Bright an early on Thursday morning, in the beautiful surroundings of Dunston Hall, our breakfast event was kicked off with Chris Perry, Membership Account Manager at the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, talking about business growth in the area and the opportunities that were available to local businesses.
After breakfast, Chris handed over to Becky Betts from BBC Radio Norfolk, who hosted the Chamber Quiz. Delegates were tested on their knowledge of Norfolk businesses, which also gave people a chance to meet each other before the main networking event.
Once the winning table had been announced and given their prizes, everyone had the chance to network and make some valuable business contacts for the future.
‘Say Yes’ to better broadband, ‘Active Norfolk’ and ‘Norfolk Car Club’ took stands at the event, so people were able to find out more about these great, local campaigns.
Hosted by Heather Garrod, President of West Norfolk Chamber Council, the High Five Lunch Event at Congham Hall on Tuesday 21 February offered a great insight into business in the area. Heather was keen to encourage everyone to shout about West Norfolk to make sure people are aware of all the successful businesses that are based there. She talked about how West Norfolk is self sufficient and a good business example for other regions
We then heard from the High Five sponsors; Steve Clarke from Lloyds TSB and John Garrett from Hayhow & Co, as well as David Coulson from sponsors CompeteFor. David talked about getting your business ready for the Olympics, which will be an important focus for this year. The ‘Say Yes’ to better broadband and ‘Active Norfolk’ campaigns were also represented with stands at the event
After a lovely lunch we heard from Mark Reeve, Managing Director of Chalcroft Construction, who talked about the way Chalcroft works. He mentioned their tagline ‘Construction Built on Teamwork’ and explained how this was key to their business
Mark explained how Chalcroft aim to surpass expectations and provide excellent value to their clients. He also talked about how we need to create an economy which delivers growth. He was asked about health and safety within his business and said that Chalcroft found that promoting behavioural safety was key. Overall it was an inspiring presentation which would have been useful to many local businesses.
Our brand new and exciting ‘Opportunities 2012’ event on 15 March, which brought buyers and suppliers together under one roof at Norwich City Football Club, was a huge success.
With over 70 exhibitors over two floors, both the Top of the Terrace and the Norfolk Lounge were full with stands. Feedback during the day from exhibitors was that the event had a real buzz and presented them with a great opportunity to showcase their innovative products and services to the business community.
Exhibitors tried to be as eye catching as possible by having interactive stands or great giveaways. Bramley Lakes received a lot of attentions by bringing an off-road segway vehicle in for demonstration as part of their team building days, and Kinnerton were handing out free chocolate samples…always a popular choice! In addition to the exhibitors, there were a series of ‘drop in’, bitesize, topical workshops. Each workshop was aimed at improving and enhancing business knowledge with practical, take-home advice. The most popular proved to be based on the subject of social media, with Duncan Johnson from Yodelay delivering a workshop on Social Engine Optimisation and Sean Clark from Soak Social filling us in on the 10 most effective ways to use social media in business.
The resounding success of the day was the Open4Business/Meet the Buyer event – where local companies booked one-to-one appointments with key procurement officers and buyers from a range of both public and private sector companies to pitch their products and services. The 29 buyers, including Bernard Matthews, QD and Wherry Housing, created an amazing 569 appointments, of which over 89% were booked!
A big thank you to everyone who sponsored, supported and attended the event. The day was clear proof that Norfolk is buying and selling and hugely positive about taking advantage of every business opportunity.