Blue sky and sunshine at 7.30 am, what a start, hope it’s an omen. Jelly green banners going up, badges to sort, muffins laid out next to coffee for arrivals, trade stands to explore.

The doors open to the soundtrack of the Shropshire Jelly video filmed last week at Enterprise HQ – ‘It ain’t about the money, money..we just want to make the world dance…’

Jelly beans to munch, Emma Jones in a great pair of boots, down-to-earth and inspirational at the same time.

Louise Findlay-Wilson, aptly named PrPro, that new haircut and colour fooled us completely, we were expecting a longhaired blonde, how shameful not to recognise your own speaker. People scribbling notes with fat green BIG Jelly pens.

‘Move in together. Bit more. A bit to the left. Big smile please.’

12 o’clock and Brown Bags lined up, actually I’m hungry, ploughmans sounds just the job. You’ve got a banana, I’ve got a pear, mm, chocolate roll, nice.

The Jelly session, oh my goodness that’s Caroline from Wales and…Verity from Edinburgh, lovely to meet you at last. And Judy, all the way from Normandy to pick up tips on starting Jelly en France.

And here’s Daniel, our third speaker, here despite train strikes and late taxis, better feed the man and find him a quiet place to work before his talk.

Back to the Main Hall for the Q&A, Gavin chairs it with his usual humour and aplomb. Introducing Daniel, stealing one of his own introductions – ‘He’ll share his knowledge in direct proportion to the applause he receives’ – much clapping.

Daniel has the audience in the palm of his hand. I’ve heard the content of the talk several times before, but I’m still gripped and realise he’s down walking about in front of the tables and I’d never even noticed him leave the stage.

But better close it down now, only 5 minutes after the schedule, although people seem happy to keep asking questions and he to answer them. After Fay’s closing remarks she comes down from the stage and gives us both a hug. We’ve done it and it was great!

‘Big smile please.’

Happy, excited people clutching Key Person of Influence books and a bag of jelly beans to fuel the journey home. ‘What a fantastic day. When’s the next one?’

Packing of boxes and cloths taken off tables. Poor Rob, the AV man is the first to arrive and the last to leave. A large glass of white wine in the bar – thanks, Jan!

Maybe not the world, but today we made part of Shropshire dance and that’s good enough for me

For some great resources for being joyfully jobless (self-employed) visit Barbara Winter‘s site at www.joyfullyjobless.com

It’s early days yet in the planning of The Big Jelly, but the level of enthusiasm, goodwill and generosity we’ve encountered so far is a very positive start. We have some really inspiring people lined up to take part, with different kinds of expertise to share.

What we’re aiming for is a day that reflects the spirit of Jelly – particularly its friendliness, quirkiness, and new way of doing things! Jelly organisers will be the first to receive details of our plans, we hope in the very near future.

So on this Thankful Thursday I’m feeling grateful to be involved with such a great bunch of home workers and to be meeting experts who quickly understand the spirit of Jelly and are eager to come along to help us move our businesses forward. Can’t wait for March!

Today I’m making a change by having a video instead of writing a post, and I’m asking what kind of information about home working you’d like to see on the site.

Let me know the topics you’re interested in, and also tell me what you make of the talking blog idea!

Last week I had a good long natter on the phone with him about how he discovered coworking, why he’s so keen and what he’d like to see happen in the future. I’ve transferred all that information to a new page on coworking that I hope will explain the concept, still a very new one to many home workers and freelancers in the UK. There’s also a brief but illuminating video made by a coworking space in Seattle, which was brought to my attention yesterday in one of Lee’s tweets about coworking. (Follow him on @CoWorkingWest for general news as well as events in the South West).

Coworking is an exciting development for anybody working from home. It tackles both the potential problem, always looming, of isolation and becoming cut-off, and also offers countless possibilities for collaborating with other freelancers on new projects.

Jelly is meant to be spontaneous and viral and is normally only announced a week or so before the date, but with the Christmas and New Year break fast approaching, it seemed best to let people know so they could put the date in their diary and plan accordingly. It would be sad if I left it too late and nobody turned up. Solitary Jelly would be no fun at all.

If you’re interested in setting up Jelly in your area and would like to know more, check out these videos and info.

Dave Carroll, a Canadian musician, didn’t just get mad, he got musical and wrote a catchy tune, accompanied by a comic video, when his guitar was broken by careless baggage handlers on a United Airlines flight:

After a year of trying to get the airline to accept responsibility, he posted the film on Youtube and it’s now had over 4 million hits.  And you know what?  United have offered to pay for the repairs.  Not only that, but the song is now one of the most downloaded iTunes in Canada.  Internet revenge is sweet.

What do you think of ‘My Bank Took My Money and Left It in Limbo for More Than Two Weeks Before Paying It to Barclaycard Late’?  Could do with a little more work perhaps.

But my experiences just of book and film reviews on Amazon had led me to believe that the type of people with the time and inclination to share their opinions were precisely the type of people whose views I didn’t want to hear!  My response to those choosing to answer the Twitter question ‘What are you doing?’ is ‘So what and who cares?’  Unless you’re a celebrity with a devoted following, does anybody really want to know?

But I’ve just seen an inspiring film at www.usnowfilm.com about the possibilities created by sites where people who were previously strangers share information.  The examples I particularly liked were couchsurfing.com where travellers can find someone willing to put them up on the sofa for the night, and mumsnet.com where parents share the kind of information they apparently used to pick up from relatives and neighbours.  Now that bankers and MPs have shown themselves to be greedy and not particularly clever, could this kind of openness of information enable a more truly democratic society?

This is the key question debated in the film, which lasts for an hour and is the most heartening message I’ve heard in a long time. (Although I’m no more enthusiastic about going on Facebook…)