I seemed to have spent most of my business life skipping breakfast, especially over the recent decade, in favour of gulping down a coffee while scrolling through my Blackberry’s digest of 24/7 correspondence.
Despite the typical caffeine breakfast I do have a penchant for a classic English breakfast and took the first opportunity after joining the Kingston Upon Thames Chamber Of Commerce (KCoC) to attend a Networking breakfast held on 4th Feb at the Coombe Wood Golf Course in Kingston.
Faced with the chilly drizzle of a classic English February morning, the welcome I received was Mediterranean by contrast. Crossing from the car park to the club house I was already in conversation with my first contact of the morning (even before getting my badge !). So Nasreen ! You get top marks for breaking the ice and good luck with your tax advisory business.
Prior to breakfast itself, Lisa Cagliani KCoC’s Chief Executive, explained the ground rules of the networking breakfast which ultimately distilled down to meet and talk to people you don’t know. That was a particularly easy proposition for me because I was a newbie there !
Breakfast conversation around our table ranged across an eclectic mix of topics from property letting trends, family law issues across EU boundaries, business financing and to one of my specialisations which is the use of social media for SME marketing purposes.
A number of us had an opportunity to introduce ourselves to the whole group towards the end of the breakfast. Roger Chown elucidated the virtues of the Rose Theatre and Rodney Clark talked about Kingston’s upcoming two day contingency planning event. However an analogy about car Sat Nav devices which Jeremy Webb used to describe his business still resonates well with me. To extend Jeremy’s metaphor I’m glad I found Kingston’s Chamber Of Commerce and am equally sure that sessions such as the breakfast networks will provide me value & direction on my journey to build a successful, local business.
