The History
CreativeCoffee Club was founded in 2007 by Toby Moores, CEO of Sleepydog media company, and Sue Thomas, Professor of New Media at De Montfort University. We wanted to provide a place for business people, academics, teachers, public sector workers and managers to use new social media tools to network and exchange ideas, and to discuss how to foster creativity and innovation in the workplace.
From 2007 to the summer of 2009 CreativeCoffee Club Leicester was coordinated by Shani Lee and met at the Graduate Bar, De Montfort University, but since late 2009 it has been based at Phoenix Square in the heart of Leicester's Cultural Quarter and coordinated by Jayne Childs. The format of fortnightly Wednesday morning meet-ups has proved very successful and remained unchanged for four years, and under Jayne’s leadership CreativeCoffee has gone from strength to strength, gaining a substantial and very active membership.
Since 2007 CreativeCoffee Club has been funded by De Montfort University as part of the NLab project which was established in 2005 to help small businesses respond to the opportunities and challenges of new media. Over the years, NLab has made a major impact on local businesses via its conferences, seminars, mentoring, research and networking opportunities, the most influential of which has been CreativeCoffee. But NLab will come to an end this July, and we’re very pleased that CreativeCoffee Club looks like a valuable spin-off which needs to have a life of its own beyond NLab.
The Future
We’re pleased to announce that the management and coordination of CreativeCoffee Club will be handed over to Phoenix Square on 1st August 2011. Phoenix is already an important partner of DMU and this move is further evidence of our continued collaboration.
In order to facilitate the continued hosting of CreativeCoffee, Phoenix Square is asking for a small group of people to form a voluntary committee to help coordinate the activities. They will have a representative on this committee, Assistant Operations Manager, Rebecca Harvey. She has volunteered to play an active part in the planning, hosting and continued updating of the Eventbrite page, the blog and other social media.
We are looking for volunteers who could also help grow CreativeCoffee and generate activity, such as the showcase, other networking events and connections. At least one member of the committee would be required at each session to actively greet, host and prompt networking, and collect attendee names and contact details. They'll also help plan and deliver networking events, special sessions and continue to communicate with attendees through the established methods. Phoenix Square would like to meet quarterly with the committee to discuss ideas and assist in bringing those ideas to life.
If you are interested in forming part of this committee and adding to the continued success of CreativeCoffee Club, or to discuss this further, please email ros.hill@phoenix.org.uk
The Invitation - Wednesday 20th July 10.00-12.00
We’ll celebrate the changeover with a display of videos and photos from four years of CreativeCoffee Club, so come along to see yourself in the past! CreativeCoffee's creators Toby Moores and Sue Thomas will be on hand to say a few words, and then we’ll formally hand over to Phoenix.
We hope you can join us on Wednesday 20th July. As always, you can pre-register here: http://ccleic200711.eventbrite.com/
