29 March 2012

Lennon to run Angels' Den in Yorkshire and the Humber

Yesterday I received an email from Amanda Lennon to say that she is now running Angels Den in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Amanda has recently returned to the UK from New Zealand where she worked for a number of enterprises in the public and private sectors. These included project management for the Rugby World Cup in Auckland, Commercial Manager of the Geospatial Research Centre and Incubator Manager of powerHouse, a university incubation service in Christchurch. I first met Amanda when she ran the University of Huddersfield "Business Mine" and later set up and ran the Bradford IP clinic for her at Velocity.

Angels Den is one of the biggest angel networks in the UK with branches throughout the nation and overseas. I have already written about the Qatar network in NIPC Gulf ("Angels' Den in Qatar" 26 Sept 2011) and they have expressed interest in participating a seminar for the FabLabs and similar organizations which I discussed with Haydn Insley of Manchester FabLab after his presentation to the Liverpool Inventors Club last month (see "Liverpool Inventors Club Re-launched" IP North West 29 Feb 2012).

Angels are equity investors who often can offer skills and experience as well as capital to promising start-ups and other small and medium enterprises. They fill the gap between fools, friends and family and private equity. For an introduction, see my article on "Business Angels" on the NIPC Inventors Club website and "On the Side of the Angels" on my chambers website on the 6 July 2011 and my article "What Business Angels and VCs need to know about IP" on 21 June 2011.

Amanda can be contacted by email at Amanda@angelsden.co.uk or by telephone on  07805 313904.

If anybody has any questions or comments about this post or angels funding generally, he or she can contact me through my contact form,, Facebook, Linkedin, Xing or twitter or call me on 0113 320 3232 .

1 March 2012

"Refab - a fabrication laboratory for Sheffield"

Last week I reported Integreatplus's "Learning Lunch" at the Electric Works in Sheffield.  One of the two star speakers was James Wallbank of Access Space.  Access Space has recently been listed as number 2 in The Guardian and Nesta's pantheon on Britain's 50 New Radicals. So James is something of a celebrity.

Sheffield Inventors Group is delighted to welcome him as guest speaker on Monday, 5 March 2012 at 18:00.   

The title of his talk will be on "Refab - a fablab for Sheffield".  He will talk about Refab-Space and what it can do for inventors, craftsmen and women, artists, designers and entrepreneurs in South Yorkshire.   Since some of those bods will set up businesses that will require professional services and investment, this talk should also appeal to patent and trade mark agents, design consultants, angles and banks in the county.

The meeting will take place at
Surrey Street,
Sheffield
S1 1XZ.
Admission is free but you are strongly advised to book your place in advance.   Call or email Lynne Hichcliffe on 0114 273 4736 to let her know you are coming.   The last Sheffield Inventors Club meeting was packed.  Standing room only.