Glenn on the history of his company
Tuesday, at £5 App, Glenn gave his personal view of the history of his company: The idea, name, table football, money, cake and the culture. The most interesting parts for me were his description of using scale to escape the for hire rollercoster (if you're working as an agency), the importance of having a shared set of values, and using money as a tool.
Interesting stuff. It'll take a while for it to sink in for me, but as Ribot caught the talk on video (part 1) (and part 2) you can judge for yourself.
[Disclaimer: Glenn is Jane's employer]
Labels: event
Posted by Richard at 8:46 AM
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Snowboard shows
We managed to attend two snowboard shows over the past couple of weeks - firstly, the snowboard show at Tamworth and then the Sno!Show at Milton Keynes.
At the Snowboard show we attended a talk on photography by Russ Shea before having our first ever rails lesson with Hamish McNight and Stu Edwards. We caught up with Ash and collected a couple of demo boards he'd brought down for Richard to try, whilst I made the most of the exhibitors and took a Salomon Ivy and a Burton Feelgood out for a spin. The Ivy was much twitchier than I'm used to and is a lot more of a handful than the one I tried in Breckenridge a few years ago, but that could be because it has become more of a freestyle board in the intervening seasons. The Feelgood was lovely, a really enjoyable ride.
The Sno!Show seemed busier, and had taken over a lot of the snow area of Xscape catering to both skiers and snowboarders. Again I took out a couple of different boards, firstly the omatic super by Tara Dakides and then the Head Fountain. I didn't find the omatic board very interesting and defnitely not as much fun as my Ride Kashmir. The Head Fountain however I loved - it was really responsive and I spent most of the time riding this with a great big smile on my face.
When I bought my Ride Kashmir 18 months ago I bought it because it was the best board of the 2 I'd been able to hire whilst in Breckenridge. These demo days make so much sense as I'm a firm believer that, at least for me, it isn't the graphics that matter, it's the ride style. I tried 2 boards that I wouldn't have ever dreamt of trying, and one, the Head Fountain, turned out to be a really fun board to ride and one that I'm looking for a good reason to buy to add to the collection 
. I'm sure I'll be making the effort to attend this kind of day again to try out more new shiny things...
Labels: event, snowboard
Posted by Jane at 7:48 PM
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World Beard and Moustache Championships
On Saturday, the World Beard and Moustache Championships were held at the Brighton Centre.
The event started, for the public (and for us thanks to a tip off from Andy) with a parade from the town hall, through the lanes to the Brighton Centre before starting for proper an hour or so later. Prior to the event starting, I thought it would all be a bit of a joke, but I hadn't been prepared for the sheer amount of effort that people had gone to, especially their costumes. As if growing a large amount of facial fur wasn't enough, at least one guy had painted himself silver for the occasion.
We met up with friends and headed off and the girls watched the 'tache competition whilst the boys spend an hour (yes really) queueing for beer at the bar (which had 5 members of staff serving for 2,300 people - nice). After finally getting our beer we sat down in comfort for the freestyle moustache and the partial beard categories. Jeremy, Kirsty and Rory headed home mid way through partial beards, and we spotted Dom, Fiona and Amelia and so went and watched a few more rounds with them before deciding we were all bearded out and needed to head home.
There are, of course, more photos to be perused. The next championships is in 2 years time in Alaska, somehow I don't expect we'll be attending.
Labels: Brighton, event, photos
Posted by Jane at 10:24 PM
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Moo's Hot and Sticky Party
On Thursday Richard and I headed off into London with a load of other Brighton geeks to Moo's Hot and Sticky Party. Richard managed to attend another moo party earlier in the year in San Francisco and after hearing about that there was no way I was missing out on this one. This party was to launch another new product - sticker books and we got to take away samples (as well as stick them on each other, moo employees etc etc).
We met some new faces, put faces to names (especially Will and Tom who I've known of for years but weirdly never met) as well as catching up with someone I haven't seen in over 5 years.
A great party put on by a company who obviously know how to celebrate! I even got 2 photos included in the moo blog post about the evening. More photos.
Labels: event, London, photos
Posted by Jane at 7:31 PM
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Geek Wine Thing
Last night we attended the first Geek Wine Thing organised by Danny and held at the Regency Town House.
Henry Butler from the Butlers wine cellar led the tasting, and for the cost of a tenner we tasted 8 different Spanish and Portugese wines. As a total novice in the wine tasting world, it was interesting to learn more about how to smell, look at and taste wine. Henry was an excellent and enthusiastic teacher.
The tasting started off very quiet and subdued, but before too many glasses had been consumer we got noisier and noisier.
The wines we tasted were:
Whites
Pares Balta Blanc de Pacs 2006 - Spain
Soalheiro Alvarinho 2005 - Portugal
Castello D'Alba 2005 - Portugal
Navajas Crianza 2003 - Spain
Reds
Monte Real Reserva 2000 - Spain
Clos Le Fites 2002 - Spain
Quinta de la Rosa Tinto 2004 - Portugal
Niepoort Redoma 1994 - Portugal
The white wines were split into unoaked (the first 2) and oaked (the second 2) with one each from Spain and Portugal. As usual I preferred the unoaked - so another nail in the coffin of oaked wines for me.
Next time, and I hope there will be a next time, I'll try and remember to bring a pen to make some notes, as somewhat unsurprisingly I don't remember too much beyond the first couple of glasses 
As usual, my photos from the evening are all on flickr.
Labels: Brighton, event, photos, wine
Posted by Jane at 8:05 PM
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