24 hours as a Porsche driver
I had the great pleasure over Friday and Saturday of driving and owning (for 24 hours) the new 2010 Porsche Boxster, kindly lend to me by the good people of Porsche Centre Belfast. I have been a fan of Porsche since a boy and whilst all my pals had dreams of winning the lottery and buying up Ferrari’s, Lambos and Astons, my eye was always on a Porsche, and not as a lottery winners car either, I wanted one for an every day car.
I have driven a few other the years and been taken out in others, every week I look at 924s and 944′s in the paper and think, wouldn’t that be a great weekender………… alas I never end up buying one. (more…)
Bitbuzz Provides Complimentary Wi-Fi Access to Costa Coffee Customers
Michelle Mclaughlin, General Manager, Costa Coffee Belfast George Best Airport, and Russell McQuillan, Business Development Manager, Bitbuzz, launching the Wi-Fi hotspot at Costa Coffee in Belfast George Best Airport.Initially Bitbuzz will roll-out the Wi-Fi service for Costa Coffee customers at Belfast George Best Airport. The deal is with parent company MBCC Foods, who hold the Irish Costa Coffee, KFC and Pizza hut franchises. (more…)
50p Broadband Tax, gone …….. but not forgotten !
I won’t get bogged down with talking about the digital economy bill or whatever other title’s that have been thrown about for what is effectively the EU Data Retention Directive re-packaged to suit the British Government. I can’t, as an ISP, I’m too close to it and the outcome of whatever does eventually pass through law effects not only my company but my clients and end users as well. When the time is right however, you will hear my thoughts !
What I can talk about though is this 50p line rental tax. What Labour proposes is that a tax of 50p per month per line is strapped onto every phone line in the UK, the money it says will fuel a new super fast broadband product available to all, well not quite superfast….. What we are actually talking about here is 2meg minimum in rural areas (that is anyone not in a ‘big’ city) (more…)
Open Coffee Lisburn, new day and location
Numbers at the Friday meeting’s have been dropping of late so Simon McC set up a quick survey to find out what day suited people best. At the same time people were complaining about the venue. Daltons has been good to us but the feedback was that the breakfast was not up to scratch (being that its a sandwich bar) and the parking was not the handiest.
So we have came up with (based on the survey and feedback) what we think is a good plan, and we will trail it for the next two meets ups to see how viable it is. (more…)
Open Coffee Lisburn on tour / Open Coffee Banbridge, a new beginning
I am not sure if we should say that Open Coffee Lisburn is on tour or if we should just go right ahead and start calling it Open Coffee Banbridge, after all the Lisburn (cell / chapter / branch / franchise / who cares?) was started by a few of us that were attending Belfast Open Coffee.
Anyway to make a short story long a few of us were chatting about how to expand on our bi-weekly meeting, get more people involved and generally shake things up a bit in 2010 ( twenty ten / two thousand and ten / again who cares? ) and Open Coffee Banbridge was born (exactly one year on from Open Coffee’s birth) !
However rather than Belfast’s weekday evening or Lisburn’s Friday early o’clock, this will be on a Saturday at Outlet, meaning you can bring the family and make a day of it.
The first meeting will be on Saturday 16th at 9.30 at Starbuck’s, of course Open Coffee Lisburn still continues as usual on Friday mornings with our next meeting being on Friday 8th at 7.15am in Dalton’s Lisburn.
If you have never heard of Open Coffee, here are a few links to help you better understand what on earth I am talking about !
Open Coffee Lisburn andrewgribben.com, Open Coffee Lisburn on russellmcquillan.com, Open Coffee Lisburn on Twitter, iCal / gCal subscriber tool
I hope to see you there !!
Russell
Open Coffee Lisburn – 21st Aug – Seed Funding opportunity
At our next OC Lisburn Meeting, we will be joined by Diane from Invest NI’s Propel programme. (Daltons, 7.15am)
I’m Not sure if you are aware of it (was formerly Transform) but the aim is to
take 30 of the brightest knowledge/technology ideas out there in NI and give them the necessary mentoring, support and guidance to make progress ( as well as a salary support to help soften the financial blow!) with at least 15 of them getting seed funding at the end of the six month intense programme.
The programme will be delivered by Xcell Partners and officially launches on August 17. The founder and partner of Xcell Partners, Diane Roberts would be keen to come to your next open coffee meeting on 21st August and if possible give a five minute intro to the programme.
She has an interesting background having operated on both sides of the Atlantic specialising in guiding and mentoring early stage and venture start up companies. Prior to heading up Propel, she was based in Silicon Valley, California, where she was West Coast Director and Manager of Enterprise Ireland’s US Software and Services team. She has also enjoyed considerable success operating in sales roles for international telecoms companies in the UK, Europe and Asia Pacific regions. Diane also acts as National Director for the Halo Business Angels Network (HBAN) in the Republic of Ireland (funded by InterTradeIreland and Enterprise Ireland.)
Spread the word and see you there.
Russell
OpenCoffee Lisburn – Next Meeting
The next meeting of OpenCoffeeLisburn will be on
Date : Thursday 5th February
Location : Cafe Latte Lisburn
Time : 7PM
Here’s a Map
See you there !
leave a comment