Have been trying our best to find some amazing speakers, but have all been so busy working that this hasn't managed to be done. You may tell us how rubbish that is at the next meeting on THURSDAY 17TH MAY (this Thursday).

So... we're going to have a networking and general chat evening. I may even do a request number if enough of you ask!

If you can get a ticket to say you're coming, that would be awesome!

http://investechmk.eventbrite.com

See you on Thursday!

Paul

All round techie and top guy Matthew Cashmore is coming to speak on Thursday. More info about him here...

http://thelondonbiker.com/blog/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewcashmore

Matthew is also one of the organisers of Over The Air, which is happening at Bletchley Park in June, so you'll be able to find out all about that as well.

Looking forward to seeing you on Thursday!

More details to follow, but just wanted to give everyone a heads up that it's going to be then not Thursday 12th.

Hoping to line up 2 speakers with experience in hackdays, digital publishing and startups. Should be interesting!

Joining us for the March InvesTechMK will be Stuart Hillston, an experienced entrepreneur who now specialises in funding, and raising funds, for early stage and startup tech companies. 

Stuart brings a wealth of experience from the tech industry; he has formed several IT service companies, managed funds investing in pre-IPO businesses, for which he was involved with 4 flotations and a trade sale as exits for investors, and most recently founded an advisory company for early stage tech businesses. 

His experience includes software, web-based applications & services, medical devices, cleantech, renewables, mobile telecomms and engineering.

Stuart will be sharing some insights on funding, and fund raising, for startups and early stage companies, so it will make a very interesting evening! A must-attend for those looking to raise investment, or needing some advice on associated planning, negotiation or strategic development. 

Find out more on Stuart here: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/swhillston

Tickets are here:

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2910696973

Well, this month, we have a fascinating get together planned.

We've got some of our most regular members from Milton Keynes based Heald Solicitors speaking about business, the law, IP and how to protect it. 

A very important topic for all those involved in technology especially as technology has a much lower barrier to entry (e.g. you only need a computer!).

So, bring all your questions! Including about contracts and copyright as well.

Tickets are available from our eventbrite page.

http://investechmk.eventbrite.com

We look forward to seeing you all there!

This month's InvesTechMK is packed full of exciting news and we will be joined by two speakers. Join us on Thursday 10th November to hear all about the Innovation Hub, a new Venture Fund being launched and also a local startup in the government/open source space.

Innovation Hub: This is a great opportunity to be amongst local entrepreneurs and startups... MK now has an Innovation Space that provides new businesses (and SME's) with a workspace. It's a unique environment, both near to the City and the station, and shows great support for the tech startup scene in MK. 

Whether you are looking for personal workspace, or want access to this vibrant community who are changing the world through their businesses, come along on Thursday and find out more!

Venture Fund: We are delighted to be joined by Dr Philip Smith on Thursday, who will be introducing the new MK Venture Fund. MK has been identified as one of the cities that will drive national economic recovery, and the Fund presents an opportunity to invest in a forward thinking city. Supported by a number of MK bodies, the Fund is looking to invest in a portfolio of companies.... could you be one of them?

Open Source Solutions: We are also excited to be joined by a local entrepreneur, Eckhard Schwarzat, who will be sharing some insight on working with Open Source solutions and the government. Eckhard has an experienced background in healthcare, manufacturing, logistics and telecommunications and will be sharing with us his experiences with OpenERP, government and current projects. 

We will be in our usual spot in the Ramada Hotel (1st floor, by the bar), arrive for 6.45pm and we aim to start presentations around 7pm. We look forward to seeing you there... 

Tickets can be ordered here... http://bit.ly/9Bznua 

We've been very lax in letting everybody know that the next InvesTechMK is actually tomorrow, 13th October.  Short notice, I know, but actually, we always tell you it's the second Thursday of every month!

We previously said that we may be moving venues, but that hasn't happened, so we're in the same venue as usual:

Ramada Encore, Milton Keynes

Go to the Bar area, and we're probably going to be in the door to the left! Smaller space, but works well as a place to chat and network (and it's nearer the bar!).

Map of the venue is on their website.

It's at the usual time of 6:45pm for 7:00pm start and we have a great speaker lined up for tomorrow.

Paul Johnston (that's right - the co-organiser of InvesTechMK) will be presenting a talk on Lessons Learned from developing Mobile Apps for the Enterprise.  It has relevance way beyond just Apps and Enterprise, and goes to the heart of the new mobile technologies out there.

To get tickets (you don't have to, but it helps if we know numbers) go to:

investechmk.eventbrite.com

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Next week we will be joined by serial entrepreneur Simon East, who will be sharing his experiences on starting up a new business and telling us about his latest venture, DriveGain: builiding an iPhone app that helps you save fuel as you drive. 

You can find out more about Simon here:

http://simoneast.org/

http://drivegain.com/

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/simoneast

Tickets will be released shortly, keep next Thursday (8th) evening free in your diary.... hope to see you there. 

It's the summer holiday... so, in this jolly summer spirit we will be enjoying Mojitos and Fajitas this Thursday in Las Iguanas....hopefully sat outside! 

Next month we will be getting together in our usual spot, the Ramada hotel. We will be joined by a driving entrepreneur who has a fascinating story about iPhone apps and cars....

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, and also next month (September 8th). 

After a month off speakers last week, and some cool refreshing drinks, it's back to learning some amazing things about business and being an entrepreneur.

We've lined up 2 speakers for this month's InvesTechMK.

Manjit Rana is energetic and passionate about business. He has recently setup his next business with our first ever InvesTechMK speaker, Chris Denison. The business, Ingenin, is an innovation business dedicated to the insurance market. Manjit setup his first business at 19 with £500 which sold 18 months later for over £100k then going on to develop several other business including a Business Intelligence software house (sold to CSC for £1m), a business magazine, a PDA based “ice-breaker” service called Instant Flirt, a business incubator and a reverse auction insurance aggregator service called Quotes2Me.

Rashesh Joshi is a local businessman and entrepreneur. He isn't a typical Chartered Accountant. As one of the co-founders of Alexander Rosse he's an entrepreneur at heart. Passionate about technology and ideas, and ability to hone in on what works and what doesn't. He's often called in for specialist interim FD work and corporate finance work. His experience helping companies raise finance for entrepreneurial projects is interesting in and of itself.

UPDATE: Rashesh has come down with Flu and so will be unable to attend on Thursday. We're attempting to reschedule him for later this year.

We hope you agree that these two should be interesting people for us all to learn from and listen to.

We will release tickets, but at present the venue is TBC, so for now book the date in the diary and we'll let you know nearer the time where it will be.

UPDATE on 7th July 2011

The event will be held in the Ramada Encore Hotel, Bar Area (go past the restaurant).

Book a ticket here:

http://investechmk.posterous.com/