will be hosting ‘An Evening with…Clive Grinyer’ on 13th February.

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.

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 that your coming by registering here, for An Evening with…Clive Grinyer.

{ Register Now }

Later this month, on 31st January, Old Broadcasting House will be hosting ‘An Evening with… Haydn Bendall‘; the latest in the ‘Evening with…’ series of events, hosted by nti in partnership with Innovation North.

Haydn Bendall’s career - as a renowned record producer and sound engineer - spans three decades, with a ten year spell as senior engineer at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. Haydn has worked with some of the biggest names in music, including Paul McCartney, Sting, Damon Albarn, Tori Amos, Kate Bush and Elton John, among many others. He has also worked across many different genres, including pop, rock, musicals and orchestral works. In addition, Haydn is Vice Chairman of the Music Producers Guild and lectures at universities across Britain.

At this event, Haydn will be sharing his experiences from his long and varied career and hosting a Q&A session.

‘An Evening with… Haydn Bendall’ will begin at 6 pm and close at 8 pm. To book your place, call 0845 122 1555 or email info@ntileeds.co.uk.