The Rural Meeting Place will be hosting a number of events falling into 3 categories, Networking, Directors' Lunches and Social events.
NETWORKING.
Designed with business in mind, RMP network events allow members to meet other business people in their area, allowing them to sell their products to a wider business audience, as well as sourcing good quality products and services for their own operation.
The network events will all have a relevant speaker or working lunch format as well as presentations from all guests and members
DATES FOR MEETINGS IN 2010.
March 17th Discussing by popular demand 'Which Social Media is best for my business?' & 31st With Mark Parry of TSG talking about Information Security on your P.C.
April 14th & 28th
May 12th & 26th
June 9th & 23rd
July 7th & 21st
August 4th & 18th
September 1st, 15th & 29th
October 13th & 27th
November 10th & 24th
December 8th & 22nd
PAST MEETINGS.
3rd March 2010. Open networking abounded and business talk flew back and forth across the table with one of the key topics of discussion being about the fit between Sales & Marketing (a Workshop will be built around this shortly)
3rd February 2010. We had a very interesting talk by Sarah Bowen of Young Enterprise, where she explained what the programme is about in both primary and Senior schools. She also explained how it helps to Continuous Professional Development. To contact Sarah e-mail sarah.bowen@yewm.org.uk
23rd December 2009. Christmas Social @ The Parkway in Ludlow. A very convivial 3 course lunch was enjoyed by members with a healthy discussion about business and networks.
9th December 2009. Selling to Rural Business was this weeks' topic for discussion with talks centering on the relationship building side of selling being so important in a rural environment.
25th November 2009. Discussions centred around personal safety for the sole/remote worker after which those in attendance talked about the core of their business and gave some interesting facts about their specialism that were intriguing.
11th November 2009. After the first Rural Meeting Place Networking Masterclass a meeting was held where all of those in attendance concentrated on the content of their 60second presentation and concluded that 60 seconds was in fact a long time when they thought about it!
28th October 2009. A lively discussion was held on networking as a way of gaining business.
14th October 2009. Discussions were held around Autumn and Christmas planning as well as the period between Christmas and New year. For the professional businesses it was felt that things stayed as normal on the run up to Christmas but the period between holidays would a good opportunity to gather information and make direct contact with staff on duty to obtain contact details of the key people in a business.
October 7th 2009. Held at The Ramada Hotel Bewdley we welcomed many guests and had a working Lunch around the theme of 'Are we coming out of the recession?'Businesses told of how things were looking up, that pricing was an issue as other people were looking to get an executive package at bargain basement prices but that all in attendance were holding their own, which was great news to hear.
September 30th 2009. A lively debate was held around the question 'Who inspires you most and why?'
September 2nd 2009 Open networking with lively discussions about the best way for Accountants to promote themselves in an arena that will capture a more discerning audience as well as many other topics of business interest.
August 19th 2009. A very good meeting where we discussed the business pain that members were feeling and how it could be addressed. Points of discussion were collecting payments and specific areas of marketing business as well as how to get out of a low paying category of clients for a more affluent clientele.
August 5th 2009. Tapas and cocktails made the members think about celebrating their business and how they could do this cost effectively. Ideas were passed around about reasons to celebrate, new offices, product launch, new partnerships etc that would warrant getting old and new clients together to celebrate these moves and then to up sell products and skills to this audience.
July 22nd 2009. A busy meeting with new members attending with a lively debate.We also found out some interesting facts about competition balloon racing.
July 8th 2009. A very good discussion was held with David Henderson of Alliance CO2 who talked to the group about offsetting your Carbon Footprint by way of planting trees in an environmentally friendly way.
June 24th 2009. Working lunch format discussing a variety of business issues pertinent to those in attendance.
June 10th 2009. A working lunch where an indepth discussion was held with regard to the business needs of those attending.
May 27th 2009. Peter Simmons of Border Contract Vehicles updated the group on the Shropshire Environmental Alliance meeting that he attended on our behalf. The outcome of the meeting was that 4 questions of an environmental nature were prepared for candidates in the local elections to respond to.A discussion was held around this and then networking prevailed.
May 13th 2009. Promoting your business cost effectively was the topic for discussion. Subjects discussed were e-mail marketing and radio advertising.
April 29th 2009.A general business discussion was held along with intensive networking and an Update on the Budget and how it affects your business.
April 15th 2009. Re:Think Grant and Evans Easy Space. An introduction on the easy in easy out office space at Ludlow's Eco Park followed by a very interesting talk on the grant for business called Re:Think
April 1st 2009. Ricky Price of RP Computer Solutions gave us information on backing up computer data and virus prevention. A very interesting session.
March 18th 2009. A discussion was held on offsetting your Carbon footprint. Some facts and myths were explored by the group.
March 4th 2009. Jill Barcroft from County Training spoke about the Courses available for Business and discussed funding options. There was a very lively Q&A session afterwards with an opportunity for all attendees to promote themselves for 2 minutes.
February 18th 2009. Improving your presentation was the topic fordiscussion and a handout of 25 top tips was given out to members. Tips were also exchanged on drawing prospects into the purchasing chain and on setting the timeline for this to happen.
February 4th 2009. Cancelled due to inclement weather conditions.
January 21st 2009. Another information rich meeting with introductions to new members and leads exchanged.
January 7th 2009. An information packed lunch was held with contacts and ideas being exchanged between those in attendance.Attendees discussed their aspirations for the year and how they were going to ahieve the goals they had set theirselves.
To see more go to:
www.theruralmeetingplace.com/2008Meetings.aspx
