Networking in Surrey News – week beginning 28 February

In many ways, business is a numbers game – and we’re not talking the National Lottery here, although my partner Angela did scoop the top £1000 prize in this month’s Sam Beare and Woking Hospice Draw (how’s that for ‘Givers Gain, Folks)!

Anyway, here are some of the ‘magic numbers’ (not drawn by Guinevere or Amethyst :0) for us this week...

As of today NiS lists 211 events in Surrey over the coming four weeks (all with links to book them) including 27 Featured Events with the usual level of detail (including a picture of the venue, link to a Google map, a postcode for your satnav, speaker details where applicable, additional useful info such as the availability of parking and much more... well, you know the drill!) Of course we include all the main networking groups as well, and a fair sprinkling of free-to-attend and pay-as-you-go events so you can do more networking for less money.

We have reached 416 Members on NiS - meet the newest Members here - and 530 on Networking in Berkshire. Add in the 31 Members on Networking in Bucks and at 977 in total it looks as if we’ll be reaching our 1,000-Member target in a matter of days now... fantastic!

Blogging Brilliant...
And we’re a Google magnet too, having reached page one for the phrase ‘business events in surrey’ without any paid-for SEO or PPC. We’re page one for ‘networking events in surrey’  too, and of course top of the pile for ‘networking in surrey’ out of 1.5 million. Switched-on Members are blogging enthusiastically to raise their profile with 1000 unique visitors per month to NiS - and with Google.

Currently our most prolific blogger is Mark Williams (the ‘Mortgage Monkey’ man!). Now Mark doesn’t have an unusual name – it gets 14 million results on Google – but if you Google ‘Mark Williams Surrey’  his NiS listing puts him number one, page one of 197,000 results, above the eponymous accountant, solicitor - and even the magician.  Look down a bit, and you’ll see one of Mark’s blog posts gets him another page one Google result. QED.

Diary of a Networker...
Busy, busy, buzzy! Last Monday I had a great time at the NY Bar & Grill at BNI Cobham & Esher’s free social evening with a free drink and nibbles and some structured networking. Several NiS Members were there too including Tessa Hood, Ken Smart , Neville Godwin, Nigel Hall, James McBrearty, Antonio Falco and Derek Williamson. Then on Tuesday I had a 1-2-1 lunch with Howard Nichols, and afternoon tea with Jeremy Webb at the Hilton. 

Thursday evening took me to the jaw-dropping new University of Surrey Sports Park, a veritable ‘Temple to Sweat’ with a massive 50m pool, for the packed free Digital Surrey evening and an inspirational talk from Heather Taylor of revolutionary mobile service provider ‘giff gaff’ (check it out). Other NiS technofiles present were Martin Davidge-Stringer, Sarah Orchard, Rob Williams, Martyn Stead , Nicky Rudd, Steve Coburn and Adam Gardner.

Friday was a very big day, starting with 4N breakfast at Walton on Thames with Evonne Brown, Charlotte Grant, Uzma Afzal, Mike Wylie, and John Edward among others, followed by the launch event for Business Biscotti at the very swish Brooklands Hotel, where I met Biscotti founder Graham Reeves, and NiS Members Tessa Hood (again!), Samantha New-Fielding, Max Wright, Christine Chalklin, Mary Waring, Elizabeth Clark, Peter Morris, Geoff Chapman (who won the champagne), and Dan Smale (who won the port at the last First Friday in Guildford - he's tried saying no to alcohol, but it just won't listen!)  

I was able to ‘event-hop’ between this and the exclusive launch event of Business@Brooklands in the same venue with the Transport Minister Philip Hammond, the Mayor of Elmbridge and Max Clifford, where I met up with Simon Longman, James Webster (don't miss his free Bracknell Expo this week) and Sarah Martin. Sally James of TisWas fame (ask any guy who was a teenager in the 80s :0)  booked me to do an interview with her on Brooklands FM in March - can't wait! It's wonderful to meet so many of NiS Members out there all actively networking face-to-face, so...

Happy Networking!