successful home working
Posts tagged collaboration
The BIG Jelly – we did it!
1110 months ago
What a day! Here are my impressions of last Friday:
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!
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 
Thank you!
711 months ago
Before launching into today’s post, I just want to say a heartfelt thank you for the amazing response to my recent message about The BIG Jelly. When I told Fay, one of the other organisers, that I was blogging about it, she said, ‘Excellent, we’ll cover the UK by teatime!’ but so many of you RTed my tweets that I’m sure we actually went global!
The Jelly team are very grateful for all the help we’re being given in so many practical ways. We’re now only five weeks away from the day, so any blogs, newsletters, events listings etc you can include us in will really add to the buzz. There is plenty of information on the UK Jelly site and do let me know if you’d like a copy of the press release or our lovely green eflyers.
Twice a day we’re adding to The BIG Jelly Facebook page tips and snippets of interest to small business, so pop over for a look and to like us! Or the tips come straight to you if you follow @UKJelly on Twitter.
I’ve just been told by A that I can post events on both Linkedin and Facebook, so I need to investigate how to do that. I find both sites a bit mystifying so this is the push I need to explore them further.
I’m looking forward to putting faces to names when The BIG Jelly rolls around at the end of March!
Please can you lovely home workers help me spread the word about The BIG Jelly?
511 year ago
The BIG Jelly is now only two months away, on Friday 25 March, and it’s high time I told you what’s happening.
The BIG Jelly was the idea of Jan Minihane, my Jelly friend and the founder of Shropshire Jelly, who was so thrilled at the collaborations that came out of her local Jellys that she wondered what wonderful things might happen if home workers, freelancers and micro business owners from all over the UK met up for the day.
She also wanted to tell more people about Jelly and how simple it is to start, with the ultimate aim of a Jelly within reach of every home worker in the UK.
But obviously nobody would bother to travel to a central point for a national Jelly when they’ve got one much closer, so the day had to be really special. The Jelly team (me, Jan and Fay Easton of Enterprise HQ in Coalport, which hosts Jan’s Jelly) have planned a day for all small businesses that is not only Jelly, a space with free wi fi where you can catch up with work and emails, but also all of the following:
3 inspirational speakers – Louise Findlay-Wilson of PR Pro
Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation & Bitsy
Daniel Priestley of Triumphant Events – all well-known champions of small business
A choice of breakout sessions run by experts:
Home Working Wisdom
The Money Go Round
Demystifying Social Media
Marketing for Micro Businesses
Setting up & Running a Jelly
Website/SEO Clinic
And:
Mini expo
Refreshments provided throughout the day from coffee and Danish on arrival to brown bag lunch and cookies, and tea and coffee all day
Event bag with useful content to take away
Special rates for overnight accommodation at host venue, 4* QHotels Telford
Plenty of time for meeting new people in the uniquely friendly Jelly atmosphere
The BIG Jelly is for all micro and small business owners, freelancers, home workers, coworkers, new start-ups, business advisers, workhub operators, business support agencies, government ministers and anyone interested in the future of small and home business, whether you have heard of Jelly or not!
Some people have asked why The BIG Jelly isn’t free, when one of the main principles of Jelly is that it’s free to attend. Well, we’d have loved to bring you all this for nothing, but with the economy the way it is, it simply isn’t possible to cover the costs of a national event through goodwill and sponsorship alone. Even the big blue chip companies have tightened their belts. The people and organisations supporting us have been extremely generous and that’s how we’ve been able to keep the ticket price to £50 + VAT if you book before 28th February 2010, and £75 + VAT thereafter.
The BIG Jelly is a not-for-profit event and so we don’t have a big marketing and PR budget. You will soon be reading about the day in the press, but it would be a huge help if home workers and small businesses can create a strong word-of-mouth buzz through Twitter, Facebook and your personal contacts.
Wherever you are in the UK or the world, whether you can come to The BIG Jelly or not, we would be so grateful if you can start talking about the day both on and offline. The hashtag is #BIGJelly, and more information and booking is at www.uk-jelly.org.uk
Thank you so much if you can support us in making this day a huge success and helping to spread the many benefits of Jelly throughout the UK. I really hope to see you there!
Best wishes
Judy
The clouds clear for home workers
181 year ago
Continuing the habit of writing on Thursdays about the things I’m thankful for, today the subject is technology, which is the reason so many of us can do what we do from home.
Technology can cut us off from other people, if that’s the way we choose to use it, but it can also connect us in ways that would have seemed miraculous not so long ago. I discovered Jelly through Twitter only a year ago, and the idea has caught on all over the UK through people tweeting and sharing information like my How to start your own Jelly guide. Jelly brings people together who otherwise wouldn’t have met, despite living very close to each other, and gives them the opportunity to help each other and collaborate.
The other day I had a Skype call with Jan Minihane, business adviser and social media trainer, who runs Shropshire Jelly and Fay Easton of Enterprise HQ, the workhub in Coalport, to discuss Jan’s idea of a national Jelly event next year. I’m a strongly visual person, so being able to see the people I’m speaking to is very powerful, and the call was very motivating for all of us.
Watch this space for more details as we crystallise ideas and start planning. We’ll be able to share updates by using cloud content management, a concept presently as woolly to me as its name, but which will no doubt soon become as clear as a blue sky!
So this Thursday I’m very grateful for what technology enables me to do, and very excited about its human end product, a roomful of likeminded people sharing ideas, enjoying each other’s company and making leaps forward with their businesses.
Inconspicuous nonconsumption
320th century success was a highly visible, material affair, consisting of houses, cars, yachts, clothes, jewellery etc. We are now coming to terms with the finite resources left on the planet we have so efficiently depleted, and have to learn to consume less in a more efficient manner.
21st century success is going to be less visible, both in its origins and its results. I know people running profitable businesses with customers or a tribe of followers all over the world and yet even their neighbours have no idea what they’re doing. The contemporary success story might equally be the person living in the modest terraced house, driving the ten year old car. Success is going internal, dependent on how you feel about yourself and your contribution to the world.
What makes you feel fulfilled and successful? Does it have anything to do with your possessions?
For first-time Jellyers
21 year ago
You may have read my posts banging on about how wonderful coworking and Jelly are, and wondered what on earth actually happens there, and what you could take along to do. I know I was a bit puzzled before my first Jelly in Bath, because I work alone in my home office, and I couldn’t imagine how I could possibly work surrounded by other people. People who might want to talk, for goodness sake!
So I’ve added a new page called Attending Jelly to the Work from Home Events section and hope it will help puzzled first-time Jellyers. @JanMinihane, who organises Shropshire Jelly, has shared her experience of Jelly and what she particularly likes about it. As is so often the case, it’s the little things that make all the difference, things like sneezing and tea!
I’d like to thank Jan for providing that, and also for giving me ideas to add to the information on How to Start your Own Jelly. It’s a good example of the collaboration enjoyed by Jellyers, in sharing experiences, getting inspiration from others and coming up with something much better as a result. Oh, and it also gives me an opportunity to show off the Shropshire Jelly logo, which is as colourful and full of character as the actual occasion!
