Thoughts

The link to Book tickets for 14 Nov

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And here it is:  Click click

Another session - 14 November

Another Creative Entrepreneurs Session

SHOP TALK

This is an evening for people who are successfully running their own self-started, enthusiasm-led creative businesses.  Come and join us if you have made it happen for yourself by going out there and doing it with passion, integrity and tenacity.  Please bring your questions and insights, and your willingness to share your own experiences.  

Shop talk focuses on retailing - what shops are looking for, pricing, what sells and why, are a few aspects we’ll discuss.  The panel consists of 4 individuals who are running and curating 2 very different shop spaces but who at the end the day need to make sales.

Venue:  TjingTjing, The White Room, 165 Longmarket Street, Cape Town

Format for the evening: 

1730                 Arrive and sign in

1800                 Introduction by Keri Muller

On the panel:  Thessa Bos – The Fringe Arts

                          Chantal Louw – The Fringe Arts

                                                  Lei Lester – Citymob

                                                  Amy Putman - Citymob

                          Possible 5^th guest

Panel Discussion around retailing

** I am aware that we just have 2 companies represented but felt that these individuals bring a huge amount of experience to the table and are locally dominating the market.

1900 – 1930      Break with drinks and snacks

1930 – 2030      Questions and Experiences from the floor

                       

2030                 End of evening

                        Thank you’s

Chantal Louw and Thessa Bos from The Fringe Arts

The Fringe Arts sells 100% handmade art and design sourced from South Africa's Creatives. Owned and run by Chantal Louw and Thessa Bos, the duo focusses exclusively on local art and design, showcasing South Africa’s creative edge and its ability to compete internationally in the art and design market.

Chantal is an art historian who, until she co-founded The Fringe Arts in January 2010, was the Gallery Director of a top contemporary gallery in Cape Town, and successfully launched artists such as Spier Contemporary 2010 winner Araminta de Claremont. Apart from co-directing The Fringe Arts, Chantal is a board member for the Association for the Visual Arts (AVA) and a curator.

Previously the commercial and cultural officer of the Netherlands Consulate General in Cape Town, Thessa is a journalist by training and has a master in international politics. Her extensive experience in the synergy between arts, not-for-profit and business reflects her strong eye for design and commercial skills. Besides co-directing The Fringe Arts, Thessa was the Western Cape representative for Business and Arts South Africa until March 2011, when she resigned to focus full-time on The Fringe Arts.

Web www.thefringearts.co.za |Facebook  www.facebook.com/thefringearts | Twitter @thefringearts

Lei Lester and Amy Putman from Citymob

Citymob is an online design destination that delivers the best design products to our over 100k members nationwide.   They do this by hosting 5-day private flash sales and month long curated pop-up shops that contain the best prices.   The biggest key has been great product selection. Their team's ability to effectively find and procure amazing design objects that delight and inspire people is what gives this thing momentum.

Citymob launched in March 2011 and was re-launched as a design platform 6 months ago focusing solely on unique products from South Africa and Abroad.  

Lei is the Merchandiser Director for Citymob and Amy, the Lead Curator.   Lei’s background includes interior design and number of years with @Home as the buying manager.  Amy has worked on a number of Fashion Magazine publications and brings a range of skills and experience from styling and shoot production through to product sourcing and writing.

Web www.citymob.co.za | Facebook  www.facebook.com/CityMob | Twitter @citymob

TIMING...

is everything...

I got a bit ahead of myself and time has just been flying.

The next event will be in the first 2 weeks of November.  I have realised it is more sustainable and do-able to host and organise and run these events quarterly.

I am looking for a new venue as our last place is temporarily closed till the new year.  Do let me know if you know of somewhere wonderful.

x Keri

Knock-offs...

Who Moved Apple’s Cheese? The Role Of The Knock-Off Effect In Innovation

CHRIS HAWKER

Saturday, September 8th, 2012

17 Comments

Chris Hawker, the founder of Trident Design, LLC, has over 20 years of experience developing and commercializing his own and others’ inventions. His most famous product, the PowerSquid, was the subject of a six-part series published in TechCrunch called the Song of the PowerSquid.

As the president/founder of Trident Design, LLC, I’ve been inventing and commercializing products for 18 years, and all the successful ones get knocked-off.

Even the not-so-successful ones are eventually flattered in this way. It’s pretty quick, generally. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a couple years, but if your product is on shelves and people are seeing it, they will be “inspired”. It’s not even necessarily nefarious. It’s human nature. People see a possibility they didn’t see before and it opens their mind: to something very similar to the new innovation. They become blinded by the innovation and can’t see any other possibilities. Sometimes it is ill-willed, however, and companies make intentional rip-offs. Some companies actually specialize in this. The only thing that will discourage them is the threat of patents. So the inventors’ objective is to come up with an innovation that can be reasonably protected with a patent. If the product really takes off, you can try and hold on to your market, at least for a time. However, a patent does not enforce itself and you will have to be proactive to protect your territory. This can get very expensive (over $1 million for a lawsuit), so it will typically only make business sense for big-time products, like the iPhone....

Keep reading:   http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/08/who-moved-apples-cheese-the-role-of-the-knock-off-effect-in-innovation/

Some interesting reading

Via Designsponge.com
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/08/dont-put-a-bird-on-it-saving-craft-from-cuteness.html

I am particularly enjoying Grace Bonney's interviews in the segment called 'After the Jump'
Some definite inspiration for me on where to take the Creative Entrepreneurs Evenings and how to keep them going.

Check out all the talks here and you can download them as podcasts:
http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/programs/79-After-the-Jump

And just in case you haven't seen the Portlandia 'Put a bird on it clip'
www.putabirdonit.com 

Reminder about what it's all about

This was carefully crafted by Keri Muller and Heather Moore.

Heather, thank you for all your help with this.  Check out Heather's site skinnylaminx for gorgeousness

So, when are we going to do it again?

So, when are we going to do it again? 
This seems to be the question on everyone's mind...

I am planning the next one for the end of September.  This mailing list will be informed first and sent the link to book tickets.

A few recommendations have been made which I like the sound of 

1. Start the event at 18:15 so that the talking is all wrapped up by 19:45 (latest)
2. We don't really need snacks - they are nice to have if we have a food orientated speaker but it might be nice to spend that bit of cash on something else or donate it to a charity.  Or put it in a pot to sponsor a school child.
3. Streamline the discussion topic so that it is more specific and doesn't cover so much ground.  
4. Email Keri questions before the time so that these can be worked into the discussion
5. Allow more time for questions as we didn't to get to quite a few people
6. Put the speakers on a slightly raised platform so that everyone can see them
7. Attendee stickers with the name and business name

** do you have more feedback - please tell me **

There has also been much feedback regarding more seats.  I would like to keep the event small so that the event retains a more personal feeling and encourages discussion/questions/statements from the floor.  We will have to cap it at 50 as the venue also does not have more space.

Currently the following 2 topics seem to be HOTT for the next event...

• Shop talk  - a panel of shop owners and maybe a buyer from a major retail chain
• PR (not marketing) - how it works, press releases, what do journo's want?

What do you all think?

Please do remember, these events are for passionate business owners who went out there and did it themselves. So don't forget to bring your questions, thoughts and general willingness to interact as the owner of a self started business.

The Video... I can't seem to get this to load up to youtube despite my fast adsl... so if you would like a copy do let me know and we can make a plan.  As it was our first time doing this we landed up running out of disc space so only got about 40 minutes of the actual talk and 10 minutes of that is me wittering on about housekeeping... aargghhhh.  The good news is the sound was great and we can hear everyone talking clearly.

As always, feel free to forward this on to other business owners who you think might be interested in joining us.

Update

The video...
For some reason I can't get it to load up - it might be the length as I do have good, fast (ish) internet.  Any advice would be most welcome.
Hum ho

Next event
It's definitely happening at the end of September.  Options are either a PR/Marketing discussion OR a chat with Shop Owners.  I am currently leaning towards Shop Owners but will keep you updated.

AND DON'T FORGET PEOPLE...

Onward and Upward

 (my new motto after a rather disheartening experience... but now I know)

Video of the event

I have been trying to upload the video of the event to youtube but have not been having much luck.

I keep trying and trying and it keeps timing out.... gggrrrrrr

So sit tight as I am hoping to get it up by the end of the week.

The first event

It went down a storm and everyone arrived on time with lots of thoughts to share and big smiles.  The only down side was that we ran out of time.  


Everyone who bought a ticket arrived - a 100% turnout - thank you.


A massive thank you again to the speakers - Heather Moore, Vicki Sleet, Alex Fraser and Karen Dudley.  There clear passion for what they do I think shone out to everyone in the room.  It was incredibly inspiring and informative.  


I am going to aim to hold these every 2 months and try to streamline the discussion points a little but still have a cross section of speakers - eg:  Blogger/business analyst/designer/foodie etc as I like the different perspectives which apply across all businesses.


The ideas for the next one are flooding in thick and fast so please keep them coming.  Please do comment below with ideas and other business owners who you would love to hear talk.


Some ideas for future talks:  

More talk around World Design Capital 2014 and bringing us all together to make this city truly exceptional.  How do we create a culture of generosity around sharing our great city?

A PR workshop 

- Vicki is on it.  I will circulate the details via the mailing list.

A talk focusing just on PR and marketing

- hopefully Vicki agrees to sit in on this one too. I'd love to get a magazine editor, a brand strategist and a social media guru on board for this.

Pricing and Value of a product as well competition and how do we deal with others who are selling there goods for to little?

- I know there is lots to talk about here.  From the time you put in creating it to the mark ups and commissions.

Retail and Shop owners 

- I would love a panel of shop owners to talk about running  shop, differentiation, relationships with their suppliers and all that good stuff.

Click click - add your thoughts below

Video

Two Delightful students from AFDA film school have agreed to film the discussion so that others can see it to.  I'll be loading up the link to this site and circulating by email.

The first event is happening

The first event Sold out - clearly you are all keen to talk business and especially with our inspiring business owners who kindly agreed to come and have a chat.


Who will be sharing their experiences:  

Heather Moore (Skinnylaminx), Karen Dudley (The Kitchen), Alex Fraser (Invenfin) & Vicki Sleet (iwantthat)

Date:  25 July 2012

Time:  5:30 for 6pm till 8pm

Address:  Abi and Scarlett Event Space, 36 Bay Road, Mouille Point, Cape Town

Enjoy an interesting chat, delicious food from The Kitchen & a glass of wine kindly sponsored by Cloof Wine Estate.


Tickets are R75 and need to be booked online please.  Tickets are limited to 50 seats.

PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT SOLD OUT AND THE WAIT-LIST IS CLOSED.  THERE WILL BE NO TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR.  ADMISSION IS BY TICKET ONLY.

Notes on why

Welcome to the beginning of what I hope becomes a regular event bringing together entrepreneurs across all sorts of creative fields.  


Some food for thought


Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right! 
– Henry Ford


Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as survival, but that's exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it's about trading: buying and selling. 

- Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop 


Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make. 
- Donald Trump 


A lot people never use their initiative because no one told them too.
- Banksy