Where would you rather witness the cream of Irish tech start-ups demonstrate their wares? In a stuffy conference room or under the open sky served up with a few beers, good music and some good BBQ beef burgers?
No contest? Then get along to the Irish Open Coffee BBQ on 16 July, held at Terryglass on the shores of Lough Derg, where organiser Ever Bopp has installed Wi-Fi access for attendees.
The Open Coffee BBQ came out of the regular Open Coffee events held throughout Ireland where VCs, entrepreneurs and technologists meet in an informal manner to chat, network and swap ideas and resources.
Asking Bopp if interest and funding in the tech scene outside Dublin was hard to come by, he said that while news of new ventures tend to get picked up more readily if they are happening within Dublin, the irony is there is far more going on around the country.
Open Coffee events, particularly in Cork and Limerick tend to enjoy a bigger attendance than in Dublin where there are so many technology events happening that the scene can be quite fragmented.
Bopp, who got involved in Open Coffee through the lively Irish blogging scene, reckons this is a better way to do business because an informal, less pressurised setting often produces better results as people can chat and get to know each other personally.
“You wouldn’t do business with someone you didn’t like. Some people might call this nepotism but I call it logic,” he said.
“If you ask investors, they don’t just invest in the product, they invest in the person.”
The Open Coffee BBQ promises to be a mixed bag from the technology community with attendees expected from all over Ireland and even one from Dubai.
To sign up for the Open Coffee BBQ head over to http://opencoffeeclub-bbq.com/
By Marie Boran
