(March 2018 update - Open Coffee Krakow is now in Rynek Glówny 28, thanks to Philippe Wahab and is in great shape. We organise our events on Meetup here The leaders are Lorenzo Brigatti, Kamil Łopata and sterling support from Jan Marczyński/ You can watch what happens with Facebook live here

now back to my post from 2015

July 2015

Open Coffee Kraków is on the move -> this time to Colab our next meeting is on 16th July at Colab ul. Romanowicza 4

as usual at 08:00 sharp

It’s been a journey since we started. www.ockrk.co/OpenCoffeeKRK/1

Since Marta’s announcement at a Hive meeting late 2012/early 2013 about her idea of a Brad Feld inspired Kraków version of Open Coffee, and her feeling that a morning “un-meeting" made sense, Open Coffee Kraków has boomed, shrunk, split and re formed. At one stage - this child of Ela Madej and Piotr Nedzyński’s Hive53.com was larger than Hive itself.

The spirit of a “participant led, un meeting, where the focus is not on speakers but positivity, support, open-ness and inclusiveness" is alive and well. Personally,

I’ve much enjoyed telling people about

- our strict rules concerning commercial promotion “”we are in favour”

- that Kraków stands for internationalism, trade and open-ness

- making people clap and applaud each other, (and government officials when they come)

- playing mood bending Mrs Mills Stripe piano as our theme music at 07:30. I still am determined to lead a Honky Tonk Winifred Atwell piano revival in Krakow.. ,, anyone who wants to help make this happen - get in touch.

- I loved writing the FAQ including not very subtle passive aggressive Q&A like those here. (2018 update the FAQ is now on our meetup page http://meetup.com/opencoffekrakow)

. 8 8. You ought to do A B and C  and this  Why don’t you do X  and this one  here 

I know that there are people who for OCKRK has changed their jobs and lives.

This is not the place to thank our coders Aliaksei, , faithful regular attendees and volunteers like Łukasz, photographers like Andrzej or bloggers like Wojtek, our generous sponsors and partners like those listed here and above all Marta for making it happen.

Since our first meeting in Dynia on Krupnicza, Open Coffee Kraków has evolved, grown, got smaller, and spread. We moved to Charlotte on Pl Szczepański, had many happy months at Google for Entrepreneurs Kraków supported by Dawid Paulina and Wojtek, and in recent months been in Kraków's "diplomatic quarter” at Ambasada Krakowian on Stolarska.

One of our spin offs Open Coffee Colab, under Kamil’s able leadership has grown to be bigger than our recent meetings on Stolarska, and after discussions with Marta and Kamil we decided for now to merge the events and have one event every two weeks in Colab.

Action item

The spirit is intact, the power is with us we still want and look for support. engagement and involvement. Please give Kamil, Marta and myself the maximum support - and keep the spirit of Kraków and OMG alive.

Richard

PS

Following discussions at Bitspiration I’m thinking for doing an Google for Entrepreneurs Krakow (fans) meetup in September. which if successful may turn into a regular event - to help support and celebrate the fact that Google Campus is coming to Poland. Watch this space.