StartupCafe

Next Wed and Thurs (29th and 30th June) is the place to be if you’re in the creative industries and need some IP help.

Although registration fees are a little steep at £199, there are some quality speakers. You can check out the conference at: http://digitalspark.abertay.ac.uk/

In the knowledge economy, intangible assets can account for 70% of a company’s value.

This conference will explore practical mechanisms of exploiting those assets by using the intellectual property system efficiently and effectively – laying the ground work for future profit generation.

This conference will bring together industrialists, lawyers, financiers, funding agencies, intermediaries and policy makers to discuss practical steps SMEs can take to significantly enhance their competitiveness; the most important recent developments in IP law for your business; and success stories of IP management in the digital creative industries.

With an introductory workshops on the basics of IP, interactive master classes with leading business and legal experts, presentations from senior representatives of Google and Universal Music (UK), and expert panel discussions with senior representatives of Sony, Google, Aardman Rights, NCR and SEGA, this conference will help you plan for the future success of your business.

Register now to secure your place at Digital Spark 2011.

It’s rare that I find myself in a situation where I read something at work, and feel the need to reply right away.

Posts like the original rallying call and the reply to it, is simply rehashing the same arguments over and over again; more importantly, it’s doing something that I hate – playing the blame game.

On one hand, some say that we need better and more support and coherency for entrepreneurship in the Universities (especially in Glasgow, rather than Edinburgh which is where I think Chris and Michael were referring to). On the other, some say that you should get on with it. So, who is it? Who is to blame? Is it the universities that aren’t pulling their weight, or is it that entrepreneurs are lazy and want everything handed to them on a plate?

These arguments are a complete over-simplification of the problem.

Continue Reading »

Our colleagues at Startup Digest and Social Penguin recently posted a call to action for the Scottish startup community, in which they identified the failure of universities to promote entrepreneurship, a disjointed startup community, and the predominance of risk-averse investors as obstacles that must be overcome before entrepreneurship can flourish in Scotland.

I appreciate the sentiment of this post and kudos to them for speaking out about something that’s obviously important to a lot of us. But while Scotland could certainly improve in these areas, I’m tired of pessimistic talk about Scotland’s weaknesses, and fear that we hold ourselves back from greater success with a self-perpetuating myth of inferiority. Scotland is already a vibrant entrepreneurial hub, enabled by our universities, our strong communities, and investment networks. Here’s why. Continue Reading »

Interested in joining us for the Social Innovation Camp Show and Tell this weekend?

Here are the details:

Time: 2-4pm Sunday 19th June 2011

Venue: Informatics Ventures Forum, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH8 9AB Continue Reading »