Caffeine and Opensource

Lastnite some of Cape Town’s alpha-geeks were at Caffeine swapping some next-level ideas.Among them were bloggers Conrad (aka Geekspin -the guy behind BarCamp CapeTown); Adrian Rossouw (Bryght guy and core developer of Drupal), Rafiq (the original Web AddiCT); Max Kaizen (the genius connector); Jerith (Amazon.com) and Dave Duarte (tech marketing maestro).

We also had input from Al (owner of a wireless technology company), Ashleigh (Light Speed Development), Charles (FineBushPeople and FreedomToaster), Nick (JigSoft), and Laurence (Mindspring).

Photo: Al, Ashleigh & Nick …. Hhmm

When a group of like-minded people get together like this, big things can happen. Ideas can get developed and the group can decide to support projects and help them succeed.

Copious amounts of coffee fuelled the session – which went well into the night.

Note: thanks to the original Web AddiCT for the photo. We’ll add links later – the shops too busy to do it now:-) We didn’t get all the URL’s – sorry guys, we’ll put em up next time.

BarCamp Reunion

Some of Cape Town’s techno-cogniscenti will be coming to visit us on Thursday evening, around 6 O’clock.

This might be a good place to be if you’d like to hook-up with some software/hardware/market-maven type gurus.

We’re looking forward to witnessing business at the speed of conversation (<< as per Dave Duarte’s journal).

Drop a comment if you have any special requests and we’ll do our best to accomodate.

Two new addtions to the blogroll*:

- The Muso (blogging on independent music happenings in Cape Town)
- Christine Stander (Search Marketing and Web strategy blog)

*You might want to sample the new Cherryflava Blackforest Muffin when you come in to get your free fix;-)

More interesting people to meet!

We were totally blissed this morning to see a Caffeine write-up on Cherryflava, one of our favourite daily blog reads! Well worth adding to your favourites, Cherryflava gives delightfully readable commentary on the latest branding, culture and business 2.0 trends and happenings. We look forward to your insights at the next business breakfast meet (and of course, the cherryflava muffin and a strong coffee is on the house).

More high praise came from the blog of Craig Jamieson (interactive media designer and digiguru). See you at the next CBBC Craig – we'll have your rooibos espresso waiting for you;-)

We can also happily provide a muffin and coffee to technophile trombonist Jerith for the linklove he sent our way. Thanks!

Our little network is expanding! One of the great things about promoting our shop through the blogosphere is the cutting-edge type people that it attracts… Which attracts more cool people… And so the virtuous cycle goes on. The next CBBC is certainly going to be an interesting/mindblowing experience all over again!

Menu

Hungry? Why not save the Caffeine menu on your computer, so you always have a tasty meal just a phone call away.

       
     Click to enlarge
Download a printer friendly menu (pdf)

Se-ri-us business

Caffeine BusinessBreakfast Club met this morning… I've honestly never encountered such fervent, sincere idea-sharing between business people before.

Stuart tried to put a bit of pressure on everyone to declare outright what business they want from each other. It was a great idea – and then as usual everyone started swapping ideas about everone else's business (and ordering multiple cups of extremely buzzy coffee!).

Wow, with the likes of market futurists, economists, psychologists and venture capitalists you can imagine the mental energy that was buzzing around.

No doubt that this is the most energetic and interesting networking meet in town. It's still quite small though (about 10 people every second Wednesday)… so you're super welcome to join in the conversation. Leave a comment and we'll get in touch. 

Bonus: if you mention us on your your blog the caffeine-fix (+muffin) is free!   

Another winner: 

We'd like to welcome Mark Forrester (website design & hosting) to the blogroll – and look forward to seeing him in-store for a complimentary muffin & coffee.

A light in an otherwise dark market

At the suggestion of my fearless "Tech Guru" Dave Duarte, it apears to be time that I had some input on the highly popular site.

I am American born and bred, with a background in marketing and finance. After a number of years with Morgan Stanley I decided to explore the world.

First stop, Australia and a contract as marketing director for The Perth Mint. Eventually on a flight from Sydney to Perth I chanced to sit next to a stunning girl from JoBurg and the rest is history. I suspect that she was actually part of a clandestine branch of the SA government called the Ministry for Improved Inbound Migration. I should have picked this up when the houskeeper kept referring to her as Miim!!

So we opened the first Caffeine on Riebeek street just over a year ago. Given that it is between Moulin Rouge and Adult World I think alot of people thought I was out of my mind, but that little shop has a feel all it's own and can get quite buzzy around lunchtime. Caffeine Hout Bay came on line early in March and with a large, sunny, outdoor seating area is a great place to spend a lazy afternoon. And now we are in Seapoint and I am personally committed to melting the ice in this little corner of Cape Town. We pride ourselves on warm friendly service, good food at great value, and a comfortable setting, and the hardcore coffee. We run a list of specials that is constantly changing, fresh muffins, soup, quiche, and different items that draw on a world of influence.

Take time out of your day to pay us a visit, if you do nothing more than enjoy a cup of our custom blended coffee I guarantee you will be glad you found us. Drop us an e mail and we'll add you to our e mail list that covers specials and specials events.

We'll be waiting for you. Joe Gibialante

You're likely to find me making muffins >>>

Salespeople, take note:

MSN Health reports that Caffeine (not just ours) makes you more likely to say "yes" . 

They said that people were more likely to accept and agree with views expressed in an intellectual argument after they'd had some coffee.

The study also showed that coffee improved their memory.

So next time you need to persuade someone of something, take them out for coffee!

33rd fastest in the world!

We noticed incoming traffic from a link titled "Growing Blogs". To our surprise (and delight), Caffeinespot was WordPress's 33rd fastest growing blog worldwide on June 16th!

Not bad for a little coffee shop in Seapoint.

If you're a Cape Town based blogger, you can be part of it by mentioning Caffeinspot in your blog. In return, we'll hook you up a free buzzy coffee and jumbo muffin, add you to the blogroll, and try send some link-love your way.

Dewet, a Cape Town programmer, did an excellent roundup of Barcamp Capetown. Thanks for the Caffeine mention Dewet… we look forward to meeting you for that muffin and coffee!

Blogger’s Promo

Mention Caffeine Seapoint in your blog (doesn't even have to be a good mention)… then let us know about it (comment' or trackback) and you can have a delicious muffin and coffee on the house.

We'd like to fill our blogroll up with Cape Town city area bloggers…. To build some kind of community and host get togethers at the shop when the numbers are looking respectable. So, let us know your URL and pull in for your freebie muffin & coffee.

We'll try give fellow bloggers ample reason to talk about us. After all, markets are conversations. (Especially our market!!)

Max Kaizen (genius marketing consultant) & Rafiq Phillips (Web Application Design & Development) your muffin and coffee are waiting for you!

Caffeine has a blog!

We weren't expecting so much traffic in such early days, so we haven't even had the chance to put up our menu here yet!
Please keep coming back… we look forward to introducing ourselves and our concept to you in the next few weeks.