Networking in Surrey News – week beginning 6 August 2012

Exciting times! Two more gold medals Team GB this afternoon in the dressage and the boxing (not that I'm glued to the box watching the Olympics you understand :0) I promise I was out networking this morning, although my voice is a bit hoarse from shouting at the telly!

Shock news of the week in Networkland for me was the announcement that Ecademy Founders Penny and Thomas Power have sold their remaining stake in the world's first social business network. When I met them a couple of weeks ago, Penny told me there were changes afoot, but I certainly didn't see that one coming...

The great news here at NiS is that we're still growing (1,020 Members to date – meet the latest here). And listen up – the champagne prize for referring the most new members during July is still up for grabs. So, if you referred anybody who joined during July please e-mail keith@networkinginsurrey.co.uk with the names of your referrals and you'll be in with a good chance (even if it was only one person, because it has to be claimed)! The contest continues through August and September so there are two more bottles of bubbly to be won.

I've just added another member benefit to our Networker plus! enhanced membership option. NIS+ Members can now have regular 15-minute review sessions with me, to look at their networking strategy and discover how I can help them to get more referrals and new business through networking. This is particularly helpful if you're new to networking and need a hand getting up to speed.

Another member benefit is that you can do a joint webinar with me, totally free, which you can then use to promote yourself and your business. SIan Grinter and Yvonne Whittle are doing just that tomorrow - please listen in if you're around. We also have regular Boardroom Brainstorm meetings each month, and there are a host of other benefits too - check it all out here! Best of all, you can still get access to all of this at a special launch rate of just £12.50 a month, and that price holds  until the end of August.

I also held my first Working Lunch this week. It's a free networking session I'll be running once a month where anybody can come along and have lunch or a drink with me, and some other NiS members, and we'll look at some tactics and tips for leveraging your contacts network to get more business. Too many people spend time and money on networking and don't see the returns on that investment they had hoped for. Networking is fun, but it's also got to be profitable (and I don't just mean in terms of getting more customers, although that's an important part).

[Stop press – spooky! Just this minute got forwarded a testimonial e-mail in from Kevin Waters "...thanks Keith for the networking workshop lunch which I found very useful". You're more than welcome, Kevin!]

Lots of great events coming up in the shorter and longer term listed on NiS, with the Surrey Chambers Conference & Race Day at Sandown Park next month, the Woking Means Business Exhibition, the FSB Inter-networking Day on 2 October (listed soon, so Malcolm Tullett promised me this morning!), as well as all the usual EVENTS and Regular Group Meetings. All things being equal, (and Olympics permitting:0) there should be the usual Friday 'coming soon' NiS Bulletin tomorrow...