With this imagery in mind, we headed to Venture Café—a vivacious, physical representation of the Kendall coral reef. Harkening back to the collaborative experiences of both Pixability and CoachUp.com, this weekly get-together is where game- and life-changing companies begin.
“The real value for the entrepreneur,” Executive Director Chris Myles says, “is coming to the Venture Café and meeting people who bring a different type of value, either in skill set or perspective, to their business” which he terms “cross-pollinating the bump.” Would you believe that the Venture Café has over 11,000 visits on record so far?
Breaking news: Get Ready for Venture Café 3.0!
Urban folklore says that the magic at Venture Café happens naturally when really smart people connect in an unstructured environment with nothing more than a little fermented beverage to lubricate their interactions. A look behind the curtain shows the reality that it takes a boatload of planning and programming to meet the voracious needs of this ever-evolving population.
To provide a larger space for this cross-pollination of talent to happen, Venture Café will soon be moving from the CIC’s kitchen on the 4th floor to a totally revamped, dedicated space on the 5th floor. Instead of the weekly Thursday night sessions that we know and love, Café 3.0 will be a 24-hour community space for open collaboration along with expanded programming that will be increasingly driven by the needs of the evolving community. Been to Venture Café? Chris wants to hear what you think and what you need and give your two cents (or however much you’ve got).
London Bridge is NOT Falling Down
The London Bridge is definitely NOT falling down, quite the opposite actually. We headed upstairs to the 7th floor of the CIC to the office of the British Consulate – General in Boston. British Consul General Phil Budden is proud to head the only consulate located in Kendall. He believes that this specific location optimizes his ability to be both the local business face of the UK and to continually strengthen the collaboration occurring between Boston/Cambridge and London/Cambridge.
“Kendall is a special place and it’s linked to so many successes. This is a real innovation cluster here, and we have a real innovation cluster in London and Cambridge. It used to be about developing your own cluster; it’s now about connecting the clusters.” Here’s how the two Cambridges connect, directly from Phil:
Laurisa Neuwirth is a Boston World Partnership Connector, Ambassador of Relationship-Based Staffing at John Leonard Employment Services and President of The Rotary Club of Newton; Laurisa can be reached at lneuwirth@johnleonard.com.
Ashley Ryall is an experience architect within the #social space and has her finger on the pulse of social recruiting as John Leonard’s Social Media Consultant. Ashley can be reached at aryall@johnleonard.com.