Until this autumn, Bath had two early-morning networking events for people working on new ideas.

One was Business@Breakfast, run by the University of Bath’s School of Management. It brought academics and professionals from Bath, Bristol and the surrounding area together for a talk, networking and frank discussion of the problems businesses were facing at the time.

The other was First Thursday, a monthly meet-up run by SETsquared Bath, the University of Bath’s incubator for tech start-ups. It gave founders and early-stage teams a regular place to compare notes and meet people who could help them grow. Some people went to both. Many more went to one and never met the people at the other. A researcher with an answer and a founder with the matching problem could live a mile apart and never cross paths.

The two have now merged into one monthly breakfast or evening event, called Innovation@Bath, with the first one having taken place this month.

How the first one went

Around 60 people came, from early-stage start-ups, established local firms, public sector organisations and universities. Stuart Brazier Creative Director at Frontline, gave a short talk on multisensory experiences and events. After that it was coffee, pastries and conversation until 10am.

The format

Every session runs the same way. Doors open at 8:30am and the pastries and hot drinks are free. Someone from Bath’s business or research community gives a short talk, there’s proper time to meet people, and it finishes at 10am. That leaves enough of the morning to get back to work.

Why Newark Works

Newark Works is the old Stothert & Pitt engineering works on the south bank of the Avon. Cranes built there were shipped all over the world. Today it’s a workspace for creative, tech and professional businesses.

It also sits inside the area of Bath being developed as an innovation district. Here the universities, public bodies, businesses and investors are deliberately setting up close to one another. The thinking is simple: put people who have the knowledge next to people who can use it and more gets done. A monthly breakfast is one of the easiest ways to take part.

Who it’s for

You don’t need to have been to either of the old events, or to know anyone in the room. Innovation@Bath is open to anyone in and around Bath who is starting a business, growing one or solving problems in one, including: