Best turnout this year so far, 27 Members and 4 visitors. There was a scrabble for the last seats and lots of pre-breakfast networking.
Education Presentation
It was Nick Cooke that regaled us with his Education Slot this week.
He has a holiday looming which involves 3 weeks over in the Americas; Mexico, San Francisco, Mexico again…all over the place!!! There was an expectant hush over the meeting as we all wondered what this had got to do with an Education Slot. Well….it has to do with what you must do with your business when you go away on holiday for any period of time, but particularly for 3 weeks. What Nick Cooke does is, he calls on Tina Turner. That I think was his initial plan but he decided he probably couldn’t afford her, corrected himself and said that he would call on Tina Walker to provide him with the secretarial back up services that keep his clients at bay or at least keep them informed. If there was a real problem it could be passed on to him whilst he was on holiday, although it seemed unlikely that he would be designing a steel beam whilst on holiday. Much more like sitting in a doorway with a sombrero over his head and a poncho round his shoulders. The basic message was sound; the solution was slightly whimsical
The 60 Second Round
With our numbers up it was comforting to note that the various factions were present and well represented. Messrs Bullock, Caldon, Booth and Barry were looking threatening in the naughty corner.
The School of Whimsey was fully represented. We had already heard from Nick Cooke with his holiday plans. Now he talked beams. Alan Shaw talked buildings; a bungalow down the road, or Hampton Court. Give him a nice building to look at and he is in seventh heaven. Brian Painter talked about dying for a cause and mentioned Greenpeace and small boats against big boats… where was this going we all thought?. Well, I can tell you where it ended up…smoking means you improve the profits of the cigarette companies and if that is a cause then smoking means that you are dying for it…the cause that is, not a cigarette. No gore but plenty of whimsey. I am now formally going to welcome in through the portals of the School of Whimsy Allan Moller. He has been “banging on the door” for some time. He set a customer straight when he asked him whether he could fix certain lights before plastering had been done. It reminded me of Little Noddy Book 1 where Noddy suggested, in relation to the building of a house for him, that they put the roof on first to keep out the rain. Something of this I think was conveyed by Mr Moller to the customer who was so impressed that he gave him another job. I think he is a worthy champion of the whimsey.
What about the more normal members. Well Saj Sreedharan delivered flowers to a funeral in SW17 that included one that sounded very much like a “Gerbil”. On being questioned he immediately put out his usual defence, “I am only a delivery guy”.
Kevin Brooks declared that in addition to Nick Cooke he was also about to go on holiday and Richard Reed picked up on this and told of the specialist holiday deal in relation to the Monaco Grand Prix.
Vince Goode said that he has recently been producing “mailers” The trick is to print on both sides so that it doesn’t look like a piece of white paper when it lands on your doormat.
Ben Golding had a homely little tail about Sue. Sue was home on maternity leave and did not really want to go back to her job. She was concerned about trying to change to make her hours shorter and did not know which way to turn. Ping! Who came along but her prince charming in the guise of our Ben. Don’t go back to work Sue, come and work for Utility Warehouse. After a few months she was earning more through Utility Warehouse than her full time job would provide. In fact she sacked them.
Matt Barry from the Naughty Corner regaled us with his vineyard client and the videography necessary to show the replanting of a new vineyard.
The next member of the Naughty Corner was Howard Bullock who said that if we were all going to rush to buy ISA’s why don’t we buy them at the beginning of the tax year rather than the end… or something like that. Vince Goode having previously mentioned “mailers” reminded us of the context, that he was acting for estate agents with several offices. Dean Caldon felt that as a single office agency he probably wasn’t good enough for the Prince of Gants Hill Village. He did talk strategies however which all seemed very sensible.
Tina Walker stood up and though for a moment that she was Tina Turner and then realised she wasn’t and introduced herself again as Tina Walker, but by then she was overcome with something or other and sat down.
John Hammond produced a prop, to wit a “discreet “ housing for cameras. To call it discreet would not create a vision of the super human effort necessary to lift it up and show it to his audience.
Fortunately, he was followed by Paul Booth who had a much simpler request, he needs clients called Griffiths or people who are illustrators.
So who won the Oscar this week. Well after demonstrating with superb props how much damage can be afflicted on the human body, Terry Maylin sold himself as the Debt Collector of the year.
This weeks statistics and points of note
- 27 Members present
- 4 guests in attendance
- 27 referrals
- £15,500.00 business recorded
- £35,500 worth of business recorded
- David Plumley is the Performance League Leader
- Terry Maylin won the Oscar
Visit to the “Clue HQ” Escape Room
This week was not a Synergy Meeting week but on Friday there had of course been the Nuclear Bunker Visit. Brian Painter introduces it and Vince Goode gave the report. Allan Shaw had problems finding the Bunker most had problems trying to get out. One team did it and one didn’t but the ones who didn’t make it out, the EBF freedom fighters did the grown up one…at least that was their excuse.
10-minute presentation by Anna-Marie Cooper
This week was Anna Marie’s. She struggled against all the odds to get set up so that she could produce a photographic display, which she did very well. She was very well prepared for her presentation which took us through the sort of products she can produce and she also was able to give us printed lists of the recommendations she is looking for.
A very polished performance which hopefully will produce business for her as we go forward.
Great meeting and super 10 minutes.
great meeting all. good to see lots of new members and visitors too. see you next week
A sunny start to a bright meeting. An excellent first 10mts from Anna – very well done indeed.
With four visitors present we are getting close to capacity, so, if you were thinking of joining a networking group you need look no further.
We are growing when most others are not and the reasons are obvious, but, if you still need convincing you only need to pay us a visit.
Better make it soon though.
Great meeting and new visitors plus an old member Nigel let’s hope he rejoins. Well done Anna Marie for your 10 minutes. See you all next week signing off Tina Turner
We were a little late in finishing today because of all the members present, what better reason? Well done Anna Marie for an excellent presentation and pics. I disagree with the position of the toilet roll and I think we should take a vote on it. Entertaining blog, Aidan!
What a busy meeting this was, a good buzz in the the room and a great 10 minutes from Anna, well worth a 121 with to see her range of photographic skills. See you all next week, cheerio!
Very well done Anna. Good to see a packed venue and lots of business.
It was good to be back, hate missing a meeting, great 10 minute Anna very well done, great to see so many visitors, and of course, new members, see you all next week gang 🙂
A great meeting, so uplifting to have so many members and visitors in attendance. Anna-Marie wowed us all with her beautiful and emotive photography. I had a great one to one after the meeting with Ben, looking forward to having more one to ones with other newer members in the coming months.
Wow … what a busy meeting. A great turnout and a real buzz. Thank you Anna for your 10 mins. Thanks too to Nick for the thoughtful Ed Slot.
well done Anna on your first 10 minutes. What a great buzz in the room with so many members present, great to see and it is really encouraging that our numbers keep growing – more members= more referrals!
Crikey , what a great turnout. Made a note to myself to get there about 5.00 oclock to make sure I get a seat. Yet another great blog Aidan . Thanks
Brilliant summary Aidan! Very appropriate header pic :o)
I should have sent you the one of Vincent with his stunning rose tinted glasses on.
It was definitely a battle to get the right technology together. Fortunately I have had enough curveballs at Weddings to deal with this kind of thing!
Everyone has been so encouraging at EBF, so I would like to say thank you to everyone.
Looking forward to the next meeting.