A well-attended meeting with 26 members including John Hammond at his first meeting as a member. The meeting was also boosted by two visitors. Summer is definitely here.
Education Presentation
Delivered by our Education Maestro David Plumley, he took us through the Referrals Round and what should and what does not need to be mentioned in that round. Very useful for all members but particularly for our recent additions.
The 60 Second Round
Jo Eastwood kicked off by giving us a rundown of her wares which included 400 types of wines, 200 craft beers and 50 Gins. Eyes were starting to glaze over in anticipation, fortunately Marcelle Saad brought us down to earth. In similar fashion to Jo she gave us a rundown of the sort of things she can produce in relation to rings, both expensive and inexpensive and the remodelling of jewellery.
Jo Jones can always be relied upon a suitable sound bite. She talked of shoulder injuries, produced a chart that illustrated shoulder joints and explained why they created so much difficulty, “big ball in a small socket”.
The School of Whimsy was there in full force and Nick Cooke played this week with something of a straight bat, he referred to the fact he did structural inspections and can also advise if a householder wished to knock his house about. Another aspect of domestic violence?
Alan Shaw has not been performing too well of late. He has been much too much on message but today all was forgiven. Whether inspired by his shirt or not he talked about a wedding in Kent, about Elton John’s manager’s wife and Queens’ manager’s wife and that it was a networking opportunity. He then took breath and then questioned whose wife it really was and whether the manager had a wife and all in all it became thoroughly confusing, amusing and a stimulus for other comments that followed from later speakers.
The other member of the School of Whimsy, Brian Painter, took a different spin on trying to discourage smoking. Rather than reciting a string of poisons that the smoker inhales or likening the risk of smoking to an aircraft crashing he used an elastic band as a simile. To use willpower alone will ultimately mean that however much you stretch it will always jump back to how it was before. Brian deals with both the physical and the psychological. All that and not a word to disturb our digestion of what was the usual high standard of breakfast from our venue.
Richard Reed likes a mention so I will confirm that he tailor makes itineraries for people but if he ever goes over by 2 minutes on his 1 minute presentation I promise I will never refer to him again…
John Freeman, in anticipation of his 10 minute presentation confined himself to toilet seats and odds and sods.
Stuart Smallcombe is worthy of mention. He focused this week on towns where he has clients; from Canvey to Cardiff and Cardiff to Coventry. We should be looking for potential clients who inhabit towns in Essex that begin with C.
As you can see, there were lots of worthy contributions. None of these however won the Oscar. This was reserved for Scott Griffiths who produced a device that was Google based and answered him back. I was left with a vision of Scott sitting in his office or at home talking to said machine. Who needs colleagues, friends or even wives.
A great 60 second round.
This weeks statistics and points of note
26 members present
2 visitors, Andy Martin from Newsquest and Angee Jenkins from Jupiter Engineering.
21 plus referrals
£15,500 worth of business recorded
Current Performance League leader, Kevin Radford
10 minute presentation by John Freeman
It was John Freemans turn for the 10 minute presentation. It was also his first presentation to us. He illustrated it with use of his laptop and screen and produced a very comprehensive synopsis of his own career and what he could do and why he could do it well. It was an excellent performance and the lack of questions at the end was more of a tribute to the comprehensiveness of his presentation than anything else. He will get a lot of work. Hopefully his back and other parts of his anatomy will hold up to enable him to deal with all referrals.
The Referrals and Testimonials Round
With David Plumley’s exhortations ringing in our ears we embarked upon the Referrals round. There were good numbers. The meeting ended almost on time and we left to make the most of the sun shine.
its just occurred to me that there’s actually quite a similarity between the photos i’ve used for the last 2 blog posts. Visit the blog page and see for yourself. I cant now help myself but imagine Alan as an Elton John tribute artist!
I know what you mean Scott. It’s difficult to tell which is which!
Well done to John for his 1st presentation. He looked like an old pro!
Good meeting. I heard that there’s a free slot at the Swan on Sunday evening – they’re looking for an Elton John and Rob Stewart tribute duo – any takers?
If there’s one 60 second presenter that I look eagerly forward to each week its Alan Shaw’s. You sense within the room the anticipation and he never lets us down – a true genius.
Very well done John.
Alan Shaw – “He’s still standing”
I would say something rude but the sorry seems to be the hardest word!
I think we can safely refer to him from hereon in as Rocket Man
Great meeting as always will done John on a great presentation
Well done John – got lots of little jobs for you. Good meeting, many thanks
Very entertaining 60+60+60 seconds from Alan Shaw, we must get him a new hearing aid so he hears that bell when it rings for time to sit down!!
I enjoy being entertained in the morning but I would enjoy a translation of Alan’s 60 seconds! Deserves an Oscar!
Great meeting with Elton John & Rod Stewart this week folks, or was it their wives, or their managers wives… still it was a great meeting.
Some excellent 60 seconds , notably Liquorice Jo’s was very informative, and, I have it on the timekeepers authority that I was only 120 seconds!!
Good first presentation by John also.
A big thankyou to both David & Scott, you guys helped immensely,
Scott for his feedback before my presentation, David for helping with the tech side of things to make it happen.
Also, big thanks to all for the kind words and support!
I really do enjoy the weekly meeting and feel very privileged to be among you all.
Alan, your still standing fella!