Quest4Success showcase @ RBS, Bishopsgate and visiting YBC Mega Networking event JUL 2015
Hello and welcome to my blog on Inspirational and Motivational Business events for entrepreneurs, start ups and small businesses. My name's Tendai and here at Quest4Success I will be share inspirational and motivational blogs on the many events I attend throughout London monthly.
First up is Quest4Success' very first invite to showcase at an event and in this instance we were at the Natwest Bizconnect event in Bishopsgate on Friday 3rd July 2015.
Quest4Success at Natwest Business & Bizconnect event July 3rd, 2015
I was one of 14 companies providing business advice to start ups, entrepreneurs and small businesses on the day alongside BT, Microsoft, KPMG, Fujitsu, AMS, Natwest, London South Bank University, ION, The Accelerator Academy, IPO (Intellectual Property Office), Loughborough University and UKTI. I shared my Social Media skills and experience with attendees, signposting useful sites to use and explaining my 1:1 Social Media sessions which start with a Consultation then completion of a Social Media Checklist to determine current and future Social Media needs. Workshops in specific social media networks will take place in the next few months also.
Quest4Success featured in #12
The event was hosted by Carl Welham, Head of Regeneration Delivery at Hackney Council who has a wealth of experience with small businesses. He educated us on the local and wider network area of regenerational changes including Amazon’s upcoming move yards from where the event was taking place (Liverpool St / Shoreditch) estimated to create 5000 jobs in 2017.
I was accidently introduced as “Award Winning Social Media Consultancy” which I was secretly chuffed by but hey, I’d won the pitching competition to get my company featured at the event so I guess he was half right, right?
The event consisted of a beautiful welcome lunch as we showcased to those arriving from noon onwards, with key note speeches and Q&A panel sessions for the latter part of the day followed by networking (one of my favourite hobbies I must say). It was an honour to be chosen to share my expertise and experience with Social Media to companies and people, especially alongside the calibre of companies I was showcasing with and it has set the pace for upcoming and future events I will be at.
There were some great organisations and entrepreneurs in attendance, and I was particularly impressed by Dr Nicola Millard a Futurologist representing BT, who had the audience at the palm of her hands with her Key Note Speech on Innovation and Collaboration; Quoting "Innovation & collaboration work well but only if you understand how collaboration works...." Her twitter handle was alight as she awoke the audiorium with her wit and energy. Check out her favourites on twitter, a very humble and low key genius!
Dr Nicola Millard; Customer Experience Futurologist, BT
I later connected with a gentleman called Ted Wigzell who runs YBC – Your Business Community, the small business support community for the 21st Century, with advice, discounts and protection for the self employed, startups, and all SMEs, bringing together small businesses to work effectively with one another where needed. He told me about their upcoming event in the same prestige venue in the next few weeks and I eagerly accepted his invite. The Natwest BizConnect finished off with a fantastic networking session for the 14 showcased businesses and we networked and shared our days experience amongst one another.
Extremely honoured to feature and share my business expertise with fellow entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses andhave to say a big thank you to LSBU Investment Escalator and Daniel Thompson and Nick Howe from Natwest Business who work continuously with SMEs like myself.
Assisting Entrepreneurs, Start Ups and Small Businesess with Social Media advice.
I attended the RBS buildings again 4 weeks later to support and check out YBC event run by Ted and again I was impressed, in fact, SUPER impressed with the event from start to finish.
Your Business Community MEGA Networking Event 30th July, 2015...
The event started promptly at 5pm and I arrived there to a bustling and busy crowd of people, welcomed with some fine wine and a host of businesses showcasing their brands. My first port of call happened to be Ben Towers, Award Winning Young Entrepreneur, TV & Radio Host and Founder of Towers Design & Social Marley. At just 16 years of age he is making ground breaking moves in the digital world and is certainly in a class of his own at such a young age. Most certainly one to watch! It was great to see some familiar businesses showcasing, namely Jackie Groundsell from @1230 (the leading business women’s network providing on and off-line trading and business growth opportunities across the UK and overseas at local level) whom I’d previously met during the month at an InpireUrBiz event and also Janice Gordon, TheProblemSolver and Multi-Award winning Business Growth Consultant whom I met 7 years ago at one of many City Business Library events, who were also in attendance.
Shortly after settling in with wine and nibbles the first guest speaker was introduced; Kolarele Sonaike of The Great Speech Consultancy covering The 7 Steps to a Powerful Elevator Pitch, which was a perfect session for the occasion. Kola charmed us all with his natural networking skills both on and off the stage, providing us with some valuable tips and do’s and don’ts for networking both personally and professionally. He concluded the session by telling us "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" Albert Einstein.
The 2nd session was delivered by John Heffernan who spoke about Digital Marketing: “Being Everywhere on a budget!” where he shared heaps of information on the subject from SEO, Search Marketing, PPC, Social Media, eMail, Web Design, Content, Article Creation, Advertising, TV, Video, Strategy, Research and Usability. He highlighted the various Social Media Network sites avail to use, and provided us with some useful stats and facts.
The latter half of the evening was the networking infused session which finished off with speed networking where I networked with a range of people including a fellow Life Coach, Human Resources MD, Property Consultant, Tax Consultant, Telecoms expert, Plumbing & Heating specialist, IT Consultant and a Travel Director. We had 3-5 minutes to network with one another and I was fortunate to network with like minded, focused, driven fellow entrepreneurs whom I look forward to meeting up with again.
Speed Networking Session @ YBC 30 July, 2015.
I continued to network with the YBC members who were showcasing their business at the event. I met another Accountant Clive Myers of Myers & Co who gave me an excellent breakdown of accounting for business purposes, the importance of recording receipts on a daily basis and the pros and cons of using an Accountant. Really insightful information which made the trip to YBC all the more worthwhile as Accounting and forecasting has been the one aspect of my business that has taken a while to get to grips with.
John Wall introduced me to InXpress – Premier Parcel delivery experts which provides unique solutions for express, freight and mail services. It’s a great alternative to the usual delivery services whom I have recently had some unfortunate experiences with of late – I’m sure you guys can relate to waiting for parcel delivery from the likes of Royal Mail and DPD – and not being able to speak to a customer service advisor? InXpress provides a reliable service pre and during delivery of your parcels which was very reassuring to hear and a service I will certainly consider in the future.
There were so many people I met up with, and am looking forward to meeting up with more like minded entrepreneurs and businesses at the next YBC event. See you there maybe? Have a look at the pics from the event here…
I have recently signed up with the organisation as the benefits and events that they have are second to none and benefits include:
Participate In Forums
Participate In various Networking Events
Tax Investigation Protection & Support
Legal Advice Helpline
Tax Advice Helpline
HR & Employment Advice Helpline
Health & Safety Helpline
Over 100 Free Online Legal Documents
Discounted and FREE hire space at business events including The Business Show
If you're interested in finding out more about YBC please email /call me and I can introduce and sign you up. The events alone are second to none and they have both evening and morning networking events with a great selection of people and businesses participating.
Overall July was pretty busy (hence the longer than usual blog, sorry!). I was also a guest speaker at Exclusive Visions who ran a one-day workshop entitled "Build Your Business Model" on Saturday 11th July 2015 for entrepreneurs and business owner. The event was open to start-ups and existing businesses that are seeking to build a successful business model. The emphasis of the workshop was to give entrepreneurs an understanding of how the EV business model canvas works and how to successfully apply the concepts to their business. I was invited to speak and do a Q&A session for an hour, introducing Quest4Success and my journey into becoming a Serial Entrepreneur.
Quest4Success at Can Mezzaine for Exclusive Visions Business Workshop
August looks set to be a busy month networking wise and I look forward to potentially seeing you at a future networking event. Connect with me on twitter to let me know where you'll be and I'll be sure to say hello :-)
Chao for now....
