Coventry University, Coventry Start Up Café
Contact Details: |
Dr Gideon Maas, Co-Director Institute of Applied Entrepreneurship, Institute of Applied Enterprise |
Type of Project: |
The Café is the result of a refurbishment and re-purposing of a restaurant on campus. There were plans to remodel an existing restaurant on campus into a modern coffee bar and it was agreed to use this opportunity to convert it into a start-up café. |
Start/End Date: |
Opened September 2006 |
What are your top tips?
A small, multi-functional team can get things done with all aspects being considered. At Coventry, a small project team consisting of the Institute of Applied Entrepreneurship, Estates Management, Student Services & Catering, Computer Services and Marketing & Communications facilitated the rapid creation of the physical start-up café which opened in September 2007 - just 3 months after the VC agreed to the project.
Branding is important. Coventry's Marketing & Communications created the Start-Up Café 'Meet, Drink, Think' design and this is being used by the whole Start-Up Café organisation. These designs included the logo, posters, signage, menu boards and other items.
Providing free refreshments at events can be a great way of getting students along and participating. Free pizzas have proved particularly popular and the Café has been used for informal enterprise events that have proved to be very popular with users.
