Monday 5th April: The International Science Festival has begun!
Whether you’re observing Easter Monday or already back at your desk/armchair/coffee shop, I hope you’ve noticed that the Science Festival is livening up Edinburgh for a couple weeks. The Informatics Forum will be hosting several cool talks and events, including the intriguing Huxley’s Lab play you may have seen dancing on the Forum roof gardens. Also we’re really excited for a multi-touch Science Festival app to debut in the Forum, but I’ll let Kate fill you in on that later 🙂
Tuesday 6th April: Entrepreneurs & Freelancers Coffee, 9am at Renroc (think again, and go!)
Adding a twist to the newest coffee morning, the first meetup of the month – ie. this one – will feature a few startup elevator pitches so the group can provide feedback to the brave volunteers (before they meet with investors, funding bodies, clients, etc). Getting the freelancers combined with the startups also seems like a very productive mix, so I’m excited to see the collaboration. While I initially questioned the need for another coffee group, this meetup is certainly proving its worth and I would like to publicly withdraw my skepticism. See you there!
Wednesday 7th April: Mind, Mouse and Body: Designing Engaging Technologies, 8pm at Informatics Forum
A science festival event that sounds relevant to a lot of folks… Involving our corporeal bodies in interaction can create strong affective experiences – we enjoy getting physical! But to create engaging technologies we need qualities like suppleness, game play, embodiment, reflection, affective loops and pliability. Prof Kristina Höök will discuss the challenges in recent projects, including eMoto (mobile emotional messaging using gesture), Affective Diary (a way to remember your bodily and social experiences), and Affective Health (a mobile service empowering users to deal with stress). Tickets are £6/£4 (unemployed counts as concession, cough cough).
What will you do when your company takes off?! Local jam hero SuperJam organises tea parties to cheer up old folks, and if you’d like to help a fellow startup here I promise it will be a fun and refreshing afternoon. Help out on the tea production line, jam hundreds of scones, hand out Easter eggs, or just chat away with some old folks you’d otherwise never meet. If you’re in the mood, you can also dance like you’re 80 and nobody’s watching, but no pressure. I’ll be going so let me know if you want to travel down together.
Friday 9th April: Edinburgh Coffee Morning, 8am at Centotre (George Street)
Lovely bunch of digital media, social media, and just generally fun folks chatting away and making new friends. The best way to start your Friday, and well worth the early arrival (you can trickle in 8-9am if that helps). It’s hard to get out of bed, but whenever I manage I’m always so happy I went!
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Sign up now:
TradeMarks event in Stirling – 20th April, 9am-2pm
Scotsman Conference – Growth Summit: Meeting the Challenge of Recovery, 27th April
(note: don’t be fooled by the prices at the top, it’s free to attend… spots allocated by random draw)
Internet World: 27-29th April in London
Ecommerce, digital marketing, and all that jazz!
Mobile Monday Edinburgh: Keep Taking the Tablets! – 10th May, 12:30pm at Centotre
StartupCafe 
The Entrepreneurs & Freelancers Coffee at Renroc was terrific. A great group of people and very interesting, well-delivered pitches. Would definitely recommend.