2018 is proving to be a busy year for the Barclays Eagle Lab at Jersey Library.

By the end of the year more than 150 business, networking and community events are planned to take place by the end of the year at the facility which provides a space for entrepreneurs, creatives and community-minded people to develop new ideas. 

There will be regular livestreams of speakers and presentations from around the Eagle Lab UK network including an AI Frenzy on the 12 July.

The event will see speakers from Google, Microsoft and Barclays discussing how artificial intelligence (AI) is enabling advances in finance, healthcare, agriculture, education and transportation. 

Also on the agenda are regular ‘meet the mentor’ sessions and expert talks, where entrepreneurs and aspiring professionals can meet Barclays Eagle Lab mentors such as Digital Jersey’s Tony Moretta or Jersey Business’ Eliot Lincoln. There will also be ‘beer and pizza’ networking events – a monthly meet up with an interesting theme.

The Barclays Eagle Lab also hosts regular events organised by MumSpace, a networking group for mums with an emphasis on inspiring and empowering them in all areas of life as well as supporting them to pursue their business ideas.

Organiser of MumSpace, Vicky O’Neil, said: “The Eagle Lab is a fantastic collaborative working space. Our workshops are designed to engage and empower mums and we’ve run successful panel events at the Lab such as ‘mums mean business’ and social media creation and blogging for businesses which featured local bloggers Nineby5 and Paperbyher.

“I have also worked with talented local women to deliver a variety of other workshops including a ‘What not to wear’ event.”

Other MumSpace events planned for the rest of the year include sessions on confidence and resilience, mindfulness and mind-set and balance.  

2018 will also see islanders taking full advantage of the Eagle Lab itself, with monthly Makerspace sessions, a Hackathon and 3D printing club and a special event on digital design for gardens. There will also be monthly events centred around Virtual Reality (VR) technology.

Barclays is also supporting visits from community groups with recent guests from St Christopher’s School, who had a great time making robotic cars, and Jersey MENCAP, who have been using the Barclays Eagle Lab to access the Bank’s Digital Wings programme.

Barclays Jersey Eagle Lab Ecosystem manager Jo Alford said: “The goal of the Barclays Eagle Lab is to provide a wide range of support services – giving start-up businesses and scale-up communities a crucial boost.

“Hosting events across the business and community spectrum is a big part of that and we’re thrilled to be offering more than 100 different ones for people to attend this year.

“The AI Frenzy is a great event for Jersey and one which is being hosted in Eagle Labs across the country; we have some great speakers and are hoping to attract a large audience.”

For more details on how to sign up for a Barclays Eagle Lab event visit: https://labs.uk.barclays/locations/jersey#eventsand to book your place at the AI frenzy visit: https://labs.uk.barclays/ai