Get Connected at OCFI
March 7, 2017
Finding reasonably-priced centrally-located meet-up spaces in Oxford can be a real challenge but The Oxford Trust are ahead of the curve. In the last year, we’ve launched not one but two new venues at our Oxford Centre for Innovation, or OCFI, on New Road next to the Oxford Castle.
The POD co-worker space is a snazzy first-floor venue with all you need for meet-up sessions. And the Basement is, not surprisingly, in the basement of OCFI and right next door to Oxford Hackspace – a creative area for inventors, innovators, new entrepreneurs and tech groups. The Basement meeting room holds up to 50 and has free WiFi, AV and basic catering facilities.
The Trust’s mission is to encourage the pursuit of science and enterprise. We really want to support grass roots networking groups within the wider Oxfordshire innovation ecosystem and feel that they are often overlooked when it comes to providing infrastructure and support. The Trust can help by offering these networking spaces for free to groups that meet our criteria.
It seems to be working as the number of regular groups using these spaces has grown to 12. Recently we’ve hosted the likes of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum Drinks, the Science Oxford STEM Mentors meet-up, and the Internet of Things, Oxford group to talk about the most exciting technology to happen this century!
Whilst it is mainly meet-up groups that make the most of these networking spaces, we also support other groups too – like Code First Girls. A local social enterprise, they are using The Basement to run a free community coding course for women who want to build careers in tech and entrepreneurship. How cool is that?
If you’re interested in running meet-ups at OCFI, you can get all the info on these networking spaces on our website here and to make booking easier we’ve just launched a calendar showing availability of rooms. We have also started an honesty snack and juice station to help reduce the amount of food and drink organisers need to bring to each event. But if you’ve got other ideas as to how we can improve these spaces, let us know! You can book rooms by emailing [email protected] or download the hire form here.
Get networking!
Rosie Miller
