2nd Solopreneur's "We Survived Another Year" Christmas Party

Hello fellow Entrepreneurs, Soloprenuers, and Micropreneurs.

It's that time of year again when everyone else has a company-organised Christmas Party to attend, and we end up twiddling our thumbs, acting like Johnny no-mates!

[If you already have a Christmas party to go to, please stop reading now!]

Well No More!

I'm organising the 2nd Soloprenuers "I Survived Another Year" Christmas Party for Belfast. This time it will be held in Soul Food on the Ormeau Road. There are 20 places available. Ticket Price includes a scrumptious 3 course meal with BYOB and no corkage fee.

If you know a fellow Solopreneur or Micropreneur who would like to attend this Christmas Party, please tell them about this event.

Happy Christmas,

Rory

The Creativity Hub awarded 3rd place in InvestNI Big Idea Awards 2008

Well, the results are in! The Creativity Hub, and in particular my proposal to develop Rory's Verb Cubes, won third place in the 2008 Big Idea Competition sponsored by Invest NI, in association with Advantage NI and UnLtd NI. This event was organised in conjunction with Global Entrepreneurship Week 2008.

The event was held yesterday and hosted by Myleene Klass. It was presented EuroVision-style with young people from various cities (Brussels, Mumbai, Singapore, Boston and Belfast) all voting on the various ideas. I had entered the Social Entrepreneur category at the urging of Carmel Heaney of UnLtd NI.

The voting was close right up to the end, with the three leaders pretty much neck and neck. Mumbai awarded Rory's Verb Cubes 9/10 points, but my hopes for victory came crashing down when Boston awarded Rory's Verb Cubes just 5/10. In the end Music Theatre 4 Youth took first place, with SOS Bus NI coming second. Netherlea, Blick Studios and the boys from Positive Percussions were the remaining finalists. in the Social Entrepreneurship category.

While I am admittedly a little disappointed to have missed the top spot, I am grateful for the both recognition and money prize that I will be able to invest in developing a prototype of this new version. Watch this space!

The Creativity Hub is a finalist in the Big Idea (NI) Social Entreprenuer Awards

Wow! I'm celebrating that I have been nominated as a finalist for the Big Idea (NI) Award (held in association with Invest NI, Advantage NI and UnLtd). The event is organised as part of Global Enterprise & Entrepreneurship Week that runs from Nov 17-23rd. If I win the Social Entrepreneur category, I will receive funding towards developing the next version of Rory's Story Cubes. This new set is designed to support language development. Winners will be announced at an event in the Culloden Hotel, Holywood on November 18th. Wish me luck!

Below you can view the 12-slide presentation I submitted to accompany the online application.

Roc 081024 Bigidea Presentation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: story cubes)

The Next Revolution in Desktop Printing - Objects

I've been following the development of 3D printers for a while now. Why? Well, because I imagine a day when the Rory's Story Cubes community will be able to design, upload and share their own icons, and them print their own sets of Rory's Story Cubes using a 3D Printer. Desktop Factory have recently launched a 3D printer selling for about $5000 - a similar price to the first Apple LaserWriter. The LaserWriter is often touted as kick-starting the desktop publishing revolution. Say goodbye to limited choice, and high prices, say hello to the next wave user-generated creativity!

[via PSFK, Treehugger and Ponoko]

Mankind is no Island - the need for creativity and empathy

This video “Mankind Is No Island” was winner of the NY Tropfest 2008. I find this a beautiful piece of video, shot using only a mobile phone camera and found images. While a video about humankind may not appear to have a connection with creativity and innovation, to me it is totally connected. Personally, I cannot live me life, thinking "I'm so creative", if at the same time people close to me are homeless, starving, or go through life, never experiencing empathy or human contact. The Creativity Hub is not just about ideas, it's about people. It's about humankind.

[via PSFK]

Optical Illusions Video #01

What leads to Success? Richard St. John explains using 8 Words in 3 minutes

I love this presentation, especially how Richard St. John has distilled 500 interviews into 8 key words. And, he uses visuals and humour to aid memorability! My thanks to Beverly Addis over at Axis Recruitment for passing this on.

An animation that explains CERN's Large Hadron Collider

Having an amateur interest in quantum physics, and more than passing interest in discovering the meaning of life, I have been following CERN's progress with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) over the past few years with interest. A video entitled "The Bottle to Bang" by Chris Mann (6 min) posted on the CERN website (and sourced via a recent EnlightenNext newsletter) has been really helpful for me in making sense of what the heck is going on there.