Best Networking Event = thebestof Luton!

Slurpy has been in full swing within the local networking community lately. Not content with just attending our weekly BNI Chiltern meetings, we have attended BNI Verulam (Hatfield), 4 Networking, and Business 4 Breakfast. But some of the best networking events local to us have been organised by thebestof Luton. Last night we attended a brilliant event - there were delicious nibbles, wine and even a personalised cake for each attendee (thanks to Fantasy Icing!)
We are starting to get our faces recognised within the local networking communities and last night was no different. After chatting with some old and new faces over some food and wine there was a presentation on NLP (Neuro - Linguistic Programming) by Lenka Majstrikova of Ultimate Mind.

We have been memebers of thebestof Luton for a couple of months and have made great use of their blog to list our parachute jump, their up to date listing of carboot sales (we are looking for bargin office equipment at the moment!) and their guide to whats on around Luton. We are currently working on a short web video to promote thebestof's networking events and it will be available online shortly.

Wild Animation

Late July and August saw us begin our animation workshops - Wild Animation - for Wildchild Activities. We take a group of 6-12 year olds and teach them the history and craft of animation in a day of activities, ranging from stop-motion (or claymation as it is also known) to pixilation. Have a look at the movie above to see an example of what the children produced in one day! As well as showing them how easy it is to animate at home with some plasticine and a digital camera, we teach the importance of simple character design, and the children love it when I produce a model of Morph to illustrate one of the simplest, yet effective, charaters ever!

Sky Dive Postponed - Please Give Generously!!

August has been a pretty hectic month, what with holidays, and teaching children and cramming work in. Unfortunately our sky dive for Harpenden Spotlight on Africa has been postponed until 30th September. But it has given us an extra month to raise the money. Our target was an ambitious £2000 and so far we have raised over £1400. We have surpassed our realistic expectations! Here is another publicity image which we will be using in the local papers leading up to the jump, and if you want to donate we would appreciate that VERY much! www.justgiving.com/jump4africa

Jumping Out A Plane...For Africa!

Three blog posts in a little over a week...we are quite proud of ourselves! This time we want to tell you how in one months time we will both be jumping out of a plane 15,000 feet up to raise money for a local charity Harpenden Spotlight On Africa.

The charity aims to link the people of Harpenden with communities in sub-Saharan Africa to support local initiatives to alleviate poverty.

We spend last Sunday morning at Harpenden Farmers Market rattling our tins and raising as much awareness as possible on the HSOA stall - see the photo above!

You can read our story at the St Alban's Review's website "Harpenden Couple Take To The Skies For African Charity"!

If you would like to sponsor us (please do!) at our Just Giving page: Jump4Africa

Dark Blues Music

This is just a short post but we have just started work for a band called The Dark Blues. Their music style is eclectic; covering Jazz, Blues, Soul, Pop and Rock and Roll. They have been performing for over 25 years and play charity balls, weddings, birthdays and have even performed at Royal Family parties!

If you can still like a song after listening to it all day for two weeks it must be pretty good - as we found with The Dark Blues' version of Respect! Check it out below, and if you like what you hear, check out their You Tube channel.

More coming soon!

Slurpy Jump 4 Africa

Only a few short years ago, my partner Aaron and I jumped in to the world of business by starting up an animation and web design company called Slurpy Studios. After the success of that venture, coupled with a few suicidal tendencies and a good cause, we decided to make another jump, this time out of an aeroplane at 15,000 ft.

We first heard of Harpenden Spotlight on Africa during a BNI meeting, where we go on a weekly basis to promote our studio and to network with other local businesses. Every gets the opportunity to tell the group exactly what it is that they’re looking for, and on this one occasion, a gentleman by the name of Robin Nesbitt (who was representing the charity) stood up and asked if anyone knew someone who might be insane enough to jump out of a plane and hurtle towards the earth with nothing but a thin nylon cloth between life, and a very sticky mess.

Aaron and I looked at one another, grinned, and agreed instantly. We were insane enough.

Harpenden Spotlight on Africa is a truly wonderful charity. I’ve lived in Harpenden for most of my life, but on my occasional forays into less privileged parts of the world; Argentina, Morocco and Romania in particular, I’ve felt an overwhelming guilt at the lucky chance of my being born in such a place. Harpenden has so much, and Africa has so little. We are proud to be able to do something that will help.

And it will help. HSOA has already built a school, so that the children of Musoto (in Uganda) will educate themselves out of poverty. The charity now wants to build a well, and to establish small businesses in the town so that the people will not have to rely on charity or handouts forever.

We are trying to earn £2,000 with this jump. £2,000 will give so many people the chance at life that we take for granted. It will give them the opportunity to drink without fear, to learn and grow, to live rather than just survive.

Please donate anything that you can, thank you
www.justgiving.com/jump4africa

Inamo - Best Restaurant Ever

We know that this isn't the most animation-oriented news that we could have posted but we felt it deserved a mention! At the end of last year a new type of restaurant opened in Soho, London, which we were amazed hadn't been created before. Simply put, Inamo is a restaurant that combines amazing food with new technology which gives you a dining experience like no other.

When we arrived to celebrate Katie's birthday we were shown to our table and were ready to embrace the new technology. The way it works is that there is a projector above each table that is linked to a computer which you control from your seat using a touch pad mouse and button. After a short demonstration by our waitress we were eager to play around on the interactive menu - we were like 2 kids on Christmas morning!



Aside from being able to order or cancel your drinks and food, you can watch 'Chef Cam' and see your food being cooked, play Battleships with the person opposite you while you wait, or see the total of your bill so far, You can even plan your evening after your meal by viewing maps, cinema and taxi information!

Apart from being dazzled by the technology, the food was first class. Inamo presents a relativley simple, but delicious, Thai menu. (Which you can see 'on-your-plate' in front of you before you order.) Also, the prices are very reasonable for a Soho restaurant. Inamo is far from just a novelty idea, and I hope to see more of these resturants popping up in the future. Speaking from an animation background (and interactive content background) there is a lot more that can be done with this idea.

Check out the Inamo Website