Monday 11 June 2007

Work 2.0

The list of things to blog gets longer by the day - and the time to do it gets shorter. Last week I stumbled across a great new idea, the Open Coffee Club, which brings together innovators and investment people in a friendly and informal environment. Clubs are opening up all over the world where members can network with each other and with other clubs when they are travelling.

With a couple of hours to spare before meetings in London on Wednesday, I popped into my first Open Coffee Club event. I chatted to Sandi Wassimer from Copious, about the joys and some of the pitfalls of working from home. New to home working, Sandi is over the moon about the extra time it gives her with her family. After spending a year commuting from Devon to London to Estonia, I know that feeling.

I caught up with Saul Klein of Index Ventures - serial entrepreneur and founder of the Open Coffee Club - who introduced me to Sam Sethi. Sam invited me to get involved in an exciting new project he's cooking and will be rolling out shortly - of which more very soon. Hence less time to spare for rulabula - I'm on a whirlwind of networking, connecting and researching right now.

I would have loved to stay longer but had to dash over to the Strand for my meeting with Rod Geoghegan at Metropolis. With my customary geographic accuracy I went to the wrong building first - just as well, it was a dump by comparison with Rod's gaff - coworking brought to a new level. Rod and I sat in a comfortable and stylish basement cafe bar next door to the restaurant - the smells were great and the menu was fancy - I must get him to buy me lunch on my next visit. Rod is in the business of helping marketers to embrace the digital age and I'm helping out with some first hand insights.

So not a minute for my rants at the moment - I did, however, get around to changing my title here, and moved from the fireside to the deckchair in honour of the sun that finally made its way into my life again last weekend. I sat in the garden squinting at the screen of my laptop - too much to do to get to the beach but at least I have a deckchair.