Business Networking Blog 14th January

Chairman’s Business Networking Blog Thursday 14 January 2016.

A turnout of 19 members found themselves in a much smaller room at the end of the restaurant at Mary Green Manor. Initial networking was very difficult but the seating area for our meeting proved very conformable and intimate and helped with what was a training meeting with the revised format to give time for the presentation regarding recruitment by Terry Maylin…. but I am getting slightly ahead of myself.

The shock of the new venue was pleasantly off set by the return of Michael Adelizzi, everyone was pleased to witness his return to the fold. Welcome back Michael.

This was the first very cold morning of the winter and Howard Bullock is to be commended not only for his garishly striped shirt but also the wearing of shorts.

By the time we got to the 60 second round it so bemused were we by our setting that the Naughty corner was scattered to the 4 winds and effectively ceased to exist. Come on guys weplease regroup.

The 60 second round produced a high level of content and at the time I thought it accordingly provided me with little material for this Blog but there were some notable exceptions.

In true Sesame Street style the letter “E” was very prominent. Dean Caldon talked not only about landlords now having to do the Border Agency’s work for them but also EPC’s. David Plumley talked about some sort of virus protection with ESET. Stuart Smalicombe will be exhibiting at the Excel Centre and Brian Painter described dealing with a chocoholic by use of EFT; points will be awarded the first of you who reply to this Blog and set out what EFTs stand for.

Jo Jones’s mission was to stop people saying “balls to it all”. I think she might be pushing against an open door.

Richard Reed told of cruising on a ship with 4 to 5 masts. I had visions of “Richard” the cabin boy, however it does not conjure up the same images as “Roger” the cabin boy.

Not only had the Naughty Corner disbursed but the School of Whimsy was in no way whimsical. Alan Shaw talked about building regulations approval and Nick Cooke talked about loft conversions. Ah well…maybe next week….

Paul Booth tried to capture all of our attention with reference to lap dancers and lots of tutors. Principally for David Plumley’s information Paul made it clear that his ladies used poles rather than laptops.

Pride of place with Oscar went to Steve Roach with his 60 second promotion of Phoenix FM.

So we left the 60 second round and went straight to the referrals round getting eventually up to about 20 referrals £29,000 worth of business was recorded which was a great effort.

We came to the central part of the meeting being the recruitment drive. Terry Maylin really picked up where Brian Painter left off and the nature of the intimacy of the room enabled us not only to have An excellent presentation from Terry but also a useful discussion afterwards about possible categories for us to chase. It was good to see everyone engaged in the issue of recruitment. It would be nice to see this carried over in the coming weeks as Terry maintains the flow of seeking out new visitors and new members. What today’s meeting did emphasise was the importance of a regular flow of visitors and how and why we should all be constantly vigilant in seeking to invite people to our meeting and up our membership.

I look forward to seeing you all next week in what hopefully will be more warmer conditions outside.