We're going to try a bit of speed networking. It's rather like speed dating. You'll get about 2 or 3 minutes with each partner. Half of which is for you to talk about yourself, and the other half for them.

Drinks are kindly sponsored by YTKO. YTKO specialise in commercialising innovations, helping science and technology companies with innovative products to grow and develop by providing marketing, sales and strategy services.

Venue: Mills & Reeve, 112 Hills Rd, Cambridge. Everybody welcome. Entry free.

Update:
Peter Zipp points us to:

• Last year's detailed SBIR report (from the Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge)
• The NESTA provocation on the topic, "Demanding Innovation: Lead markets, public procurement and innovation". (The link at the top of the page works. The one at the bottom doesn't.)
• The Richard Report on Government & Small Business. This was commissioned by the Conservatives, perhaps unfortunately, because it was written without political bias as Doug Richard makes clear in the foreword.

Picture by Gordon Lyster - Events & Publishing Ltd

We had several useful things come out of the panel discussion meeting.

• The US SBIR Programme (Small Business Innovation Research) came up for a lot of discussion. The feeling was that the UK should be doing this too. Adrian Horne agreed to be the CHASE lead on SBIR. He's going to find out a lot more and arrange meetings with local MP(s) and others who may have influence. Talk to him if you have opinions. Mail us for his contact details.
• We had a suggestion or two for future meetings. If anyone has anything to say about National Technology Development policy, please
  get in touch.
• We had a very good suggestion for an improvement to the CHASE site, which would benefit startup businesses and people with business ideas. If you'd like to work on this or have PHP/Drupal skills, do get in touch.
• Ralph Ecclestone of The Commericialisation Company suggested the idea of a Business Mayor for Cambridge, and proposed that Walter
  Herriot should be elected to the post. The Business Mayor would represent the interests of business to local, regional and national
  government. Whether Walter Herriot is interested or not, this sounds like a good idea and worth taking forward. Ideas?

We'll be meeting in a local restaurant. We're going to try something different, to see how it works, setting a formal discussion topic. The topic under discussion is 'Meeting the needs of angel investment.'

CB2 Restaurant Cafe. 8pm. 5/7, Norfolk St, Cambridge, CB1 2LD.

Snacky tapas kindly provided by Mills & Reeve

The CHASE outing to the to the Cambridge Beer Festival takes place on Wednesday 21st May.

If you'd like to join us for a taste or two of the excellent beer, meet at 8pm at the entrance. If you are late, and can't find us, you could try 07812 217448.

This outing is possible with the help of Mills & Reeve, who kindly sponsor the first drink for CHASE members.

A list of attendees for 19th June 2008 Event: "Cambridge Plc: B Minus? Could do better."?

Join CHASE for a lively discussion about the state of entrepreneurship and business in Cambridge and the wider region.

David Gill of ET Capital, Jenny Chapman from Cambridge Evening News, Nicholas Miles from Oxford to Cambridge Arc and Billy Boyle from Owlstone make up our panel. They will be accepting questions from the floor for discussion on such diverse topics as where Cambridge lies in the rankings of technology hotspots, who the competitors are, where we should be aiming, and our advantages and disadvantages.

Food at this event has kindly been sponsored by La Playa: Insurance with Intelligence. La Playa are a Cambridge-based company, offering a personal service and excellent experience in the science and technology fields.

Jenny Chapman is Business Editor of the Cambridge Evening News. With her long-term interest in Cambridge, Jenny has a good overview of both technology and other businesses, and has reported on the fortunes of Cambridge's most interesting businesses.

David Gill is a joint MD of ET Capital. ET Capital are based in Cambridge and have invested in many of the most interesting Cambridge ventures. David is co-author of a series of reports on the funding of technology based business overseas and in the UK. David is a visiting lecturer at the Cambridge University Institute for Manufacturing, and in 2004-2005, before joining ET Capital, was a Sloan Fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Billy Boyle is one of the founders of Owlstone. Owlstone has developed a solid-state chemical detection system which is able to react to a wide range of chemical agents, even when present in extremely small quantities. Billy has been responsible for business development and implementation. Billy and teh other Owlstone founders were were researchers in Cambridge University when they teamed up, but Owlstone is headquartered in the USA.

Nicolas Miles is Director of the Oxford to Cambridge Arc, a joint Development Agency funded organisation dedicated to promoting and accelerating the development of educational, research and business assets and activities that characterise the arc. One of the functions of O2C is to compare Cambridge against similar international areas, and consequently Nicholas has a good overview of our competitive position.

Doors open 7.30pm for 8pm start. CHASE events are free and open to all. Registration is essential to ensure a place for this event.

Join other entrepreneurs and technologists for an evening of discussion about common problems and interests.

Venue: Pizza Express - 7a Jesus Lane. 8pm.

It would be useful to know if you are planning on coming, so that we can book a table. Mail dinner at chase org uk.

Sponsored by Mills & Reeve.

Open to everyone. No fee, but you do pay for your food and drink.

Michael Pritchard invented the LIFESAVER bottle after watching the unfolding events following the tsunami of December 2004 and hurricane Katrina in 2005. Despite the vast amount of water involved in both disasters, there was a desperate lack of fresh, clean water.

The LIFESAVER bottle is the world’s first all-in-one ultra filtration water bottle. It removes bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi and all other microbiological waterborne pathogens without using chemicals. The bottle produces filtered sterile drinking water quickly and easily from contaminated water, making the large-scale delivery of drinking water to emergency hit areas practical.

Michael will talk about the technology in the bottle and the problems that his company, Lifesaver Systems has had to overcome in bringing the bottle to market.

Venue: ARM Conference Centre, 110 Fulbourn Rd, Cambridge, CB1 9NJ. Doors open 7.30pm for 8pm start. Free and open to all. No need to pre-register.

At the Carlton Arms, Carlton Way, Cambridge. This is a bit further outside of town than we normally rove, but part of our season of experimentation.

First drinks for CHASE members are sponsored by Mills & Reeve.

8pm onwards. Free. Everybody welcome. No need to register.

Two of the Mills & Reeve team, Lino Di Lorenzo and Robert Renfree, will be talking about fallout when things don't go as planned. They'll be covering a range of questions... Whether litigation is to be avoided? What causes disputes? And who wins? They'll also be discussing practical issues such as insurance, arbitration & mediation.