Amsterdam OpenCoffee Meetup
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Last year Boris, Arjen and I had an idea to bring web entrepreneurs together in an informal way. Just to meet up with like minded people, share some thoughts, drink a beer, have a chat on what’s going on in the scene, etc.
But as we have more ideas in one week, this idea just didn’t make it.
Last week Saul Klein of Index Ventures wrote a very inspiring blogpost about ” Y Europe can seed growth of its new stars“. In short it said; hey, Silicon valley may be great, but Europe has also talent, ideas, capital, mass and infrastructure to build some very cool companies that can compete with Bay area companies.
This post triggered a wave of enthusiasm around European tech entrepreneurs.
Saul came up with the idea to organize a weekly get together in a Starbucks in Regent street. he calls it OpenCoffee. A meetup where entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, bloggers, and other web savvies meet up with one another. Every Thursday of the week. Last week, the first OpenCoffee was held in London, 75 web savvies attended (you could say that that is a major success).
I believe in getting together with interesting and like minded people. It can be inspiring, you might learn something, but at least you’ll have fun and get connected with people in the industry. Also I believe that Amsterdam has a lot of talented people with brilliant ideas. It is time to show of what Europe and Amsterdam has. This is why I like to initiate an OpenCoffee Meetup in Amsterdam. I chatted with Saul for three seconds and he was very enthusiastic about the idea.
So, the first OpenCoffee will be on Thursday 15 March in de KoffieSalon on the Utrechtsestraat 130. Boris, Arjen and I start our day about once a week in this KoffieSalon and why not join us?
I put the following dutch description on the meetup page:
koffie, wifi, entrepreneurs, web2.0, programmeurs, startups, investeerders, openid, ajax, silicon city, amsterdam, hyves, thenextweb, solid ventures, ebuddy, fleck, wakoopa, lowland capital, zooof, visitopia, ilse, marketingfacts, marktplaats, DCIF, 2ehands, sellaband, schwag, yelloyello, bloggers, blueace, geenstijl, nu, meganova, fok, souki, tweakers, twones, bright, prime technology ventures,….
Elke donderdag kan je de dag beginnen met een aantal interessante mensen om je heen. De ene keer ben je met 20 man, de andere keer moet je het alleen met je koffie, je krantje en je laptop doen (het is wel de aller lekkerste koffie van Amsterdam!).
Laten we ervoor zorgen dat Amsterdam met recht de naam silicon city mag dragen! Het talent is er, de ideeen liggen op tafel, geld… (hmmm kan beter).
Elke week 1 vaste dag, 1 uur, 5 euro (voor je koffie).
If you like to join an Open Coffee meeting, please sign up at Meetup.
Get your agenda and mark: Every Thursday 09:00 -10:00 hrs, de KoffieSalon, Utrechtsestraat 130, Amsterdam.
Hope to see you there!
Oh almost forgot to say, if you have a startup and you have Schwag… bring it.
BTW Ben Metcalfe wrote an interesting post about the needed sparks and fuel for the European startup scene
Wrote on March 3, 2007 @ 9:49 am
Leuk idee, ben er zeker bij, helaas zit ik de 15e in Israel bij Kinnernet….
Veel plezier en tag en post over de meet up zodat het online te volgen is :)
patrick said,
Wrote on March 3, 2007 @ 1:42 pm
Israel, klinkt cool. Ik zal het zeker openbaar maken zodat het te volgen is.
TAG’s: OpenCoffee Amsterdam
boris said,
Wrote on March 3, 2007 @ 2:06 pm
Ill be there!
Robert said,
Wrote on March 3, 2007 @ 3:39 pm
In!
(het is me trouwens gelukt om in het kantoor te komen Patrick, de achteruitgang was toch open :) )
Uri L. said,
Wrote on March 4, 2007 @ 2:27 pm
nice new blog design patrick…
patrick said,
Wrote on March 4, 2007 @ 4:51 pm
@Uri, thanks.
At the moment we are with 7 members. Not bad for a low traffic weekend. I hope we can give it a nice spin during the weekdays to get a nice group together. Please feel free to invite others.
Thijs van der Vossen said,
Wrote on March 5, 2007 @ 11:28 am
Elke week 1 vaste dag, 1 uur, ok. Maar euh 5 euro? Voor wie? Waarvoor?
patrick said,
Wrote on March 5, 2007 @ 11:44 am
Hey Thijs,
Die 5 euro is voor je koffie. Om het makkelijk te maken is het dan 5e i.p.v. dat iedereen zijn eigen koffie elke keer aan de bar moet afrekenen. 5e inleggen en geen omkijken meer naar.
Als jij 1 koffie drinkt en 2,20 wil neerleggen is dat ook fine bij me, maar dit is wel zo makkelijk te onthouden.
P.S. er zijn ook wat kosten verbonden aan Meetup (don’t ask me why). Dus als er 3 euro overblijft dan neem ik er nog eentje.
Thijs van der Vossen said,
Wrote on March 5, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
Aha, vandaar. Wel weer erg ‘Dutch’ om het zo te doen. Zeker in de koffie salon loop ik graag even naar de bar. ;)
Mijn ervaring is overigens dat voor veel mensen de drempel om naar dit soort dingen te komen een stuk lager is als je heel duidelijk maakt wat precies de bedoeling is. Naast dat je niet aangeeft waar de 5 euro voor is, staat er ook geen tijd in je post en is het onduidelijk of je je bij meetup moet aanmelden.
Saul doet dat toch wat beter in z’n originele aankondiging; misschien is het goed daar nog eens naar kijken. Op deze manier denk ik dat je al vooral de mensen aanspreekt die je al kent en die toch al zouden komen. Ik neem aan dat het de bedoeling is om nieuwe mensen te trekken — of niet?
Thijs van der Vossen said,
Wrote on March 5, 2007 @ 1:33 pm
btw, why not use upcoming.org instead of meetup?
patrick said,
Wrote on March 5, 2007 @ 2:28 pm
@Thijs, bedankt voor je opmerkingen. beter zo?
Ik moet toegeven dat Saul dat wat beter deed, maar het was zaterdag nacht 5 uur, meetup account opzetten, blogpost schrijven, poef…
Inderdaad is het de bedoeling om juist nieuwe mensen te ontmoeten.
Ik ben zelf ook een grotere fan van Upcoming dan Meetup (zeker omdat je bij Meetup moet betalen). Maar Saul was zo lovend over de oprichter van Meetup dat ik er niet omheen kon :)
Thijs van der Vossen said,
Wrote on March 5, 2007 @ 2:31 pm
Inderdaad veel duidelijker. Thanks. :)
Uri L. said,
Wrote on March 6, 2007 @ 12:24 am
Hiya Patrick,
The opencoffee is a great idea, it looks really nice and well organized…
could be cool to see a video.
I suppose next meetups will get loaded. Here, the last iDrink (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/idrink02/) brought more than 60 people I think, though was a bit noisy.
Manoj Ranaweera said,
Wrote on March 7, 2007 @ 10:53 pm
It’s a great concept. In addition it provides a common framework to connect OpenCoffee events held in different cities across the world. Here is my attempt http://www.manojranaweera.com/2007/03/07/is-manchester-ready-for-opencoffee/
Regards
Manoj
The Internet Entrepreneur » OpenCoffee Meetup Amsterdam said,
Wrote on March 12, 2007 @ 4:03 pm
[…] Patrick has a cool idea to meet for coffee this thursday in Amsterdam in his favorite morning hide-out. From Meetup: Amsterdam OpenCoffee Meetup Open Coffee events are regular informal meet-ups for entrepreneurs, investors and people interested in entrepreneurship. Amsterdam OpenCoffee Meetups will be held every Thursday morning in the KoffieSalon @ de Utrechtsestraat 130. The idea is that there is one place and time where people can have a coffee before going to work and might meet some interesting folks. […]
Open Coffee preperations « 1000 Times 1000 said,
Wrote on March 13, 2007 @ 7:48 pm
[…] This morning I had coffee in De KoffieSalon and it tasted great (as ever). I’m really looking forward to the first Open Coffee next Thursday. Already 27 people signed up for the meetup (the more the better) […]