It may be the Easter hols, but that doesn’t mean the hub shuts down – yesterday was a really good day for us, Wednesday’s have always been a popular day for us…the power of Cake Wednesdays! but yesterday felt different and I think it was due to the two great but very different events that acted as bookends for the working day.
First up with the lark was Techie Brekkie, these have always proved hugely successful for us and in their new home of the Library they seem to be going from strength to strength. Yesterday’s meetup was all about Wearable Tech, the subject was opened by the quote “One day soon it likely won’t be a question of whether you’re wearing a piece of smart tech, but whether you’re wearing anything that isn’t.” Brian Bennett, Cnet.com. With new tech hitting the market including Google Glass, Smartwatches, Bluetooth Rings, Oled Bracelets, Fitbits : gadgets are becoming smaller, but the market is becoming bigger as technology becomes ever more integrated with our day-to-day activities and our lifestyles.
The room was set for an informal chat coffee, pastries and much-in-demand bacon sandwiches were provided for all attendees (which included a number of Guild members). Normally these meetups are quite a relaxed affair with people chatting generally about the issue however, this one seemed to divide opinion, when I walked in to top up the milk the topic had transferred to the application of big data and how it could save lives but at what cost? Talking to organisers and attendees afterwards they all agreed it had been a successful meetup and had thrown up some interesting questions. Sadly there weren’t any pastries or bacon sandwiches left at the end…here’s hoping for next time!
After Techie Brekkie the working day continued, allowing for a short break for cake at 3pm, but it all kicked off again at 5pm this time for the creative contribution of the day: one of Creative Bath’s Design Matters talks. Its always great to welcome Creative Bath to the hub, they’ve been huge supporters of ours – in fact we were based for a short time up at Media Clash during the initial building phase of the hub, speaking at Design Matters were Bath based company Wild and Wolf, I’ve long time been an admirer of their products so it was great to have them in the hub. Speaking was Head of Design Mat Thomas, who brought along a range of their products and packaging, the talk focussed on their process of designing a product, starting at the beginning and ending with it hitting the shelves.
So excluding the members, visitors and people wanting to pay parking fines we welcomed around 85 new people through the doors yesterday, not bad for a midweek during a sunny easter holiday! It was also great but not surprising to see the success and demand of both a tech and creative led event, people often comment on the size of Bath in comparison to its nearest neighbour and how their can’t possibly be the demand or the hunger for events like this, but hopefully yesterday and in fact the hub in general prove that both of these industries are thriving here in the city and that there is a growing demand for events of this nature too.
The next Techie Brekkie will be on 21 May and the topic will be The Internet of Things.
The next Design Matters will be on 8 May and speaking will be Jamie Ellul from Supple Studio