What are the FuseBox Sessions?
The Fusebox Sessions were a fortnightly programme of events held by Wired Sussex at our FuseBox home in Brighton and are part of our FuseBox24 2014 start-up programme. The sessions were based around the general theme of ‘ideas you can use’. We believe that they offered a lot to offer people outside the programme too, so we have recorded the sessions and made them open and free of charge to access. The slides from a lot of the sessions can be found on our Slideshare account, and the videos can be found in a playlist on ReCreate’s YouTube Channel. All videos contain a link to slides, if available, in their description.
These events are supported by the EU’s European Regional Development fund through the INTERREG IVC programme ReCreate.
FuseBox Session #1: What’s The Point? Making NixonMcInnes an Entrepreneurial Journey with Meaning
Tom Nixon, Founder, NixonMcInnes Wednesday, 21st May 2014
NixonMcInnes is a Brighton-based strategic consultancy that works with large blue chip companies, helping them become more innovative, more collaborative and more customer-focused. NixonMcInnes is also recognised as being one of the world’s most democratic workplaces. Tom Nixon recently returned to the agency he founded and in this session he talks about the relationship between his beliefs and passions and his business. He discusses what NixonMcInnes stands for and why and what he thinks the purpose and role of a founder is. If you are an entrepreneur who wants to create and build businesses with meaning or are simply interested in Tom’s story, then this first FuseBox Session is for you. You can watch the video here.
FuseBox Session #2: Social Media Marketing for Start-Ups and Innovators
Antony Mayfield, Founder & CEO, Brilliant Noise Wednesday, 4th June 2014
Antony Mayfield is the CEO & founder of digital strategy agency Brilliant Noise and the author of ‘Me and my Digital Shadow’.
In this breakfast session he talks about how different social media platforms operate, how you can use social media to build a brand, to generate an understanding of your product and your customer and to test new ideas and concepts.
FuseBox Session #3: The Joy of the Crowd
Dr John Drury, University of Sussex Wednesday, 18th June 2014
Dr John Drury is one of the UK’s foremost experts on crowd behaviour. If you are interested in gaining genuine insights into what motivates and de-motivates large groups of people, how joy (and wisdom) are created in crowds, then we highly recommend this FuseBox Session. Dr Drury has engaged with a number of digital companies including Disney Club Penguin, and whether you are looking to work with large communities on line or off, then please take a look at the video to hear what he has learnt from his work.
FuseBox Session #4: Funding Your Business Idea
Jon Coker, MMC Venture Capitalists Sophie Giblin, Founder & Artist of Kollektiv Gallery Anthony Nelson, Tribe Hive & Angel Investor Wednesday, 2nd July 2014
If you have a business idea or are a start-up and bootstrapping just isn’t enough, then this FuseBox Session could be for you.
This is a panel session with a Venture Capitalist, an angel investor and someone who has successfully crowd-funded via Kickstarter. Learn about the different ways that funding can be raised and discuss with us the pros and cons of each approach.
FuseBox Session #5: Biting the Bullet – Pivoting Relentless Software
Andy Eades, Founder of Relentless Software Wednesday, 16th July 2014
Andy Eades talks about how he built Brighton’s Relentless Software into a hugely successful games developer, how (and why) he then dramatically changed the focus of the business and what he has learnt from the experience. If you have an interest in how and why businesses pivot, then this session is for you. Watch his talk here.
FuseBox Session #6: Project Management for Start-Ups and Small Businesses
Rifa Thorpe-Tracey, Brilliant Noise Wednesday, 30th July 2014
Process, as someone once said, is the mother of invention. Having the right project management skills in place is just as important to start-ups and small businesses as it is for large ones. Rifa Thorpe-Tracey from Brilliant Noise delivered this FuseBox Session on project management skills specifically for those at the earlier stages of the business journey. If you want to know about agile, waterfall and other techniques and whether they can help you become more efficient, this session could be one to catch up on. Watch the video of her incredibly successful session here.
FuseBox Session #7: The Importance of Insight
Stefan Hull, Propellernet Wednesday, 13th August 2014
What are insights?
In this breakfast session, Stefan he talks about what tools and resources are availble to startups and small businesses to help generate data and information which can lead to insights.
Find out what processes and techniques you can undertake to generate insights from that data and information by watching his video, with link to his presentation, here.
FuseBox Session #8: Re-Building a Business: Pivoting iLaw
Christina Grzasko, iLaw
Wednesday, 27th August 2014
Christina is a former lawyer who built a small software company that created a software package for the legal profession. Changes in legal aid provision almost destroyed her business overnight, but she worked through the immediate stress, distress and fear to analyse what her value (and values) are and what assets her business has built up which can be held on to whilst steering it in a new direction.
Watch her great talk and get your copy of her presentation here.
FuseBox Session #9: Exiting a Business
Our last FuseBox Session is aptly on how to Exit your Business. If you have a business idea or are a start-up and are interested in how you might be one day able to exit, then this FuseBox Session could be for you. At this event we hear from people who have been there and done it. They share their stories and experiences, which offer valuable insight and advice. They discuss 3 models of exiting a business:
- Merging/Selling
Alex Cowell, MD, MBA Brighton MBA is a leading independent agency, with a client roster that includes Lovefilm, Avios, Everest, Guide Dogs and Sage by Heston Blumenthal. Having successfully led the acquisition by MBA of Cubeworks, the digital agency founded in 2002, he joined the board as CTO and oversees global technology strategy for the group, whilst continuing his role as MD in the Brighton office.
- IPO
Jonathan Satchell, Chief Executive, Learning Technologies Group PLC LTG is the only AIM listed company focused on consolidating the fast growing but fragmented learning technologies sector. After 16 years of growing private e-learning companies, Jonathan is now in an exciting position of having the opportunity to create a substantial global learning technologies agency through organic growth and strategic aquisitions.
You can watch their brilliant last talk here, and see the sides here.
