What people say about us in 2004

Bouncing Back I

'The event was interesting and effective. Having the different parties (Angel, VC, Entrepreneur) talking about each other one after (what they expect, what to expect from them, ...) the other gave a delightful insight. Robert Samson (an angel in real life, too) personifying the Angel Investor and then Laurence Garrett as a VC and Adam Twiss as an entrepreneur describing the character and motives of the Angel investor was an unbeatable format. The same applies of course to Adam giving insights into the working of VCs.

'I made some 'surprise' contacts for F Ltd's business and technology. You never know the many things going on in and around Cambridge until you go out and speak to the people. Very good.

'What I would do different? Nothing really. The location was very convenient and I suppose the Innovation Centre gave a helping hand.'
KB 29/03/04

'Firstly, thank you for organising the event, I thought it was very useful and would be keen to attend similar such events in the future. On practical matters:
1. while I actually liked the soap-box and standing audience feel of the event - there were some times where workshops were hard to concentrate / hear due to noise in the main area
2. it would be good to ask the presenters to publish their notes material on the web (or to keep the open spontineity(spell?) alive - perhaps ask someone to take notes / minutes and have these put up with any material the presenter may have prepared)
I notice there was only one budding entrepreneur taking the opportunity to put up a stand - would be good to encourage more of these - but not to allow them to get too slick'
TM 29/03/04

'Firstly can I say that what must have been an organisational nightmare things ran very smoothly from my perspective. To arrange so many sessions of various sizes in an open plan area is impossible - but it worked. Informal and enjoyable.'
PH 29/03/04

'The day was ambitious but the sessions I attended were very interesting. The key was the quality of people you had as speakers/facilitators.

I would just say well done'
SR 29/03/04

'I very much enjoyed the event, all the speakers I saw were highly interesting. I thought the format worked very well, so I don't have any comments on how it could be improved.'
SR 29/03/04

'Last week's meeting was good, but I have a couple of (constructive) criticisms:
*Whilst it was great to have a list of delegates and therefore choose to try and meet with someone in particular perhaps, I found it impossible to see the names on their badge, without going up very close and peering at someone's chest!!! Perhaps a much larger font would be appropriate
*the sessions were great - I liked the informal style of them and the ones I attended were very informative
* not that it affected me personally, but I guess the lunch arrangements were less than satisfactory - it would have annoyed/frustrated me if I'd have pre-booked lunch only to find that someone else had bought mine because I'd not arrived until the lunchtime networking session, for instance location was good, except parking was difficult

'I think that's it - but I have to say that all in all it was a useful day, thank you,'
JB 29/03/04

'I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and the talk by Walter. He is a wonderful man. The only comment I have is: The workshops were held at adjacent areas and were a bit noisy as a result.'
ST 24/03/2004

'I attended the meeting to decide if I wanted to join the Network. I enjoyed the semi-informal style of your event and have since joined your networking group.'
25/03/2004

'I thought it was most useful to hear from people with lots of experience in various areas. The informal, low key approach was also much appreciated and made the whole thing less intimidating. Nothing stands out as a problem.'
NR 26/03/2004

'Bouncing Back was the first Cambridge Network event that I have attended, here are my comments from the perspective of a new start-up. What worked well:
+ Informal nature of the event created a relaxed environment in which to chat and ask questions.
+ Good variety of topics being covered - these were relevant to our situation (hence our attendance) and we felt that each of the speakers opened up something for us to think about.
+ Enjoyed Walter Herriot's speech.

What could have been done differently:
- List of attendees published in advance so we could work out who we should be trying to talk to, or.
- Being a first-timer it would have been helpful to have a 'guide' to point out (or introduce us to) those in the room who were 'useful' people to know, e.g. people who had recently gone through the early stages of a business like I am doing now, players in our field who might have other contacts, etc. Some might consider this inappropriate for an entrepreneurial environment whereby we should all be dynamic enough to network unaided, however I feel that offering this particular service would give a jump-start to those new to it.'
NB 26/03/2004

'My boss MS just came back from the meeting that you organised and he said it was a big success and he was impressed by the whole thing. So well done! All this hard work looks like it paid off.'
IC 25/03/2004

'In my opinion, the event was very worthwhile and was a very good use of my time (and I spent the whole day there). Walter's keynote speech was very upbeat and motivational and it was great to see so many of the people responsible for the continued success of the 'Cambridge Phenomena' giving something back to the rest of us. I think you deserve to give yourselves a big pat on the back and I for one will look forward to the next such event.

One suggestion for the future (and I hope this doesn't sound too petty) if you're going to take the trouble to print name badges, make the names big enough for people to read from a few metres away. It really helps when someone in the audience asks a very pertinent question to know who they are.

One other suggestion (a bit more obscure) At an event a couple of weeks ago they handed out networking cards to everyone. The idea was to fill in details of who you are, what you do and who you might like to network with at the event. Each person then pinned the card up on a pin board. This is an easy and very cheap way to help and encourage people to make connections at an all-day event.'
DD 24/03/2004

'A word of thanks, Samara, to all your team for a well organised and inspiring day.'
TH 24/03/2004

'It was one of the best days I have had in my working life in Cambridge! Thank you.'
KB 24/03/2004

'Met lots of interesting people, only one item of feedback - you need to somehow segregate the networking chatterers from the sessions. We had a lot of trouble hearing the speaker in one of ours and she was very embarrassed and somewhat cross I think'
PO 24/03/2004

'Hope to see many more. Giving genuine benefit to the Cambridge businesspeople.'
SG 24/03/2004

' I thought this was a b*****y good event, very well organised and very well attended. Congratulations'
Walter Herriot 24/03/04

'Just a note to say thank you to you and your team for such a great and useful event. I enjoyed marshalling my 3 sessions and made some more very good contacts!'
EM 24/03/04

'I found the day excellent and very timely. Just a few weeks after the event I opened discussions with potential investors, for a new business proposition, and we now appear to have several very interested parties. The Bouncing Back event primed me, and gave me a clear appreciation for what Investors are looking for. This is likely to pay significant dividends, and I therefore thank you for hosting such a great event.'
AW 19/04/04

'I found the event very interesting and have no complaints about the style. I think this can be adopted hereon - a worthwhile experiment sir! It may be worth considering some 'sifting' of the various groups next time - the range of experience and business maturity was most broad and whilst I know this is an attraction, I suspect that some participants may have been holding back, hoping others would address their issues in the open forum. Obviously this can be covered in networking activity, but the turnout was good and it was tough to get to the targeted contacts. Reducing the group size and matching the groups in terms of maturity / ability / experience may bring smaller but more focused sessions. Just an idea. Nevertheless, I would certainly attend another such event.'
PH 28/03/04

'Thank you for hosting the event, it was a very enjoyable with some very good topics.

'I would like to have been able to attend more of the discussions so if there was a way around that for next time then that would be good, or maybe it just needs to be run a few times more.

'I was a little disappointed that the IP discussion didn't include trade mark issues, but there is only so much that you can cover in an hour, maybe at a future even that could be addressed. It would also be interesting to see more legal discussions/advice sessions for people like myself just starting off as it's difficult to know exactly what your supposed to know and with the high cost of solicitors it's all to easy to not use them for even simple advice.

'Personally I don't like plastic/paper cups as was used for the orange juice,tea and coffee, but that's just a personal preference and I understand because of the numbers of people why you went that way.

'I do hope this type of event happens more often as it was very enjoyable, interesting and informative.'
SH 30/03/04


Intellectual Property Special Interest Group

'Thank you very much for such a good write up of the Intellectual Property Special Interest Group. Indeed, during the networking session, two people commented on the high quality of the discussion'
YY 19/02/04

'I enjoyed the evening very much. A lively discussion, and some very interesting questions.'
SP 22/02/05

Cambridge Corporate Gateway

'Thank you for arranging our meeting with Dimplex and Morphy Richards last week as part of the Cambridge networks. This was an excellent opportunity for us to meet with these companies and present our technology. If you are arranging any more of these events in the future we would very much like the opportunity to be part of it.'
SW 30/9/04

'Das Feed Back ist sehr positiv! Das wurde uns auch schon bei unserem Rückflug mündlich von den bayerischen Unternehmern bestätigt. Auch Minister Wiesheu ist voll des Lobes! Die Reise hat ihm sogar so gut gefallen, daß er jetzt etwas Ähnliches mit den USA machen will. Also ein voller Erfolg! Die viele Mühe hat sich gelohnt.'
SR 15/02/04

'Congratulations to you and your team for a superb effort in organising the Munich Network visit. I made, and renewed, some very useful contacts.'
TM 05/02/04

'I have received more solid new business out of this networking meeting than out of any such similar meeting that I remember in recent years.'
OS 6/2/04

'Just a brief note to say thank you for a superb event at the above dinner last night. TA and I enjoyed the environment, excellent hospitality and the most useful networking opportunity. Can you please convey our thanks to your people who did such a great organising job?
DH 27/01/04


Cambridge Network Website

'I would like to express my sincere appreciation for Cambridge
Network, through which I am able to find my new job'
YY 05/04/04

'Just thought you should get some feedback from my team who are finding the CN website very hard work. Seems their main complaint is that it is very slow. One particular example area of concern is the recruitment pages - 'Last advert I posted took me 2 hours because the site was so slow' is a quote from our Administrator.'
ML 15/11/04


Bouncing Back II

'The event was very enjoyable and well organised. We have already seen enough to be interested in joining! How should we go about that?'
PM 27/10/04


China Special Interest Group

'Thank you for your invitation to last nights China dinner. Very much enjoyed it and found the networking very useful.'
PJ 27/06/04

'Thank you for your invitation to attend the meeting on Wednesday. I very much enjoyed meeting you and the other delegates it was certainly a very interesting and extremely useful event.'
NB 16/06/04

'Thank you for organising a very interesting day on Wednesday. I found it very useful to meet others in the region with a China specialism and I hope it will help you and the other official bodies in the region to crystalise your thinking on what is required.'
MS 16/06/04


IT Infrastructure Special Interest Group

'Thanks very much for a very interesting event. It was a great platform on which get other people's perspectives on the challenges we are all faced with.'
DD 21/10/04


Financial Directors' Special Interest Group

'Please would you thank P and the other organisers for an excellent and interesting evening?'
SG 12/5/04


Miscellaneous

'Thought today was positive and informative, some really good ideas to try out, thank-you for bringing it all together again.'
BH 24/06/2004

'Just a brief note to say what an enjoyable & interesting meeting last night. It has certainly encouraged me to submit a claim and given me a far clearer explanation of the Inland Revenue definition of R&D. Please pass my thanks on to the speakers and Xaar for the sponsorship.'
RF 06/05/04

'Thank you for inviting me to attend the Open Meeting last evening. This was the first time I had attended one of your functions and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay long but I did manage to speak to several other delegates. I look forward to the opportunity of coming along to other events.'
DD 23/09/04

'Thanks for organising the open meeting yesterday, it was without
doubt the best (most interesting and informative) CN event I've ever attended, and I've been to quite a few :-)'
TG 10/11/04

'Thank you for organising and inviting Microsoft to a very interesting dinner on Monday. I met several new and re-connected with some old contacts.

I hope that you will keep us updated about any future events in the Cambridge Area.'
CC 08/12/04

'I was in the West Coast recently and got a meeting with Boeing through Peter!'
LD 21/02/05