Networking in Surrey News – week beginning 17 October 2011

Winter draws on :o) as we expect the first frost overnight -  and in ten days time the clocks go back. 

The business exhibition season is in full flow, and tomorrow John Udal’s Best of Camberley Expo kicks off with the keynote speech from Nigel ‘Botty’ Botterill.

The following Thursday (favourite weekday for expos?) there’s We Mean Business in Croydon, and towards the end of November James Webster and Woking Chambers' Woking Means Business.

If you fancy venturing up to the Big Smoke, Earls Court is home to the joint Business Startup and Great British Business Shows on 17 & 18 November (it’ll be in our Stop Press mini-listings shortly).

And remember we list over 200 events in Surrey alone each month on NiS! Other featured events on NiS coming up in the next few days include:

FREE Morning Employers' Workshop, Farnham 

LAUNCH EVENT: 4Networking Breakfast, Croydon Central

Ecademy Evening, Croydon

4Networking Breakfast, Walton on Thames

FREE Business Growth Evening, Guildford

Business over Breakfast Farnham

If you’re interested in improving your networking skills, Stuart Ritchie has persuaded Sue Tonks to deliver a full-day course in Coulsdon on Sunday 13 November, and our own networking and personal branding expert Tessa Hood and yours truly are running an afternoon networking skills workshop in Cobham on 17 November (details on NiS shortly).

The Networking In sites continue to grow, with NiS at 737 Members as of today (meet the newest Members here), Networking in Berkshire at 780 and Networking in Bucks passing the 50 mark – so it’s ‘2000 Members, here we come’!

All this activity is great news for our lovely advertisers - Best of Camberley, Ladies at 11, Paperwork SOS, TempleSpa and Surrey Copywriters ...and don’t forget you can list your own workshops and seminars for a small contribution to sponsoring the site (details here) with a MEMBER PROMO listing. Remember, we have over 1500 unique visitors to NiS each month.

We’re soon going to open up advertising on the site to larger companies at the non-member rate of £100 per month – but Members will still get priority at our discounted rate on first come, first served basis.

Diary of a Networker...
I was lucky enough to get tickets for this year’s FSB Houses of Parliament event last weekend. It involved a reception on the riverside terrace, escorted tours of the Palace of Westminster including both Chambers, and dinner in the Members Dining Room with an after-dinner speech by Ann Widdecombe. She is actually really cool (yes , I was impressed!) – very energetic and switched-on: razor sharp political mind, writing a thriller (her fifth novel) and appearing in panto in Dartford this year! 

I was due to go to the Elmbridge Trafford dinner event on Monday, but having again got lucky with tickets we went to see the recording session of ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue’ at G Live in Guildford. Fortunately, we didn’t suffer the same fate as the recent Surrey Chambers event there, which was cancelled due to a power cut.

So, I’ve been a bit slack on the networking front, but did enjoy the Guildford Link Up event last week with Thomas Power speaking about the digital future for business. He’s always good value, and will be appearing at the Earls Court event above, and alongside Penny as the speakers at Weybridge Ecademy later this month.  Jeff Scott was there too.

I’m of to the Best of Camberley Expo tomorrow afternoon and 4Networking Walton & Weybridge on Friday, so hope to see several of you there...

Happy Networking!