Another very good turnout, 23 in number plus special visitor James Barr. Two matters worthy of note from the outset included having to scrape the ice off the windscreen before setting off and the presence of granola on the breakfast menu.
The Performance League
Two weeks in and in reverse order; Scott Griffiths has 120 points, Terry Maylin is on 125 and out front is Paul booth with 127. Plenty to play for as the month is yet young.
New Member Induction & Existing Member Renewal
No one up for renewal at the moment but the good news was that Chris Whittle’s application for membership as the builder of the group has been accepted by the membership committee and we look forward to inducting him next week.
The 60 Second Round
Stuart Smallcome was last week’s Oscar winner but delegated adjudication this week to the Mayor of Gants Hill Village. This week Vincent was propounding the virtues of presentation folders, some posher than others.
Chris de la Prida was also propounding, but in this case his product was great deals for a visit to Jamaica.
Melissa Jackson was explaining how by Voluntary Arrangement she can be the saviour of a business.
Matt Barry is helping Essex County Cricket Club promote its T20 fixtures and at the time of preparing this blog has enlisted several members to come to an evening fixture in July.
James Humphreys is looking for property owners and cited an instance where the owner of a self-build property had an insurance policy that ran out after the build had been completed. Fortunately James was able to advise him of this and get him covered. A breath of fresh air for those of us who struggle with the small print. Mike Skinner has been struggling with dark nights and winter weather. He is looking forward to the summer, working outside and has fitness venues particularly in mind. On a day when there was ice on our windscreens before we set off, it might be a slightly premature wish. Talking about outdoor events, Stuart Smallcome was distinguishing between using the public broadband services from the private. Outdoor festivals in fields is just the sort of location where the private provider comes into its own. He of course is the person to contact if you want to make such arrangements.
Toby Acton reeled off a list of clients he had been in contact with earlier in the week which included excited ladies who were involved with a cat cafe. He didn’t say if these were the purrfect client but his presentation did bring a smile to our faces. By sharp contrast he was followed by Andy O’Neill whose job involves advising on health and safety issues which included improperly treated water in a hot tub causing two deaths and leaking moisture in a shopping centre that claimed far more than two lives. Of late the development of Blake Hammond’s business has produced various reasons to be cheerful. He now has a new item of stock being a ration pack but on the development side, of far greater interest was the upcoming opening of his shop. I’m sure the airsoftees will be paying him a visit and we all should take the opportunity if we are in striking distance of Harlow by popping in to see the finished product in a week or two’s time.
Leann Reason produced the promotional phrase of the week by referring to, “falling in love with your space again” with reference to how she can spruce up your residential or office space.
It was the end of the presentations that this week produced a winner, namely Jane Malyon who was marketing her private barn as a venue for all sorts of get togethers. It seats 20 and stands 50. This is perhaps something that we can find potential people or businesses that could make good use of this facility.
This weeks statistics and points of note
Referrals continue to be vibrant with 21 from today’s meeting and in excess of £10,000 worth of business recorded.
EBF Social Event
Terry Maylin reported on five members attending a crystal maze event in London where apparently a good time was had by all. Terry quite rightly emphasised that social events can be of any size appealing to any type of activity however obscure and a non-inclusive. As if by magic, Matt Barry was able to respond directly from the subject matter of his 60 second presentation by organising a T20 event at Essex County Cricket Club. Remember, anything that takes your fancy might take somebody else’s. Feel free to metaphorically “run it up the flagpole”, you never know who will salute.
10-minute presentation by James Barr
Jane Malyon introduced us to James Barr and as a result managed to create a slightly different meeting. We arranged half an hour for James to present an insight into the rather frightening world of cybersecurity or rather the lack of it. If his very informed and high speed delivery did not strike fear into everyone’s hearts it is probably a reflection of a number of heartless people amongst us rather than a general problem that affects us all. James was good enough to stay over after the meeting for Jane’s synergy team meeting where he was able to be more expansive and of course more frightening. Thanks must go to Jane for bringing a bit of variety to our meeting with a speaker who was both effective and was able to present to us at a speed that might even have left Toby Acton breathless.
A great meeting and really enjoyed the guest speaker’s presentation. I like it when we occasionally do something different like this.
Was buzzing after yesterday’s meeting. Thanks to all once again for a great couple of hours
As I’m trying to find a superlative to replace “great”, I’ll trial this one. A superlative meeting, well done to Jane for winning the Oscar, it was her hand gestures that clinched the award
Lol!! Hand gestures can be so very expressive 😀 !! And thank you Vincent x
What an excellent presentation from James – Scary and interesting in equal measure.
Thanks, Jane for arranging this.
Thank you Terry. My pleasure
Thursday mornings are SO worth getting up early on. Thanks for the Oscar and the opportunity to bring James the speaker expert on Cybersecurity. A great meeting and a good Synergy session too!!
Another fantastic meeting. Really enjoyed the Crystal Maze Social Event.The 10 minutes on Cyber security was very interesting.
See you all next week
Really good to have such an excellent guest presenter – I was gutted that I could not stay for the synergy meeting. The granola was another highlight for me – thank you Tina for giving yours up for me!
great meeting and even better presentation – thank you James
I say it every week ‘a great meeting’ but they really are and it was really good to have our guest speaker this week. Hearing all about cyber attacks and how we can protect ourselves was really helpful. We all need to be aware and protect ourselves. A shame I had to dash off!
Great meeting as always and Wow scary but very interesting presentation from James Barr talking about Cyber Security.
Really interesting having a guest speaker in and hearing all of his warnings and information. Mixes things up so well done Jane for organising!