Smoothing out the close on Fridays

Tuttle runs from 10am to midday. It always has, that’s always been the deal – I had people today trying to tell me it used to be different. Nope, but I understand why that belief has come about.

In all of our previous venues, apart from our beloved #sexfactory, there was some form of catering, we had the space set aside for Tuttle and at 12 o’clock those who wanted to stick around and eat and drink could do so and at both the Coach & Horses and the ICA I just asked people to move to another part of the venue.

Now that we’re at the Centre for Creative Collaboration, we have a slightly different deal – it’s not a public space and there is no catering or serving staff. In addition I personally get overwhelmed by the number and variety of conversations I have at Tuttle. It was rare in the past for me to stick around – I always need some space after Tuttle and since there’s nobody employed here to keep the place open and look after people if I want to disappear I’ve had to chuck people out.

This is particularly difficult when people turn up just before 12 with the assumption that something will be continuing. At the ICA you could do that because the place was open and none of us *had* to stay to lock up and look after the space.

You don’t like this abrupt ending and neither do I.

So I’d like to suggest a different way – a smoother transition from “loads of people” to “everybody’s gone home”. We will have tables and a space set aside for people to have lunch that they bring with them if they want to. We will also make sure that someone from the Centre with a key will be around. At different times this may be me or Brian or one of the other keyholding project people like the Accidental Festival team. I will announce at 12 o’clock something like: “Tuttle proper is over for another week, but some people like to stick around for lunch so please help us clear away the coffees and tea stuff and set up for lunch”

This maintains a boundary around Tuttle but gives some flexibility for people who want to extend their tuttle time. It restores, I hope, the vibe around Tuttle that we used to have. I would then feel able to go away for a bit and get my head back on straight or do stuff I need to do.

Does this work better? What have I missed?

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Camping

I’d like to propose two (probably weekend) camps to be held at the Centre for Creative Collaboration sometime before the end of May. As always I’m canvassing general support before fixing a time – so let me know if you’d like to be involved firstly and secondly which weekend you’d like to do them on.

TuttleCamp
We talked about this a while ago, but I feel the need to have at least a day of discussion about what we’ve actually created here and what we do with it next. For me this comes down to “How do we continue to do cool stuff *and* generate enough revenue to pay basic bills” but I think it’s also about what is the whole thing for, how do we think it’s going, what sorts of things do we want to do now that we have access to the C4CC space for a while. I’m thinking this is just one day, but open to the possibility of actually camping overnight here and carrying on on Sunday morning too.

SoftFurnishingsCamp/NestFeatheringCamp
This idea came up when we were confronted with the stark white walls and floors of the Centre for Creative Collaboration. How do we make it more comfy? We also had a #tuttle before Christmas where a bunch of knitter/crochet/crafters turned up and did their thing in the corner. I think it would be lovely to spend a Saturday feathering our nest – bring fabrics and other materials and let’s make some stuff to allow the space to be used without us all getting stiff backs. Open again on whether one day or two days for this.

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Thanks Evernote!

Just to wrap up, as well as paying for coffee at last week’s Tuttle, the guys from Evernote have given us a group premium account. Thanks again!

The first stuff that’s up there is pictures that were taken on Friday but I’m interested to hear from you other ways that you can think of us using this lovely resource, whether it’s something you want me to do or something you’d like to get a group together to do – as always, the tuttle brain is open for new ideas 🙂

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Some Housekeeping

I’ve been checking in with the folk at the ICA about how things are going from their point of view and the general picture is “Hoorah for us!” Thank you for being so well-behaved, lovely and interesting. I’m having discussions over the next few days that I’m hoping will result in being able to announce a whole other bunch of cool things to do there.

Having up to 70 people in the bar on a Friday is clearly a good thing for them and I’d like us to be able to keep it going with goodwill. One of the reasons we meet somewhere like this, rather than just camping out in some cafe or other is to avoid pissing people off, but however welcome and lovely we are, the bar is a commercial enterprise and so there are a couple of niggles with the caterers that we can easily deal with.

Firstly, generous bunch that we are, we’ve recently gotten into the habit of folk bringing along donuts and cakes. Obviously, we all love to celebrate the birthdays of our special members, but it would be appreciated if we didn’t bring stuff in from outside. They’re very happy to put stuff on for us specially if we ask in advance and they’re looking at what pastries & cakes can be on sale from this week on. I’m inclined to say that if we have a sponsor, perhaps we should include something for such sweet things and that I will let the caterers (and you) know ahead of time. And if you’ve something to celebrate and want me to arrange some confectionery to share with the throng, let me know.

Secondly you’ll have noticed me at midday encouraging you to buy some lunch or move away from the upper bar to let luncheoners in. The caterers are seeing a little dip in their Friday lunch covers. I’m interested to know why more people don’t buy their lunch there and I think there’s an opportunity for us to influence things to our mutual benefit. My first impressions are that it’s likely to be either about the cost or about the content of the menu.

So please do let me know, in the comments, by twitter DM or otherwise whether you’d be more interested in lunch on Fridays if there were a special deal for Tuttlers or if you have looked at the menu and have some suggestions for how it could be more engaging to you.

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Standing room only…

Definitely the busiest tuttle so far – we had nearly 70 people signed up on the wiki and although they didn’t all make it, the numbers were swelled by many more who hadn’t said they’d come.

For the first time, for those who still have no idea what happens at a tuttle, I did what I’ve meant to do for ages, I wandered around with my recorder and captured reactions from some of the folk. Mike doesn’t like it being called podcasting, as you’ll hear, so welcome to Tuttle Radio.

This is also for those lovely Lawsons who are clearly pining for something tuttlish.

Download (13MB)

(cross-posted from Perfect Path)

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Tuttle on Tour: Karaoke

****** UPDATED 22/11/08 ******

• The ‘Tuttleoke’ is now being held @ Lucky Voice ISLINGTON
  (Soho was fully booked)
• We’ve bagged two rooms for a total of 20 16 Rockstars;
  (8 & 8 respectively)
• Currently have 13 16 folk confirmed, that means 7 0 places left kids
• Get in touch if you want to play watch – we’ve filled the places now but people are allowed to come along and drink before and swap in and out etc…. Drop us a line and we’ll see what we can arrange.

Original details below…

___________________________________________________

This has been a long time coming…

We’ve talked about it,
We’ve attempted it and
We’ve even threatened to just go out and do it…

Well, the time is NOW folks and Vikki Chowney and James Whatley have stepped up to do the organising.

So… It’s Karaoke Time!

The Time: 7:30pm
The Date: Friday Dec 5th
The Place: Lucky Voice, Soho Lucky Voice, 173-174 Upper Street, Islington
The Event: Can you not READ? It’s Karaoke!

So recently, when Whatley got back from his brief stint in the US, one of the ‘chief learnings’ that he returned with was: From Las Vegas to NYC – The US Tech Scene has a proper hard-on for Karaoke…

…and let’s face it, the conversations we’ve *all* had at Tuttle, London really isn’t that different…

We know you’re out there – we’ve secretly been watching and listening, and every now and then some of you have even threatened to organise a night out… well, here it is.
Karaoke kids, let’s do this.

There is already got a bunch of people confirmed (you know who you are), but obviously – as with any event like this – the more the merrier.
We reckon we need a minimum of 8 of you to really raise the roof (we’re not far from that now) however, the more of you that come, the more rooms we’ll be able to book!
Works out about £15 per head and ideally we’d like to book it ASAP.

Numbers and places shouldn’t be hard, but we may hit a limit eventually so the sooner you can reply, the better. Either leave a comment on this post or email James on james at whatleydude dot com and let him know you’re up for it…

Speak soon Singstars,

@vikkichowney & @whatleydude

PS – If you’ve already said yes to this privately, please reply anyway as it helps with filing! 😉

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Phase II

Mike and I have been joking in public about “phase 2” for some time and I’m really glad we can stop joking about it and say “Yes! It’s a Go! Go! Go!”

Here’s the simple version: From Friday 10th October, the Tuttle Club will hold it’s Friday meetups at the ICA in The Mall instead of the Coach & Horses.

Of course there’s a more complicated version too:

1. More space – when we push above 40 people, the Coach can be very tight and uncomfortable. There are a couple of separate spaces we can use in the ICA cafe and capacity for up to 200. Which bloody well better be enough.

2. It’s still a little bit secret. The place doesn’t open properly normally until 11am and we’ve been given special permission to go in at 10am. So admission will be through the “back door” in Carlton House Terrace, maintaining the grand Tuttle tradition of entering in a manner that feels a little bit special and naughty.

3. It gives us a foot in the door to do all sorts of other events at the intersection of contemporary art and social media (an intersection which is HUGE). Yes my lovelies, this could well also include some evening events for those poor souls who are brutally chained to a desk every Friday morning. But don’t worry, slack-fans, it could also mean more morning stuff too 🙂 For example, having got his Meet Harrison Ford merital badge earlier this year in Cannes, Mike is now setting his sights on the Dennis Hopper firestarter badge.

4. The wifi is strong and just works and I’m guessing that there’s someone whose job it is to ensure that it stays that way.

5. It will be slightly further to walk for those in Soho (but really, no really Allix, not much) Here’s a map of the route from the Coach and Horses though I can’t for the life of me understand why it sends you all the way over to Regent Street. See me if you want a short cut. Also see me if you want to have a race to decide once and for all who is right about this. (Hint: it’s me, me I tell you).

6. On the other hand it will be nearer for those who come from Westminster or Victoria. Anyone with an office, say, overlooking St James’s Park will no doubt be pleased.

7. The proximity of the venue to the Palaces of Buckingham, St James and Westminster has caused a few raised eyebrows – are we selling out our bohemian roots? Not at all. I love that we’re doing something anarchic and subversive in a Regency House a few hundred yards up the road from Her Madge. The ICA is deeply bohemian.

8. The bar is equally well set up for tea as for coffee and from midday, I believe they are licensed to sell the native beverage known as bee-urr.

Huge credit for getting this whole thing off the ground goes to the combined forces of @sizemore and @whatleydude who have acted as lloyd-pushers, string-pullers and lubricators extraordinaire. James Scroggs, man of vision (who ancient tuttlers will remember brought us the Spinvox Future of Voice bolt-on) is the dude on the ICA board who is encouraging them to make us so welcome.

I do also want to heartily thank Alastair and his staff at the Coach for their hospitality over the last few months. He took a punt on this weird bunch of (mostly penniless) geeks continuing to turn up regularly when we really had not much more than a twinkle in our eyes. I’d urge you to continue to use the Coach for free wifi and good food and beer whenever you’re in the West End, singalong on Wednesdays and jazz on Tuesdays plus a new comedy club and of course remember that Alastair has the two upstairs rooms for hire during the day as well as for lunches and a damn fine dinner service for private parties.

Photo Credit: futureshape on Flickr cc:by

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That Twitter Song

Perhaps you haven’t heard it or perhaps you are one of the 214,000 listeners (so far) to Ben Walker’s Twitter Song on YouTube.

Either way, what you might not have realised is that it was written by Ben at the Coach and Horses during a Tuttle session. I noticed him sitting alone and scribbling one day and then a bit later, there it was! The comments on YouTube are class, do take a scroll through them.

Bonus Link: Now he’s selling t-shirts too

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Tuttle & Co.

As Mike says, the Friday morning tuttle collective aka Social Media Café continues to be a buzzy fixture with new and interesting industries, sectors and cliques represented in the room. It’s easy for me as “host” to get distracted and focus only on the new and occasional visitors, ie the things that keep changing, rather than the emerging, significant core of people who are there practically every week.

Mike and I met up with Bill Erickson and Alex (@emp – eek! I didn’t ever get your surname, Alex) last week for lunch. As well as their organisation of the BIL conference we chatted about Tuttle and the coworking experience at The Creative Space – do I believe their tales of $1 per sq.ft? And I am, no really I am, going to get down to the Werks one of these days. What’s becoming clear to me is that, having created something of a feeling of community with Tuttle, it feels right to tie it in to a concentrated effort to finally get coworking off the ground here in London even in the face of ridiculous property prices.

This is my current vision – that a group (and anyone who dares call us “The Tuttle Elite” will have very very painful things done to them) of us – those already working freelance – commit to renting (or otherwise acquiring) an office space for a period in which we will work together. The working atmosphere will be somewhere between serviced office, cafe and project war room. People who come along will be actively encouraged to collaborate with others rather than simply pursuing their own stuff. To the outside we might look a little like a consulting, resourcing and training company. It will work best if there continues to be a rich mix of people from different disciplines.

When it comes to actually making this commitment it all gets a bit chicken and egg – Me: “Can you commit to paying rent somewhere?” Tuttlers: “Well it depends on where and it depends on for how much.” Prospective Landlords: “So how many people are committed to this?”

So here’s something to throw into the mix.

Tom Ball is, right now, moving Cognac out of their 5th floor 450sq ft office on the Strand down to a larger 2nd floor space in the same building. Tom and I reckon it could house up to 8 people working at any one time (as long as it doesn’t get too hot this summer) There’s a separate little meeting room and a small kitchen. He’s looking for people to take it on, but obviously doesn’t want to hold onto the overhead for too long so this is a current and fleeting opportunity. It costs around £2000 per month – the details are here on their site.

So are there eight of us who could/would pay £250 pm each, like tomorrow? And put down a month’s deposit as well as the first month’s rent? or some other combination of people and cash? I recognise that there’s a difference between getting Yes-es to these questions and actually getting cash out of people but it’s worth asking anyway – even if this just turns out to be an Aunt Sally. Or is there a benefactor or patron who’d put up say, six month’s rent in order to enable it to happen – and probably get some benefit in terms of free consulting help – y’know access to that bright interdisciplinary cohort of super-brains?

I’m looking at doing more stuff, more interestingly all the time. So be prepared to listen to me waffle on about it for some time, until it happens.

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Gaining influence

The lovely Matthew Yeomans popped down to the café on Friday and seemed to enjoy himself. So much so that he’s made a generous offer for Tuttle Club members of reduced price tickets to Social Media Influence in London on 4th June (the conference that in previous years has been Blogging4Business ) This year’s conference blog is here.

So if you’d like to go along for just £195+VAT (a significant reduction on the headline delegate rate) let me know and I’ll vouch for you and point you in the right direction.

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