Pass Jelly forward

Jelly organisers will tell you that starting your own Jelly takes an investment of time and effort at the beginning, but pays off immediately in terms of all the connections and opportunities it brings.

The Jelly pioneer

Lee Cottier was the pioneer of Jelly in the UK when he started organising regular Jellys in the Bristol and Bath area in autumn 2009. By August 2010 he had held 20 events at eight different venues, attended by 106 different people, with a total attendance of 247.

‘Since I started doing Jelly locally a year ago it’s been great to see it spreading so far and wide across the UK. But new work commitments for me meant maintaining the regular events that local coworking fans had come to look forward to was getting harder and harder.

‘As it has been so popular I really didn’t want the project to have to just fall by the wayside, so I decided to look for someone new who could take it on as a ‘going concern’ (not quite the right term of course as Jelly is free and no money changes hands!) while also adding their new energy, ideas and style.’

Pass Jelly forward

So Eli Barbary, whose day job is providing business and personal support for creative professionals, became the new Jelly organiser in Bristol.

‘Jelly has been a lifeline to me since I started a home-based business and I know there are many other home workers who feel the same. I decided to take the reins from Lee for several reasons; the most important being that I feel it’s crucial to have some sort of one-stop coworking organisation, especially in an entrepreneurial city like Bristol.

‘Also I love meeting new people and helping to bring like-minded individuals together. Attending a Jelly is the perfect way to meet people in an informal way and combat the isolation that so often occurs when you work alone and from home.’

Eli has also now relinquished her role as Jelly organiser and we think we may have spotted a pattern here, one as positive as everything else associated with Jelly – start Jelly, run it for a while, become very well-known and in-demand and pass Jelly forward for someone else to benefit!

@BristolJelly

You can follow @BristolJelly for updates about Bristol Jelly events as Lee’s @CoWorkingWest account has now been ‘retired’.

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