A personal note from Pete Francomb, Project Lead

I'm afraid I've decided to put the Café of Ideas events on the back burner for a little while, largely due to a change in business circumstances that has left me unable to support the project for the time being.

In a round about way, the Café has been a victim of the government cuts - my largest consultancy client, for whom I've been on a comfortable monthly retainer working in the arena of website development and Internet marketing, has just been hit by the cuts and passed this hit down the line to me. As a result of this, I need to focus all my attention right now on the mundane business of generating income for my family - as a current project-for-love Café of Ideas takes considerable time and head-space, which dramatically affects my earnings potential!

If you were aware of the events we had planned for April and June of this year, please note that these have now been cancelled.

My firm intention is for this to be au revoir rather than goodbye - the vision, purpose, format, value and potential for Café of Ideas is clearer to me than ever, and there are some great people supporting the project. We stand for a change in the nature of public discourse - from right/wrong, eithor/or, for/against type debates to a solution-focused framework for discussion in which difference is valued and intelligently harnessed. Rest assured, we'll be beavering away in the background to return bigger, badder and bolder!

Although the recent unwelcome news has brought forward this step, I was planning on taking it anyway. This is because there's growing pressure from everyone involved, not least myself, for future shows to have higher production values. We've basically proved the concept and don't wish to continue scraping along on a voluntary basis. We want a more suitable theatrical venue, a bespoke designed set and high quality video of each event to webcast.  We want to be able to pay professional rates for all crew and performers.

I think these steps are essential for the project's long-term success but they also increase the time/money that needs to be invested in the short term. I don't personally have the resources to fund these higher production values, so a new way forward needs to be found. We already have some strong ideas to pursue about how we can make the project financially sustainable.

If you have any ideas of your own, or contacts that you think may be able to help us, or individuals with deep pockets that you think might love what we're seeking to achieve, please let us know by entering a comment below.

In the meantime, look out for some terrific video material from the last event, which we'll be posting soon, and further changes to the website, including some great articles from previous panellists.

My deepest thanks to all those who have contributed to the development of Café of Ideas thus far. And to paraphrase the immortal Arnie, "WE'LL BE BACK..."

Pete Francomb
Connecting People
Café of Ideas