Hi Lads, James Corbett from Limerick Open Coffee Club here. Delighted to see this is getting off the ground in Belfast.
One tip from the lessons we've learned here in the mid-west. Don't worry too much about how many people are going to make the first session, even if only two people can make it just pick a date and go with it. Then blog, twitter and write about it everywhere you can after the fact, posting photos and audio/video if possible. You may have to do that for a number of weeks until eventually people get so curious they just have to pop along to see what all the fuss is about. Then, maybe in a matter of weeks or months things will reach an inflection point and it will all start to snowball.
By the way, it'd be great if you could join us on the open IrishOpenCoffee channel at jaiku - http://jaiku.com/channel/irishopencoffee - to which we send live updates from Cork, Limerick, Dublin, Galway and Waterford.
David, I'll be there! (I've been out of the office all morning, so apologies for delay). I'm sure we'll recognise each other! :-) Anyone else, feel free to join us... make yourself known.
Great to meet you David and David at our inaugural meeting! Here's what we agreed to do:
- Set up a google group for our local group
- Get suggestions for what sort of conference/event we want to host in Belfast
- Get suggestions for what sort of conference/event we want to attend as a group outside NI
Another thing that may be good to do it to invite/join a few other obvious candidates to the Open Coffee Club. My immediate suggestions, apart from those who have already found us (Matt!), is Paul McKeever from Front and a few ex-Blackstars... Anyone else?
Can't make it, as you probably realised by now. There's a few Belfast folk who could make it.
Does it have to be Roast? Lack of any wifi there...plus the fact their coffee is as bitter as regret...If it's popular with you guys then I'll turn up to the next one. Someone want to host an ICS file that I can subscribe to?
Are you meeting up again soon? It'd be great if the next meeting was in the city centre and outside of office hours - I heard about this via David but couldn't attend as I was working.
Welcome. I think we are due to meet again soon. I suppose I should start the ball rolling since I started this thread. I am tied up/away next week, so for me it'll have to be something like Thursday 13th September, 6pm at Roast, 407 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 6GN. http://tinyurl.com/yursj5 Any takers? Any other invitees?