I attended the Bristol Enterprise Network event last night at the Watershed. Part of a emerging series of events focusing around entrepreneurship, innovation, learning and new business.
The panel comprised John Acton (Compact Power), Ben Heald (SIFT), Jaya Chakribarti (Nameless), James Cook (Spider Group) and Giles Clarke (South West Ventures and host of others include chair of English County Cricket Board as Paul Harrod the compare for the evening pointed out).
Things were a bit slow to start off, and it never quite got beyond Q&A and into conversation but an excellence food table and wine ensured that folks hung around after the ‘formal’ part to chat, network, and build connections.
The ‘formal’ part was recorded and should be on the BEN website as a podcast in the near future. I don’t think there were any earth shattering revelations but two messages came through clearly for the growing entrepreneur – people are important (especially managing delivery and personality in a small and intimate team) – and that ,although there will always be too much red tape, there are finance options at the lower end of the scale.