Chairman’s Business Networking Blog Thursday 4th August 2016.
Another holiday affected meeting which benefited from being held in the small room behind the restaurant which, through its reduced accommodation, provided an intimacy and intensity that led to very effective and amusing meeting.
There were 17 members in all and 2 visitors Alan Heggie, a chauffeur who have visited us before and Darryl Morgan who is a Health and Safety Consultant.
The Ed Slot was delivered by Brian Painter who emphasised the importance of first impressions.
On matters sartorial and of first impressions, Brian of course was his usual dapper self although not wearing the full white hunter suit which however had not been abandoned by Alan Shaw.
From the sublime to the ridiculous saw Paul Booth in a full clowns suit (it is apparently annual clowns day). The absence of porridge in our breakfast buffet selection mean there was nothing that could really be poured down the front of his trousers but it’s nice to see someone making the effort.
Paul Booth was not the only one of the Naughty Cornerers who was dressing differently. Howard Bullock sported a red checked shirt that in all respects resembled a table cloth with buttons and this was nicely set off by Alan Shaw’s red socks, which despite the camouflage of his white hunter suit would have scared off any self-respecting animal. David Plumley was sartorial elegance itself with a light weight pale blue stripped jacket, a white belt to his trousers that set off the whole ensemble.
Scott Griffiths won the Performance League for July by a healthy margin. Our calligrapher can be congratulated on having the necessary certificate available at the meeting when his victory was announced…..congratulations Scott.
The 60 second round was substantially on message and frankly has given me very little scope to make comment.
Alan Moller in anticipation of his up coming holiday is looking for “1 day stands” only.
Donna Evans produced a small book of wall paper patterns, much more manageable…I have seen the future!
Nick Cook managed to make a retaining wall sound sexy and Richard Reed attempted to entice us all with unmissable offers.
Michael Adelizzi was talking wet rooms and shower rooms. Indeed he was talking of converting bedrooms into wet rooms…ideal for the incontinent.
The red table cloth accompanied by Howard Bullock arose from his position of head of table in the Naughty Corner but any excitement ended there, he simply talked about pensions.
Steve Roach talked of a “bogoff” for 6 months contacts i.e. a years’ worth of advertising for the price of 6 months. Should not be missed.
Alan Shaw was the last of the School of Whimsy to stand up and he was on message. He described how, unusually, as an architect, he was doing drawings…disappointing.
Paul Booth even had a red nose to go with his clowns outfit, his theme was clowns…those who pretend to be accountants without the qualifications, but underneath I could see that he was sad. All clowns are sad. As a child I had an aversion to clowns. If I could have got close enough to him I would have lumped him. I think I need a session with Brian.
Pride of place with the Oscar was with Mike Rogers. Basically his theme was his own ability to attract back clients who his first and only meeting had been several years previously. 2005 apparently is the record. He was of course telling us something we already knew but any man who brings his own trumpet to the party and plays it deserves some sort of recognition.
We were in good hands with the 10 minute presentation which always helps when we are looking to attract visitors to join. Jill Willis gave a very clear and well-presented explanation of who she is and what she does. She was relaxed in her presentation and made us all wonder why we had not made more use of her skills for ourselves as well as referring her to others.
The referrals and testimonial round was solid. There were as many referrals and there were members which is always a minimum average we should look to achieve. Of course the other week when we had 25 members present this amounted to 25 referrals. This week it was 17. The equation is very basic so let keep attracting visitors and converting them to members.
Congratulations to everybody in producing an excellent meeting without the big numbers present. Once again could all of those not on holiday make the effort to get to next week’s meeting.
Aidan, why are Nick & Paul not in bold italics as are the rest? Perhaps another reason for you to have a session with Brian…
In so many ways Paul keeps on demonstrating that he really is so different from other accountants, I bet he can even do sums in his head.
Great presentation Jill, looking forward to our meeting.
This is not up to Aidan but me. We’ve added in an automated system that searches for the member names and if it recognises them it makes them into links to their profiles. Each members name is auto-linked for the first two times it is used and then subsequent times are ignored. Nicks name was not linked as it was not spelled correctly – his surname is “Cooke” not “Cook” so a simple error on this part.
Well done to Gill for a very well delivered presentation!
In Excellent 10 mins from Jill. Alo a good 60 second round … everyone a bit more descriptive. BTW Paul also now needs to come clean on why he bought the clown outfit.
Well done Jill a very polished presentation and it was good to know more of your background.
hopefully no clowns next week just good solid business leads!!
Good blog as always Aidan. Great 10 mins Jill.
Does anybody else think that Paul looks like a startled 10 year old in the blog pic? I think Howard should have washed the tea stains off the tablecloth!! Well done to our winners, Scott and laughing Mike. Excellent presentation, Jill.
Paul needs to make fancy dress part of his weekly wardrobe! Thanks for listening everyone, enjoyed telling you about my business.