Past Events

Entrepreneurs' Workshop with Mary Jane Brouwers (1981) Angel Investing - a Scottish perspective

6:00pm

Mary Jane Brouwers (1981) has been working in early-stage equity investments for over 20 years, with a range of different investors, including SIS Ventures, Archangel Investors, Old College Capital, and the Scottish Investment Bank.

She was an independent director of LINC Scotland, the umbrella body for angel investors in Scotland, 2013-2018, and has held a number of other non-executive director roles including investor director of Edinburgh Instruments Limited (a Heriot Watt University spin out) and independent director of Cyacomb Limited (an Edinburgh Napier University spin out).

Mary Jane guided us through this absorbing workshop, during which she provided us with an introduction to angel invetsing and the important role it plays in the early stage  company ecosystem. 

May Ball: Into the Night: Shining a Light on Culture After Dark - Member Tickets

• Further Information

Dinner in Leeds

6:00pm – Royal Armouries Museum, Armouries Drive, Leeds LS10 1LT

The Emmanuel Society had a delightful evening at The Royal Armouries Museum, Armouries Drive, Leeds,  with Members who are based in the North of England and the Midlands. 

It was lovely for our Members to see the Master and to observe an exciting display of fighting knights, followed by a delicious meal in the Tournament Gallery!

Emma Reading List

We hope that everyone had a wonderful time celebtrating World Book Night on 23 April, by perusing some of the suggestions included on the Member Book List!

(In case you missed it last time, here are some recommendations from the Development Office team:)

• A Taste of Ginger (Mansi Shah)
• 1984 (George Orwell)
• The Midnight Library (Matt Haig)
• The Right Sort of Girl (Anita Rani)
• The Radical Potter (Tristram Hunt)
• Octopus Shocktupus (Peter Bently) (children's book)

World Book Night also has an official book list so do take a look if you're looking for some inspiration for your next read.

• Book Suggestions Edtd.pdf

Entrepreneurs' Workshop: "Funding the start-up journey" - lessons from the sharp end

6:00pm

It was wonderful to have have Chris Kaye (1991), the founder of Sherpa, an insurtech start-up that has raised $10m in early stage funding through debt, equity, and grants, and from angel, VC and strategic investors around the world, deliver an insightful workshop about his warts-and-all experience on the different funding options they have taken, which ones are best suited to companies at different stages, and facilitate a discussion on the early stage funding outlook.

It was fascinating to hear that there have been as many failed funding efforts as there have been successful ones!

Emmanuel Society Book Group

8:00pm

The Book Club met in the Fellows' Breakfast Room, over dessert, to tease out questions about colour in regards to two books: The World According to Colour (Fox) and The Story of Black (Harvey).

It was fascinating to delve deep into colour with our fellow, John Harvey, who has concentrated intensely on black, but largely restricted himself to European visual art and literature since Classical times, and  James Fox, who has ranged over a palette of colours, the whole globe, science as well as aesthetics, and the aeons of time. 

An (Almost) A to Z of Modern Scottish Women Artists—Zoom talk with Alice Strang (1992)

6:30pm

Alice Strang (1992), curator of the landmark National Galleries of Scotland exhibition 'Modern Scottish Women: Painters and Sculptors 1885–1965', took us through a fantastic workshop where we discussed an (almost) A to Z of Modern Scottish Women Artists, from Mary Armour to Anna Zinkeisen, based on works in UK public collections.

Alice read History and History of Art at Emma, before joining Christie's in London. After over twenty years at the National Galleries of Scotland, she joined Lyon & Turnbull auctioneers last Autumn, where she is a Senior Specialist in Modern & Contemporary Art.

Emmanuel Society Committee

7:00pm – Robert Gardner Room

Chapel Choir Reunion 2022

4:00pm

We were absolutely delighted to welcome back Former Members of Emmanuel Choir for this year's Chapel Choir Renunion!

We kicked off the day with rehersal at 4pm , followed by tea in the Old Library at 5pm. Evensong took place at 6pm and was followed by a lovely dinner in Hall at 7.30pm.

Current and former members of the choir all sat together to sing their way through a selection of beautiful music.

We started off with Introit -- Wood This joyful Eastertide, followed by Responses -- Smith (just current choir) and Psalm -- (just current choir), then Canticles -- Dyson in D and we joyously ended with the magnificent Anthem -- Parry I was glad.

It was truly special day with so many former members of the choir meeting and singing alongside the current choir as well as other former choir members.

Workshop with Toby Watts (2007) - Independent Film: Opportunities, Challenges and the rise of the Filmtrepreneur

6:00pm

For this workshop we were joined by Toby Watts as he led a wonderful discussion about the Oppurtunities, Challenges and rise of Independent Film. 

It was fascinating to hear about why so many filmmakers are now working independently of larger studios and potential new oppurtunities for entrepreneurial filmmakers and investors to succeed in an extremely crowded marketpace. 

Event for Legators

Emma Connects: Easter Children's Activities

With the Easter holidays approaching, we wanted to include some Easter-themed activities for our younger (and young-at-heart!) readers to complete.

• Emma Connects Easter 22.pdf

Gathering of Members (1989, 90 & 91)

Gathering of Members (1973, 74 & 75)

Entrepreneurs Workshop with Paul Fellows (1979) - Align for Success

6:00pm

For this workshop, we were joined by Paul Fellows as he discussed the journey to Align for Success. From building a proof-of-concept for your start up, to taking the risk to show it to people you don’t know are in your target market, to listening to the feedback. Once you have taken these steps you plan: for funding, for the team you need to build, and more. Success is about ensuring that everyone is pulling in the same direction. It is amazing how quickly failures in this area can tear an organisation apart, or stall it, with obvious results.

Paul came to Emma in 1979, studying Natural Sciences; his first job was as head of the computer languages group at AcornSoft Ltd, where he led the group that developed the RiscOS operating system. He later formed ‘Amino Technologies’ (now Aferian PLC) with some old colleagues, which still operates with offices in Hong Kong, Atlanta and the West Coast of the USA. In 2007, Paul became CTO of the start-up AlertMe.com, producing home-hub/gateway systems and sensors to create security and energy monitoring solutions. This was eventually bought by British Gas, renaming the product as Hive. In recent years, Paul has worked at exec and non-exec director level in a number of other companies, and been elected Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, and Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.  

More details will be released soon about the next in our series of Entrepreneurs' Workshops. 

Live Mindfulness with Claire Thompson (2005)

10:30am

'Practicing mindfulness is natural, simple and accessible to us all.’ (Claire Thompson)

As part of our Giving Day we asked you to #DoOneThing to support your wellbeing, and offered a special mindfulness session via Zoom, run by Emma member Claire Thompson. This event was open to members, staff, students and Fellows.

Claire gave a brief introduction to mindfulness and her own work, before guiding us through a mindfulness practice with a nature theme and rounding off with some reflections to take away beyond the session.

Claire shared a wonderful series of mindfulness practices for us back in 2020, and runs Mindfulness of Nature.

Zoom with Dr Vik Mohan (1988) How listening to communities can help save our oceans

5:30pm

Dr Vik Mohan (1988) is a practising GP with an interest in global health and passion for marine conservation. Whilst volunteering on a marine conservation initiative in Madagascar he discovered a huge unmet need for health care among coastal communities. Vik gave a fascinating talk about his experiences of integrating health services into Blue Ventures' conservation activities, and how this is led to better health, heathier oceans and more resilient communities.

Vik also featured in the Emma enables campaign video, talking about his passion for marine conservation.

Zoom with Alex Thomas - No Minister: Sir Humphrey's long and lamentable shadow

5:30pm

It is part of the UK’s uncodified constitution that all discussions about British government turn, sooner or later, to Jim Hacker, Humphrey Appleby and Bernard Wooley. 42 years after it was first broadcast, “Yes, Minister” remains the go-to depiction of the civil service and its relationship with ministers. The programme is inescapable and entertaining, but incorrect. Alex Thomas made the case that the British government is more “Thick of It” than “Yes, Minister”, more Tucker than Hacker, and along the way shared some facts, figures and reflections on the state of government and the civil service.

Alex is a programme director at the Institute for Government, an impartial think tank that researches how to make government work more effectively. He joined the Institute from the civil service in January 2020, having previously been a director in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Before that, Alex was principal private secretary to Sir Jeremy Heywood, cabinet secretary and head of the civil service. Alex worked in the Department of Health from 2015–16, the Cabinet Office on constitutional and electoral matters from 2010–15, and in Defra from 2003–10.

Entrepreneurs Workshop with Hans Gangeskar (2003)

6:00pm

This workshop was led by Hans Gangeskar (2003). Hans founded a telemedicine company in the US called Nurx, now doing over $100m in annual revenue. Nurx started with prescribing and delivering birth control and HIV prevention and now expanded into many additional areas. Hans led attendees into a discussion on some of the challenges of running a startup in a highly regulated space, and some of the differences in opportunities in healthcare across US, UK and European healthcare systems. We will be sending out information about the next workshop in due course. 

Emmanuel Society Book Group

8:00pm – Fellows' Breakfast Room

The Book Club met in the Fellows' Breakfast Room to discuss Sara Sheridan's The Fair Botanists. It’s well plotted, written in beautiful language and will transport you to Edinburgh in the 1820s. While there, you’ll learn about transporting mature trees; flourishing as an aristocratic bastard; coping as a poor-relation widow and one running her own business; adultery; perfume making; philanthropy; whisky malting and blending; nurturing rare plants; the challenges of being a famous person’s child; breaking and entering; baking bread and cakes; the fickleness of monarchs and the rapaciousness of Kew Garden; legal process and corporal punishment; the frustrations of diplomats and courtiers; property development; and happy-ever-after-romantic-love

Emma Connects: 2021 at Emmanuel Crossword

• 2021 Crossword.pdf

• 2021 Crossword Solutions.pdf

Entrepreneurs Workshop: Raising your first round of funding

6:00pm

You have an idea for a world changing business, or you've started one already that is seeing traction, and now you want to put your foot on the accelerator and grow.  How do you go about raising money beyond a friends and family round?  How do you access angels and engage with venture capital firms?  How should you structure a pitch deck and prepare for investor meetings?  

Sophie Adelman (2002), CEO & Cofounder of The Garden and Cofounder of Multiverse.io, and formerly Entrepreneur in Residence at Index Ventures, has sat on both sides of the table as an entrepreneur raising money and an angel investor and former investment professional.  In this workshop she shared her insights into what to do and what not to do when thinking about raising your first institutional round of funding and spoke about her experience of building businesses that have raised over $200m in funding to date.  

To find out more on the Garden please see below: 

The Garden (www.onegarden.com) is a community for the curious, a place where anyone, anywhere can access the ideas and people who are shaping tomorrow.  Through live online Talks and member discussion circles, we connect you with other inquisitive minds like you, and with world experts who are illuminating our past, discovering the outer reaches of the universe, and developing the ideas that are shaping tomorrow.   Bringing the experts out of the institutions and into your home. 

Whether you love understanding developments in scientific research or exploring the cultural history of colour, you will find topics & conversation to light up your mind.

Join us in The Garden (www.onegarden.com) and start a fascinating journey with us today.