Posts tagged get-together for home workers
Jelly at Glove Factory Studios
Mar 14th
I’m really excited to have another venue for Jelly, the beautiful and quirky Glove Factory Studios at Holt near Bradford-on-Avon. They are described as a contemporary renovation of an industrial heritage building and have to be experienced – the website has some lovely pictures, but you have to be there to appreciate the place, which is light, airy and full of character. As well as office and studio space, there is a gallery, cafe and outdoor exhibition spaces in the process of being finished.
Glove Factory Studios is another property in the portfolio of Forward Space, whose owner Gavin Eddy believes in the many benefits of Jelly as strongly as I do, and whose Frome coworking space The Old Church School is the home of Frome Jelly. He is also working on another characterful conversion in Taunton, The Collar Factory, which I believe is due for completion later this year.
Holt Jelly is on Wednesday 24 March from 10 am to 4 pm and all you have to do is book a place and turn up with your laptop to take advantage of free wifi access and inspiring surroundings for the day.
Jelly goes Enterprise Nation-wide
Jan 25th
Excellent news to start my home working week! My new page on starting your own Jelly has been featured on Enterprise Nation, the site for people setting up and developing a business from home. I have been posting on the EN forum for a while and exchanging the occasional tweet with Emma Jones, the site’s founder, but I’m thrilled to get such prominent billing as her site is visited by thousands of home business owners, many of whom will benefit from learning about Jelly.
Take a look at Enterprise Nation for tips and advice on any aspect of running a home business. If you can’t immediately find what you’re after, you can post a question on the forum and will undoubtedly get a response that will point you in the right direction, whether it’s facts you need or a bit of support and reassurance.
Just do one thing at a time!
Jan 21st
I’m pleased to say my advice to myself worked and I was able to get stuck into my new webpage on how to start your own Jelly. It’s now published apart from some pictures I’m waiting for A to put on as we have a glitch with the site that means pictures have to go on the server first…or something. Something that I need to stay well away from, anyway!
I’ve written the new page in response to all the questions about Jelly and coworking that have been coming in to me and Lee Cottier, who organises Jelly in Bristol and Bath. It seems that although the idea of coworking has been around in the UK for a few years, it’s now really taking off. Timing is all.
Having completed this, I’m keen now to crack on with my page for freelance writers working from home.
Jelly on ice
Jan 8th
A and I crunched carefully down the road yesterday to Jelly at The Old Church School and were joined by two other people who live locally and were able to walk in. Others were stranded by the ice and couldn’t make it.
Having spent all the previous day at home, with not even a short walk, it made me feel so much better to be in a different environment and talk to people I don’t often see. I’m always recommending other home workers to get out as much as they can, but even so, every time I do it, I am amazed once again just how much difference it makes to my mood and outlook.
I’ll be organising more Jelly very soon and details will appear here and on the Work from Home Events page. It’s worth pointing out that you don’t have to have a laptop to come to Jelly! Just bring some portable work – something to read, write, sew, knit, whatever – and enjoy the company.
There’s always some help available. Yesterday A got a Jellyer going on Twitter and Tweetdeck. Often it turns out that something that is a complete mystery to you is natural as breathing to another Jellyer!
Back to reality
Jan 4th
So now all the festivities are finally over and ‘real life’ strikes again. Despite doing bits and pieces of work throughout, I’m finding it unexpectedly difficult to get focused today, perhaps because there are so many exciting things on the horizon that it’s hard to know where to start.
I’ve got several phone calls booked over the next few days to discuss how to help home workers in different ways. On Wednesday I’m visiting Bath Jelly at Green Park Station to interview Lee Cottier, the foremost coworker in the South West and the person who has established Jelly in these parts. I want to talk to him about how he organises his working life and what his plans are for 2010 – on film if I can persuade him!
The second Frome Jelly takes place on Thursday and already there are only 2 places left but now I’d better get on with the new content I’ve got planned for the site, starting with resources for writers who work from home. Do let me know if you work from home as a writer, editor etc and have any useful links you think others would appreciate.
Another helping of Jelly
Dec 16th
Just doing some work on publicising the next Frome Jelly, which will be held on Thursday 7 January between 10 am and 2 pm at the same venue, The Old Church School, tucked away behind the Methodist Church on Butts Hill, just below the fire station.
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.
Newsflash – page about Jelly
Dec 9th
I’ve just added a new page about Jelly that includes a couple of videos from the first Frome Jelly in November. New pages are listed under Tips on the menu bar and also in the right-hand column under my tweets.
Jelly is good for home workers
Oct 9th
This week I attended the first Jelly in Bath. What, you may ask, is a Jelly when it’s at home? A Jelly, good people, is a gathering of home workers, and any others who might fancy a change from their normal workplace, in a cafe, office space or someone’s home. There is free wi-fi access, a table to work on and plenty of chat. It’s called a Jelly because it began in New York, and apparently the two guys who dreamed it up were eating jelly beans at the time!
Bath’s first Jelly was held at JikaJika, a large new coffee shop in George Street, which sells yummy cakes and sandwiches and astonishingly powerful coffee. (Oddly enough, the building used to be an estate agents, and I was responsible for cleaning it for many years, so it’s nice to go there and not wield a mop!)
About nine home workers turned up with their laptops, from Bristol and Somerset as well as Bath. Most of us hadn’t met before, and so useful connections were made. For example I met a social media consultant who gave me an impromptu seminar on how to use Linkedin. Everyone seemed very happy with the way the day went, including the coffee shop manager, so with luck they will become a regular event. I’m going to see if I can get a Frome Jelly organised, so if you would like to know more, please get in touch.
