OpenCoffee Fox Valley, April 25, Noon, Copper Rock (Downtown Appleton)

(Guest post by Chris Schmitz of OpenCoffee Green Bay)

The OpenCoffee Club hosts informal meetups for people interested in building the startup scene of their region. OpenCoffee in Northeast Wisconsin (NEW) started in Green Bay and is now expanding to the Fox Cities with a coffeehouse meetup in Appleton. It's an outlet to talk about issues that startup employees and founders are running into with their businesses and an opportunity to learn about what others are up to in the area and how you can work together to help each other succeed. There is no agenda, just conversation focused on building the startup community.

(For a bit of background on OpenCoffee, here's a link to the main website on Ning, and here's a link to "the post that started it all" with the first OpenCoffee in London.)

We've been running an OpenCoffee Club in Green Bay for about 3 months now and it's been amazing to see some of the connections that have been made and the incredible amount of knowledge that is shared at these meetings. I would encourage anyone who is remotely interested in working on or in a high-tech, high-growth business to attend these events. It's a great opportunity to find out what is happening in your community and become a part of something amazing.

In addition to these informal hangouts, there are all sorts of larger events popping up around Northeast Wisconsin. Here are a few resources for you to checkout if you are interested in getting involved:

The NEW Startup Digest - A mailing list that sends out a digest of what's happening for startups in the area.
Digital Fertilizer - An organization that is dedicated to hosting educational events and connecting the people and resources necessary for a vibrant startup community in NEW. They also have a Meetup group that you should consider joining!
NEW OpenCoffee Club - Of course!
Other Tech Meetups - There are a number of other cool meetups happening that you might be interested in!

Momentum is building and people are realizing that we have all the necessary components for a vibrant startup scene right here in NEW. Now it's just a matter of connecting people and building the community before some amazing things start to happen. Please consider being a part of this movement and helping us build the startup community of NEW, one coffee at a time.

(Chris Schmitz is coming down from Green Bay for the inaugural Fox Valley OpenCoffee, to be held this coming Thursday, April 25, from noon to 1 PM at the Copper Rock downtown location on College Avenue. Hope to see you there, as well as others you invite who might be interested in the tech entrepreneurial scene...  -- Bob W.)

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