Networking in Surrey News - week beginning 23 January 2012

So that’s ‘Blue Monday’ out of the way (hooray!) Either yesterday or last Monday, depending on who you listen to, was supposedly the most depressing day of the year thanks to the dark mornings and evenings, credit card bills from our Christmas and sales spending sprees, and the dreaded tax return deadline and payment date (boo!)

So, from here on in, the only way is up, Plastic People! (pop music reference :o) You’ll have seen from Friday’s NiS Bulletin that there’s plenty happening out there in Networkland – and as usual, you’ll find over 200 local events this month in Surrey listed on NiS.

David Cameron’s relaunched concept ‘General Wellbeing’ (not his snappiest!) makes Monday’s Weybridge Ecademy ‘Business & Body Wellbeing’ evening totally topical. We’re starting to see some expos appearing in the listings, and some great value training events too. Paullettte Schwartz is making a great last minute offer on her Business Planning workshop, by the way. These Member Promo events are sponsored listings and like our fab advertisers they keep the site free for all – bless!

You may have seen in our Stop Press section that Cobham’s popular networking venue, the NY Bar & Grill, has ceased trading – but the 4Networking and Business Biscotti groups are both relocating half a mile up the road to the Fairmile Inn.

On Friday I said I’d comment on the new 4Networking offerings, so here goes...

Last year you may remember in my two videos with Sean Usherand my interview with Sally James on Brooklands Radio I predicted that the new trend for 2012 would be ‘purpose-driven’ business skills and solutions focused networking.  I believed people would start to question the value offered by networking groups costing them £500 - £1000 a year just to make connections and get referrals – and equally realise that free networking groups were excellent for ‘sociable’ networking but lacked a structured format and measurable return on investment.

Here in Surrey alone since those observations we’ve seen the rapid rise of:

• Nigel Botterill’s Entrepreneurs Circle - business and marketing training based around a Membership and meetings formula (£69 per month)
• NABO networking – business training webinars and topic-focused meetings with a reduced joining fee (£99 a year + meeting fees)
• Ecademy Boardrooms – a Blackstar networking format (£50 per month + £50 per meeting)

 ... and several other brainstorming/hot-seating/virtual boardroom groups such as Vistage, Karen Purves’Powerhouse, and Trafford Enterprises are all aimed a the very top end of the market.

Brad Burton at 4Networking clearly spotted these trends too, and has just announced a major expansion of their portfolio (I’m wondering if the recent 4N boardroom departures were connected with this?) 4N is introducing 3-hour Monday morning business training meetings, one-to-ones with Directors, and Brad-casts (online videos from the Burton Bunker).  They’re also setting up evening groups aimed at people with commitments which rule out breakfast networking, like parents taking the kids to school or tradespeople having to be on site early. Brad clearly believes 4N needs to earn its £500 a year subs by developing the product range for Members!

Having said that, there are still new groups like First Networking appearing in the competitive breakfast arena, so the choice for us as networkers is now better than ever.

I also promised you more news on our own new ‘invitation-only’ paid Membership offering at Networking in Surrey – but I’ve run out of space to do it justice! It will include many of the elements mentioned above, and some surprise extras in a fantastic value package for NiS Networker Plus Members that will complement all your current networking activities and improve your ROI from them all.  More details soon...

Diary of a Networker...

A massive copywriting project I’m wrestling with (170-page website for a big corporate client) has been cramping my networking style this month. As a result, I missed the Surrey Business Club bash at Cranleigh last week, but did make it to the Trafford Elmbridge dinner yesterday, and I hope to be at Digital Surrey at UniS tomorrow, and 4N Walton on Friday too.

Happy Networking...