Category: events

at trefor.net we have great events and parties

Categories
Business events

On the occasion of winning Business of the Year at the Newark Business Awards

To the staff of Timico

Last night we won two categories at the Newark Business Awards: “Excellence in Business” and “Business of the Year”. You couldn’t all come, if for no other reason than there wouldn’t have been room for anyone else if you had. You will though be comforted to know that we had a great night on your behalf and drank the place out of champagne1.

I was quite surprised at how excited I got as they came to announcing the results of our first category – Excellence in Business. Probably not quite the same level of agitation as it would have been had we been up for an Oscar but exciting nevertheless.

This excitement was partly adrenalin from knowing that if we won I would have to get up and say a few words2. It was also the realisation that this was quite an important award to win. You might say this was “only little old Newark” but you would be way off the mark.

Newark and its surrounding districts is where we live and work and many of the people in the audience last night were our friends, customers and partners in business. The recognition that winning this award in our home town brings us is far more important for Timico than winning some national gong. It puts us on the radar locally and as we grow our company it will make it easier for us to attract good quality staff which of course will in turn help us to attract good quality customers. Wins all round.

Being recognised in this way should also attract more local customers our way because local firms want to deal with local people. We shouldn’t underestimate the amount of pride that our community has in our success in business. To be able to point at shiny new buildings/data centres at a time when other areas are struggling to find opportunities for investment and growth lifts everyone.

Then of course for us as individuals it is nice to find people saying “oh you work for Timico do you?” rather than “Timico who?”.

So I have to tell you all that I am pleased to work for Timico and I am pleased to be working with you. We have exciting times ahead. Hard work perhaps but this is a world full of opportunity and I’m sure that the recognition that we received last night will be a real help to us in moving the business forward.

Tref

PS thanks very much to the hard work of the folk at the Newark Advertiser for the tremendous organisation. It went really smoothly.

1 not the night of overindulgence this might sound – they only had the one bottle in stock! 🙂

2 for those who know me ok ok I realise that “few” probably understates it 🙂

Categories
Business events social networking

trefor.net xmas tweetup 2011

The premier internet industry Christmas tweetup is back bigger and better than ever.

Last year we were in the Platform Bar of the Betjeman Arms.  In 2011 we are staying with a railway station theme but are moving inside to the Booking Office Bar of the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel.  This is a seriously cool watering hole and a far more sensible use of the space than the selling of train tickets.

This is no ordinary tweetup. Dress code is in keeping with the 5 star hotel surroundings and the drinks are sophisticated. If past performance is anything to go by the trefor.net tweetup is the party to be at this Christmas.

Try your hand at a cocktail mixed by Nick Strangeway – Master Mixologist. The former World Mixologist of the Year as voted for by experts at Tales of the Cocktail industry event & famous for his work with leading establishments Hix and Hawksmoor, Nick is London’s leading cocktail expert.

The 2012 tweetup is sponsored by a set of extremely generous friends including Timico, Newnet, Powernet, RTP Solutions, Sangoma, Fortinet, Provu , BT and Genband.

If you haven’t been the Booking Office Bar is situated just across the platform from last year’s bash. The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel was voted the Number One Hotel in the UK in The Sunday Times Magazine’s 2011 Top 100 Hotels in the World.

I look forward to catching up with you on the night. Numbers are limited so click here to sign up. You will need the password @trefbash to register. Hope you can make it. The date is Thursday 8th December from 5pm onwards.  Get there early.

photos courtesy of St Pancras Renaissance Hotel.

Categories
Business events

Timico annual watersports evening and BBQ

Timico Kayaking polo team captain Gemma Jankiewicz carries the ball

Trefor Davies at the Timico annual watersports and barbecue eveningLast Timico annual watersports and barbecue eveningnight we had our annual Timico watersports and BBQ evening. Another highly successful bash I must say.  The weather was somewhat damp to start off but seeing as everyone was going to get wet anyway it didn’t matter and the sun came out before we started the barbecue bit.

The format is becoming settled. We all jump in and get wet – ideally making stupid noises and impressive summersaults (nil points generally for the latter).  Then we have a go at seal launches on sit on top kayaks.  After that we crack on with team competitions.

This year it was a kayaking polo match with team captains Gemma Jankiewicz and Katie Nicholas leading the way.  At the risk of boring you with work stuff I have to say that Gemma and Katie are great examples of our graduate recruitment scheme working to everyone’s advantage.

Finally, when we are all plum tuckered out we retire to the deck for a barbecue and a few tinnies, unless of course one is driving in which case a cup of tea is fine 🙂

That’s all.  Last photos are of Gemma (left) and Katie (right) and Simon Spear (I think) scoring a goal – not the winning one – that would have been me a little later on 🙂

gemma jankiewicz Timico Timico kayak polo in actionkatie nicholas

 

Categories
Engineer events ipv6

Final lineup for Bring on IPv6 party

click to register

I am pleased nay thrilled to announce the final line up for the Bring on IPv6 bash.

Opening remarks Trefor Davies CTO & co-founder Timico

Introductory speech Ed Vaizey MP,  Minister for Communication, Culture and the Creative  Industries

IPv4 retrospective UK internet pioneer Prof Peter Kirstein UCL

IPv6 scene setting Simon McCalla, IT Director, Nominet

IPv6 Panel Debate “Should industry worry about IPv6?”

Adrian Kennard, MD AAISP, Andy Davidson, VP EMEA Hurricane Electric,  Jim Reid, Director, 6UK, Cisco Technical Staff Member

Ceremonials

Local handover of final IPv4 address block from IANA to RIPE – Leo Vegoda, IANA, Nigel Titley, Chairman RIPE NCC

Celebrity star guest – we are keeping the identity of this guest quiet but this will be a great finale.

Party time

Over 300 guests have signed up but thanks to the generosity of the sponsors we can still accommodate a few more. Drop me a line if you want to come and I will get your tickets sorted. Otherwise if you know the registration password you can do it yourselves at www.bringonipv6.com.

 

Categories
Engineer events internet ipv6

Move over IPv4 Bring on IPv6 event sold out but more sponsorship secured – expect more tickets to be available

click to register

The first tranche of tickets has all but sold out for this event. If when you register there are no more spaces don’t worry – just get your name on the waiting list. I’ve been able to secure additional sponsorship and expect to be able to increase the number of partygoers.

The demand for tickets has been amazing and I think reflects the fact that there is a lot of interest in both celebrating the exhaustion of the IANA IPv4 address pool (the end of the internet as we know it) and wanting to see what progress is being made re IPv6 implementation.

I am also pleased to say that we have a special star guest signed up for the event. I’m keeping his/her identity a secret for the moment but it will be worth the wait 🙂

I am just waiting for confirmation of one more panelist in the IPv6 debate before publishing the final lineup.

More anon. Click on the icon in the right hand column of this blog to go to the event website.

Categories
Engineer events internet ipv6

Moveover IPv4 Bring on #IPv6 Party

click to register

We are marking the end of the internet as we know it with a celebratory event on the evening of 22nd March at the Highly Prestigious London Transport Museum in Covent Garden.

This gig isn’t just to bury IPv4 though. It is also a serious look at where the world is at with the roll out of IPv6.

If you are a techie in the internet community, a tech journalist or just as importantly an IT manager/CTO/CIO who might want to understand the relevance of IPv4 exhaustion to your business then you need to be here.

We have a nice little retrospective look at the history of the Internet in the UK by early Pioneer and colleague of Vint Cerf, Prof Peter Kirstein.

Also on stage will be speakers discussing the actual state of IPv6 rollout, the practicalities of implementation and the problems yet to be overcome.

Then we will be peering into a crystal ball and taking a look at the future of the internet and the www!

Finally there will be a ceremonial bit of fun whereby IANA will do a re-run of the handover of the last block of IPv4 addresses to RIPE.

Bring your camera. You will want to remember this one

What: Move Over IPv4 (Bring on IPv6)
Where: The London Transport Museum, Covent Garden
When: 18.30 – 21.30 Tuesday March 22nd (ceremonials commence 19.00hrs)
Agenda:
  • A brief history of the internet and the www by internet pioneer Prof Peter Kirstein.
  • What next? Is the world ready for IPv6? What are the problems?
  • The future of the internet!
  • Ceremonial repeat of formal handing over of the last IPv4 blocks by IANA representative to RIPE representative.
  • Party Time!
Cost: This is a free event but entry is by invitation only.

Registration (click here to go to the event site) for “bringonipv6” requires a password as attendance at the event is invitation only. The password is freely available from industry sources or will have already been mailed to you. If we have missed you out you can contact Trefor Davies at [email protected] with your details.

Many thanks need to go to the sponsors that have made this event possible. These are Nominet, LINX, Timico, ThinkBroadband, NewNet, AAISP, Brocade and 6UK.

Categories
Business events

trefor.net christmas bash photos

Here are some pics from Friday’s tweetup, held on the platform bar of the Betjeman Arms in St Pancras station. The afternoon was a great success which was made possible in no small measure by the sponsors: BT Wholesale, Genband, Thinkbroadband and Timico. It was also very picturesque outside as the blizzards started to hit London. We stayed warm with Pol Roger champagne and bowls of chips. In fact we drank the pub dry of champagne and ate all of their very fine burgers.

Thanks to all who came. If you couldn’t make this one be sure to look out for the next trefor.net event. You can click to enlarge each photo.

Dean, Martyn and Lee

Suzie, Terry and Andrew

Richard and Adam

Chris and Kate

Matt, Paul, Luica and George

Ralph, Ian and Mark

Lucy and Tref

Categories
Business events

Trefor.net xmas tweetup in progress #trefparty

As you read this the trefor.net xmas tweetup is underway. We are using the #trefparty hashtag on twitter, assuming anyone remembers after a couple of drinks. I will endeavour to post some photos in real time during the bash. If you are close by you can still come along to the Betjeman Arms at St Pancras station.

Sorry if you couldn’t make it but look out for the next event in early 2011 where we will be marking the passing of the IPv4 era.

Categories
Business events surveillance & privacy

Sponsorship from BT Genband Timico and Thinkbroadband for trefor.net Christmas bash

I am happy to announce that BT, Genband, Timico and Thinkbroadband have stepped forward with sponsorship for first annual trefor.net Christmas tweetup.

The party starts at 1pm on Friday 17th December in the platform bar of the Betjeman Arms in St Pancras Station. Get there early to avoid the crush – thanks to our sponsors the bar will now be free until the money runs out.

The guests already signed up come from a wide range of communities of interest including internet engineering, VoIP equipment, Parliament, DEAct, rural broadband, ISPs ITSPs, regulatory specialists, embedded software developers, oil and IT industry executives,consultants and the media.

If you haven’t already done so please sign up here

Some people who have expressed an interest in coming but unable to make this one have asked when the next one is going to be?  The end of the IPv4 address pool or  “Apocalypse IPv4”  party is already in planning for the Feb/March timeframe. The date for this one is TBC pending the exhaustion of the IANA address pool and will be the subject of a further announcement.

Expressions of interest from potential sponsors for the Apocalypse IPv4 event are now being taken. This should be of interest to carriers, equipment vendors and anyone else in the IPv6 space.

Categories
Business events

More tickets released for trefor.net Christmas tweetup

Due to the high level of demand I’ve added more places to the trefor.net Christmas bash on 17th December. It promises to be a great get together on what I’m told by the Betjeman Arms is their busiest day of the year.

So far we have a great mix of people coming along and I haven’t really started pushing it yet. Get your name down if you want to come.

Categories
Business events

Advanced notice trefor.net Christmas tweetup 17th December 2010 London

This is advanced notice of the trefor.net Christmas tweetup for tech writers, bloggers, friends of trefor.net and all round good guys.

This networking event begins at 1pm in the back bar of the Betjeman Arms on Friday 17th December 2010 and is a not to be missed opportunity to meet people who write about and influence happenings in the UK technology space today.

December is a busy time of year and I’m giving plenty of warning so that people can get it into their diaries.

Tickets are free of charge and available from http://treforbash.eventbrite.com/. This event is expected to be a sell out so get your name down early.

Sponsorship opportunities are available for this event – leave a comment (it will not be published) or email me at [email protected].

Categories
Business events

Networking made easy – cricket lovely cricket

Another great day out at the cricket at Trent Bridge. The second day of the Engand v Pakistan yielded some entertaining sport with some very good company.

The picture below is of me (centre) with guests Jeremy Dawkins of Next Event (left) and Mark Jaggers of Soll Leisure (right). You don’t do business with companies, you do business with people.

I think that’s the summer networking series coming to an end now and I’m signing off for two weeks R&R. I’ll be taking the kayaks and the snorkelling gear for a good old British summer holiday, whatever the weather. See you when I get back…

Jeremy Dawkins, Trefor Davies and Mark Jaggers
Jeremy Dawkins, Trefor Davies and Mark Jaggers at the Pakistan test match at Trent Bridge
Categories
Engineer events

Networking made easy – part 2

Regular readers may have noticed the distinct lack of blog posts last week. At least there were none relating to ip networking, the internet, communications or any other subject I normally spout on about.

That’s because I was out of the office most of the week in an exhausting series of meetings and dinners culminating in a couple of days in Lymington on the south coast. I spent the entire time talking about MPLS, Unified Communications, “the cloud” and current regulatory hot topics in the ISP industry.

The picture below shows me coming up on deck with the team for fresh air before moving on to talk about data centres and  the future of mobile data / handheld devices.

In case anyone worries we did make sure that we were well fed and watered during the meetings. A supply of premier cru chablis and bordeaux accompanies the smoked salmon/crab/lobster/duck/caviar/aged aberdeen angus fillet steak (delete according to taste).

Trefor Davies (centre) surrounded by some hardworking Timico customers taking a break from talking networks

PS I have a backlog of jobs to get on with this week including some more serious blog posts. Watch this space.

Categories
Engineer events

Networking made easy

Its tough at the top and it takes a special breed of individual to stay the pace.  In this case the pace was being set by Timico Business Partner UES who had sponsored a horse race at the UK’s newest track, Ffos Las near Llanelli.

I have to admire the marketing nouse of UES whose sponsored race was entitled the “Reduce your utility bills with UES Maiden Handicap Stakes”.  This message will have been carried in every newspaper in the UK on Tuesday -” The Watchtower” excepted if it is still going.

You may have noticed that the weather was a little damp. It’s what makes God’s Country so green and pleasant.

Rows of unhappy bookmakers brave the elements at Ffos Las racecourse
Rows of unhappy bookmakers brave the elements at Ffos Las racecourse

 

the paddock at Ffos Las
From left to right Andrew Diplock, Commercial Director, UES, Gerallt Jones, Partner Corporate, Hugh James, Christian Pegrum, EON, me, Kate Williams, Marketing Manager, UES
Categories
Business events

trefor.net sponsors Mongol Rally

One of our VoIP engineers Wayne Mills-Kiddals is setting off this week on a drive to Ulan Bator in Mongolia. It’s going to take him a month or so but it is in a good cause – he is raising cash for the Christina Noble Foundation. I will be providing periodic updates on his progress and in the meantime have created a temporary page on this blog so that we can track him via GPS.

It has been a huge organisational effort for Wayne. His passport is now much thicker as it has visas for Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and finally Mongolia.

Wish him luck – we want him back 🙂

Categories
Business events internet social networking

#140 characters conference London

I’ve just left a networking event organised by my friend Jeff Pulver to promote his forthcoming #140 characters conference (#140conf )in London.  Scheduled for November 17th/18th the event will take place at the O2 Arena.

This will be the third such do organised by Jeff after the first in New York earlier this year and the forthcoming one in Los Angeles.  What astonished me was that there were more people from London at the New York event than from New York itself and London is considered to be the twitter capital of the world.  Hence the London conference.  LA was second in terms of origin of attendees.  I even met someone from London at the bash who had spoken at the NY event – Kate Arkless Gray or @RadioKate.

The number of attendees at tonight’s event was also impressive.  When I signed up for it two days ago there were 70 or so people registered.  Jeff was expecting a total of 90 but in actual fact he ended up with 190!  There is clearly something happening here. Didn’t realise that Jeff is also an investor in twitter.

Anyway I’ve signed up as part of the cast of characters for the #140 character conference.  In my mind it is definately worth taking a look at attending.  If you don’t know what it is all about just google it or visit http://140conf.com/

Categories
Business events

ISPA council meeting, AGM and Awards do

Busy day tomorrow so I thought I’d get this post in today because I certainly won’t be writing anything during the ISPA Awards.

At 10am I have an ISPA council meeting, followed by the AGM at 12.15 and the annual ISPA Awards bash in the evening.  I haven’t been to this event before so I am looking forward to it, especially as Timico is a finalist in the “Best Business Customer Service” category.

I’ll let you know how we get on plus any publishable/non-incriminating  photos from the night.

It’s also  the Nominet AGM today so if I have any feedback from that I’ll let you know.

Categories
Business datacentre events

Terrific Tina Turner at the O2

Tina Turner was great. Amazing in fact considering she is 69 years old (allegedly). What’s that got to do with a technology blog?  Only that I went along to a concert at the O2 Arena last night and was absolutely bowled over with the quality of what I saw.

The quality of the show, the quality of the venue – wonderful acoustics, and the quality of the hospitality on offer. My thanks to hosts,  Telcity and specifically sales manager Sharon Newling for looking after us in their suite.

Telecity is one of Timico’s high quality datacentre partners – we have a number of suites and cages at both Harbour Exchange and Sovereign House in London’s Docklands.

Just to round off the story I was pleased to take along with me Barry Skillett of Paypoint and Terence Long of RTP Solutions, both Timico customers. What’s more the O2 Arena is run by AEG, also a customer.

tinateam

From left to right Barry Skillet, me, Sharon Newling, Terence Long. I am obviously enjoying myself and obviously in need of a haircut!

Below – Tina herself on stage.

tina

Categories
Business events

Party Time

I don’t know about the rest of you but by the time Christmas Day comes along I’m going to be partied out. It all started with the ITSPA Awards at the House of Commons on Thursday last week followed by lunch with customer Foxtons on the Friday.

Monday I had dinner with KeConnect MD Robert Kemp in Ipswich, lunch with NTL on Tuesday at Cafe Bleu in Newark. Last night it was the Timico management bash at the Olive Branch in Clipsham. Tomorrow night it is the Twang.net party at Monty’s in Newbury.

Then Monday it is the Timico staff party at Belton Woods near Grantham. Tuesday night it’s The Wig And Mitre in Lincoln. I’m assuming that Santa has already sorted out what presents to bring the kids because I certainly haven’t had time to do it.

I have to say that I am looking forward to the period of austerity that this time of credit crunch and financial uncertainty merits and will be joining the queue for discounted lettuce at the reduced section in Tesco’s on the 2nd January.

Categories
Business events voip

ITSPA Awards

Off to the ITSPA Awards in The Houses of Parliament today. A good day out in store. This is the first such award bash for ITSPA and I understand there were 50 entries which must represent a fair percentage of ITSPs in the UK.

Timico is sponsoring the “Best CPE” category which I believe highlights our partnership approach to this business. Working closely with suppliers means better support and fast access to new technologies.

No doubt I will report back after the event.

Categories
Business events UC voip

The ITSPA AGM and Summer Reception

The annual ITSPA bash went ahead yesterday. Numbers were down a little, I suspect because of the encroachment of the holiday period. However once the formal proceedings were over we had a great set of panel debates and a talk from VoIPWatch blogger Andy Abramson.

 

I was down to moderate the Unified Communications panel. However due to illness I was stitched up with moderating the SME panel as well. This worked out ok because I was in two minds in the first place which one to go for. Timico’s sweet spot is SME but the sexy market leading stuff is Unified Comms (for the SME market in Timico’s caseJ ).

 

Interestingly of the fifty or so attendees the four panellists (Steve Mackenzie of ICU Global, Andy Abramson, Andrew Penn of Siemens Enterprise, Tony Cocks of Microsoft) and myself represented 5/6 of the organisations in the room involved with UC. I therefore invited Mark Owen of Nortel up to the stage to fill a spare chair and take part in the debate.

 

The fact that there were no other ITSPA members claiming to offer UC services is interesting. They are either offering straight dial tone products as is the case with the likes of Tesco and Orange Home (they may disagree with me) or are in the PBX replacement business.

 

There is an argument that says that the business market doesn’t want UC. However my take on this is that demand for UC is just about to take off as environmental and financial pressures come to the fore.

 

Key takes from the day?

 

Some big SIP trunk deals happening –  one company was spending £50k a month on call traffic with one ITSP.

 

Microsoft is launching a hosted version of OCS and is looking to locate one of its servers in Ireland. This is a direct service being launched by Microsoft. Not a partner play. Obviously the concern is that Microsoft’s marketing dollars can heavily influence their market share here. However after some debate the team came to the conclusion that this is an opportunity. Microsoft will make the market but a substantial number of customers will not want to deal with the big behemoth.

 

Also when it comes to selling communications to the SME market, which is a substantial chunk of the opportunity in the hosted space, customers like the direct touch. They need the confidence of knowing that they can trust their supplier and know who to call when they have a problem. Accessing support via an anonymous call centre won’t work for everyone. 

Categories
Business events

ITSPA Summer Bash

 If you want to come to this event let me know or contact the Secretariat

ITSPA SUMMER FORUM

 

Hosted by ITSPA Member BT

 

Wednesday 9th July 2008 

 

BT Auditorium

81 Newgate Street

London EC1A 7AJ

(near St Paul’s Tube Station)

 

1pm – Registration & Refreshment

 

1.30pm-ITSPA AGM (members only)

 

INDUSTRY FORUM

 

2.30pm – Keynote Interview with Andy Abramson

 

3pm – ‘SME’s & VoIP’

Interactive Panel Discussion

 

3:45pm – Break

 

4pm – Regulatory Update / Q&A

including discussion about the impending 999 deadline in September

 

4:45pm –  ‘Unified Communications and Convergence: The Facts & Fiction’

Interactive Panel Discussion

 

5:30pm – Drinks + Canapés

 

Please RSVP to Phil or Brett at the ITSPA Secretariat as soon as possible to confirm your place: [email protected] or 020 7340 1422