Blog - TechHub

Sep 14th

A huge 21 events coming up @TechHub!

We have a really fantastic selection of events coming up at TechHub, including an intimate event with the "god of VC" Fred Destin (just for TechHub Members), TechHub Finance Week, sessions on marketing, our monthly Mobile Day, TechHubTuesday Demo Night and absolutely loads more.

We have a huge 21 events for you at TechHub between now and early October. Yes, that's twenty-one, two one, events over the next three weeks - we're starting Autumn off with a bang!

Did we mention that most of these events are completely free for TechHub Members? If you've been thinking about joining, now's a great time!

DevTank
Wed, 14 Sept, 6:45pm
Brought to you by those behind the highly successful DrinkTank, DevTank provides an opportunity for developers working for (or wanting to work for) tech startup companies in London to exchange ideas and experiences about the technology behind successful startup companies. Reserve your place on the meetup site.

Londroid London Android User Group
Thur, 15 Sept
Kieran Gutteridge will be giving a quick rundown of some of the frameworks and tools that are available if you decide you want to take advantage of mobile web technologies to produce your content. And "From Hobby to App Success" - Chris Banes will be talking about his journey over the past 18 months, taking FriendCaster from a spare time hobby to over 1.5 million downloads. To register visit the meetup website.

Finance Week @TechHub - 19-23 September

Business & Financial Planning Workshop
with Jim Bailey
Mon, 19 Sept, 2:00-5:00pm
Free for Members
How do you work out a company valuation - what your startup is worth? How do you make sure you have a financial plan in place that works for you and your company? Introducing you to some key financial issues, Jim will demonstrate how a sound financial plan can support overall business or strategic objectives. Brought to you as part of TechHub's 'Finance Week', this workshop aims to provide tech startups/entrepreneurs with an introduction to some key financial considerations when building a business plan and raising finance. Book now!

Barclays Business Banking 1-2-1s
Tue, 20 Sept, 2:00-3:40pm
Free
How do you manage your cashflow? What kind of financial compliance issues do you have to think about when you start a company? How can you make your business plan stand out? What do you need from your business banking? As part of Barclays’ commitment to the government’s TechCity initiative, members of Barclays Business team will be here to offer 1-2-1 advice to help you with business banking and financial things. The sessions will also provide an opportunity for the Barclays team to listen to & understand unique issues facing tech startups, suggest where existing services can help & continue to develop Barclays' support of the sector. Please mail your company details to liam@techhub.com once you've registered on the event page.

Members Drinks
Tue, 20 Sept, 6:00-8:30pm
Members Only
Get together, meet each other, exchange ideas and contacts and recognise more faces when you're at TechHub. We'll also make special announcements, let you know about great new member offers and deals at these evenings, so make sure you come along! We host these each month on the third Tuesday of the month. These events are completely free for TechHub Members, so register your details now and come along.

Your Accounts with Kingston Smith Accountants
Wed, 21 Sept, 2:00-3:40pm
Free
What are the basics for bookkeeping and accountancy when you start a company? Is it better to hire contractors or employees? How can you benefit from R&S tax rebates? The specialist tech team from top 20 accountants, Kingston Smith, will be providing valuable guidance in 1-2-1 sessions for tech entrepreneurs. To sign up please email your company details to liam@techhub.com once you've registered on the event page.

ArabicOnline.eu Software
Wednesday, 21 Sept, 6:30 PM

Free
ArabicOnline.eu is an interactive online language learning software that offers a beginners course in Modern Standard Arabic for self-study or classroom use. It was developed with support of the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme. Join us for an evening that brings together the worlds of education, technology, eLearning, cross-cultural understanding and business. Book today!

Startup Lifecycle: taking your company from idea to maturity
Fred Destin, Atlas Venture

Thu 22 September, 10.00am-12.00pm
Members Only
We're so excited to have "a god of VC" in the house for this special TechHub Member-only event (use your member code on the registration page). Fred is visiting from the US, and we're extremely privileged to have some time in his busy schedule. Gaining insight from a VC stalwart on startups is hugely advantageous, especially when you're thinking about raising capital now or in the future. Do not miss this event.

Crunching Your Tax! Seminar
Thur, 22 Sept, 2:00-3:30pm
Free for Members
What's the most tax-efficient way to pay yourself as a startup founder? What's flat rate tax and can it mean more money in your account at the end of the year? Is there an easy way to manage the books? This whole tax thing hurts my head, how does it work? Founders of accountancy firm Crunch - Darren Fell (MD) and Steve Crouch (awarded Taxation Specialist of the Year 2010 from Sage!) - will be providing a presentation that will help any freelancer or small business get to grips with their tax. Book now!

Demo Your Finance Product
Fri, 23 Sept
Members Only
We are offering the opportunity for any TechHub Members with financial products to do a show and tell on the Friday (23rd) of Finance Week. If you are interested please mail liam@techhub.com

GTUG, Developing with Angularjs
Tue 27 Sep, 6.30pm
AngularJS is a JavaScript framework for building interactive client-side web apps. It is designed to work well together with other libraries, especially jQuery. Testing is one of the most important ideas behind AngularJS - it provides a full testing environment and helps you to design testable code. AngularJS is an open source project powered by Google. Currently there are many internal apps built on the top of AngularJS - you can check out more at http://angularjs.org. Get more info and register here.

TechHub Residents Lunch
Thu, 29 Sept, 1:00–2:30pm
Current TechHub Resident Members Only
A great opportunity to get to know the other great entrepreneurs and startup teams who share your workspace. An excellent way to meet other Members and find out more about them, their companies and products. Lunch is usually pretty social, if you're new you might start talking about work, but by the end of
lunch there's usually lots of laughing and general chat.
Book today!

API Developer Day
Saturday 1 October, 9.00am-6.00pm
Free
API Developer Day is a one-day event to celebrate APIs and the amazing things we can build with them. Find a team or go solo, meet new local developers and API teams, get coding support, collect swag, build the best thing you can in one day and demo it to the group. We'll have some short technical lightning talks in the morning so you can learn about some new APIs and ask questions from the people that build them. Want to pitch your API? Get in touch to reserve your spot. If you have an app idea and need a team member, or don't have a team yet but want to join one, we'll have an idea pitch session too. Then go code - any language or platform you want, just use APIs and build something awesome. At the end of the day demo what you built and even win some prizes, so register now. Sponsored by Apigee and BlueVia.

Roundabout Brewery Launch
Thu 29 Sep, 6.30pm
Free
Join us at TechHub for the launch of Silicon Roundabout's very own microbrewery! You'll be able to sample a selection of craft-brewed beers and the brewer will be on-hand to talk you through them. This event is free and starts at 6.30pm, continuing until we've run out of beer. This is a community microbrewery project and we're inviting beer-lovers from the local Shoreditch/Old Street/Hackney areas to join us for the launch. General tickets are sold out, but there's a small handful of TechHub Member tickets still available (four, at the time of writing), so move quickly to nab yourself a ticket!

Mobile Day: BlueVia 1-2-1s
Mon 3 Oct
Free
Have a chat with the Telefonica/O2 guys about all things mobile, mobile marketing-related and find out more about BlueVia. Limited slots available, so keep an eye on the registration page.

Mobile Day: TechHub Mobile Meetup
Mon 3 Oct, 1.00-2.30pm
Free
Meet other tech entrepreneurs who have an interest in mobile, bring your lunch and have a chat about what's going on in the world of mobile right now while you munch. This event is exclusively for tech entrepreneurs and developers working in mobile, and we always have someone interesting to kick off the discussions. Book now!

TechHubTuesday: Demo Night - Mobile Apps
Tue 4 October, 6.30pm

Free for Members
Come along, meet other tech entrepreneurs, have a drink and show everyone the mobile app you're working on. If you'd like to demo your product, enter the details in the registration form on the event page when you register for the event and we'll confirm with you if you have a demo slot, as they're limited and so many great companies apply. Book now! The best three Android apps will receive a free ticket to Droidcon and the chance to demo their app on the Droidcon stage.

Marketing Day (and a half) @TechHub - Wed 5-6 October

Theory of Launch, Marketing Workshop
Wed 5 October, 2.00-5.00pm
Free for Members
With an abundance of new startups appearing every day how do you achieve that all-important cut through to reach your target audience? In this workshop Charlotte Hogg, MD of advertising agency, Gather and Throw, will introduce you to, and help you understand and apply the 'Theory of Launch', a set of steps designed to successfully launch and accelerate technology-based startups. Game on! Register now.

PR 1-2-1s with Ubiquity Comms
Wed 5 Oct, afternoon slots
Free

Ubiquity Comms invites tech startups & entrepreneurs to join them for one-to-one 'mini PR workshops to find out how you can generate media coverage, online buzz and awareness of your product or company on a shoestring. Ubiquity specialises in working with tech companies and was voted one of the top 10 PR agencies in a 2011 Peerindex poll. Limited places, so get in quickly!

Marketing for Startups with Google's Obi Felten Wed, 5 Oct, 6:30pm-9:30pm
Free for Members
Following a highly successful Office Hours here at TechHub last month we are delighted to have Obi Felten, Director of Consumer Marketing for EMEA, Google back with us for an evening to share her considerable experience and insight. She's Google's marketing guru! Focusing on themes and ideas to help startups and entrepreneurs get maximum marketing value from limited resources, Obi will be doing a 10-15 minute talk before opening the floor to 45-50 mins of questions. An excellent opportunity, so book today!

Perfect Pitch, Pitching Workshop with Diana Lowe

Thu 6 October, 2.00pm-5.00pm

With an abundance of startups vying for investor attention and limited sources of funding available how do you make yourself stand out from the crowd and capture the imagination of those whose opinion (and cash!) really matters? Pitch Perfect will provide you with valuable skills designed to help you promote your product, idea or service to investors and consumers.

The workshop will take you through constructing and practicing your pitch, as well as critically evaluating both yours and those of others. It will also touch on basic presenting skills. Book today

Droidcon (not held at TechHub)
6-7 October
TechHub is delighted to be a media partner of the UK's largest Android-only developer conference, Droidcon in London. Day 1 is a Barcamp, to give everyone in the audience a chance to talk about any topic they'd like - the more popular the topic, the bigger the room. Day 2 has great sessions covering development, design, business, enterprise and gaming. If you're working with Android, you can't afford to miss it. If you're a TechHub Member, check your latest Member News email for a special discount code.

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Aug 25th

If it's Not Core to Your Business Outsource it.

By Miguel Garcia

Introducing Freelancer.co.uk, a new TechHub Member.

Saif Bonar, UK Country Manager. The following blog post was written by Saif.

I'm a fairly new member of TechHub and wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself to others in the community, so jumped at the chance to write this blog when invited by Elizabeth. I spent my first few hours here last week working and then at the monthly drinks. I'm looking forward to participating in the community, gaining from the experience of others, meeting new people and I'm also determined to give something back. Initially I'm offering any TechHub members in the UK free Gold membership at the Freelancer.co.uk website for 3 months. This is worth £60 and reduces commissions you pay on projects to 3% as a freelancer and zero as an employer.

Freelancer.co.uk is the British arm of the world's largest micro-outsourcing marketplace. Our goal is to be the Ebay for Jobs. We have over 2.7m users worldwide including 100,000 British freelancers and 40,000 UK businesses. We are already the biggest UK platform for outsourcing projects and we have ambitious plans for growth. Freelancers and small businesses can tap into our marketplace to either get work or to get work done. With over 400 project categories ranging from graphic design and SEO to financial and legal support TechHub members can find someone to plug any skills gaps they need on budget and on time.

We recently launched in the UK and are currently running our second marketing push, which includes 500 branded London taxis. As part of this we are also running a competition which is open to TechHub users who can win £1,000 in credit to get work done through the Freelancer platform. All you need to do to enter is grab a photo of a Freelancer Taxi and post it to our Facebook page.

A big part of my role is working on PR and securing exposure for the Freelancer brand in the UK. Given the current economic climate its been a real challenge convincing the media that Freelancer is not only about jobs going from the UK to the developing world. Another challenge has been keeping up with a fast growing global tech business. Our HQ is in Sydney and I work closely with the Comms manager in New York, so the hours can be quite manic sometimes (team meetings at midnight on a Sunday) but, it's a great experience and in only a few months in post I have already been to the Webby Awards in New York and grown the UK side of the business by almost 40%.

The space we're in throws out lots of opportunities to comment on areas such as economics, employment, technology and outsourcing. Its been quite strange going from an ad-hoc blogger to writing articles for Management Today and seeing my opinions and comments in print everyehwere from Business Computing World to The Drum. Only last week my comments on a Labour Market Report from the CIPD and KPMG found that 30% of companies and 54% of public sector organisations were published in niche websites aimed at CFOs. Sadly, the news was that 34% of UK employers are expecting to make further redundancies in 2011. While this is a blow for the UK jobs market, it's a great opportunity for those affected by redundancy to either follow their dream and turn their business idea into a reality, or to turn to Freelance and focus on doing what they do best while maintaining a more positive work-life balance.

We have big plans in the months ahead and are hoping to introduce a number of changes to the Freelancer platform which will make it much more useful for Freelancers and contract workers in the UK, who until now have struggled to compete with off-shore providers. If you are a Freelancer and haven't yet tried Freelancer.co.uk, you should and my offer of 3 months Free Gold Membership is a great way to get started.

Finally, Miguel asked me to include my best bit of advice for start-ups and entrepreneurs.... If its not core to your business, outsource it.

TechHub Members Special Offer: As an initial gesture to the TechHub community I am pleased to offer any TechHub members three months free Gold membership on Freelancer.co.uk - this dramatically reduces the fees you pay and will provide you with a good opportunity to try out our platform. (Gold members pay no fees on projects posted and just 3% on any money earned).

If you're a TechHub Member and would like to blog about about your company or product email miguel@techhub.com. Look forward to reading your story!

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Oct 13th

Students! Want to come to TechHub events for free?

By Elizabeth Varley

We know that funds are tight for students, but that you still want to make the connections and hear great speakers that coming to TechHub events provides.

So, we're offering free event attendance to bright, enthusiastic, personable students of technology and business, in exchange for helping us out with event set-up/closing and on the door greeting guests and managing the guest list (which is a great way of finding out who's who and who's coming). As well as coming to some fantastic events, you'll also gain valuable experience for your CV and a reference when you're applying for jobs.

If you're interested in taking advantage of this student event programme, drop tina[at]techhub.com an email with an overview of your skills and experience, details of why you'd like to take part, and a copy of your CV.

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Aug 26th

Last free co-working days & closed on Bank Holiday Monday

By Elizabeth Varley

Just a heads-up that our last two free co-working days are today and tomorrow 27th August, so drop Charlie[at]TechHub.com a line to let us know you're coming and then drop in and join us for 100 mbps wifi, coffee, tea and great people.

We'll then be closed on Monday 30th August for the Bank Holiday, and open our regular hours of 8am to 10pm from Tuesday 31st.

We're looking forward to welcoming our members back from holidays and seeing some new faces too. Sign up for membership now!

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Aug 18th

Update: Free co-working til end of August, #TechHubFriday Movie Night & our 100 mbps connection!

By Elizabeth Varley

I'm completely jealous of everyone who's sunning themselves on holiday this month, and so many TechHub members are away at the moment that we've decided to extend our free co-working offer until Friday 27th August.

Want to give TechHub a try for free? Drop Charlie a line at charlie[at]techhub.com letting us know the day you're coming in and then come along. Test out our hefty brand spanking new 100 mbps fibre data line as I'm very pleased to announce it's all in and up and running! Big fat data FTW!

We also have our second #TechHubFriday Movie Night coming up this week. We'll all be practicing our best accents for everyone's favourite line: 'My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to Die.' in readiness to enjoy the fabulously silly Princess Bride from 5pm this Friday.

So kick off the weekend early, meet some other tech peeps and finish your Friday in style @TechHub. Register now.

Lastly, we're in the process of planning out our events programme starting in September, so if you'd like to give us your opinions on event styles and subjects you like, those you don't and any ideas you have or lists of people you'd really love to hear from, please tell us!

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Jul 27th

Want to co-work for free?

By Elizabeth Varley

Interested in TechHub membership? Apply on our site and you could be invited to co-work for free this week and next to see if TechHub's for you.

As lots of people are away on holidays over summer, we have extra capacity, so here's our special offer: we have 50 opportunities to come and use our work space for free every week day until Friday 6th August.

Just sign-up via our site and we'll be in touch if you're one of our lucky 50 (you won't be obliged to sign up for membership). All current members of TechHub will also be able to co-work for free until the 6th August.

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