Jackie’s Networking Adventures

Brighton Expo – Thursday 7th October

Celebrating 10 years of local Business, the Brighton Expo returned last week on Thursday 7th October.

Hundreds of local businesses attended the annual event at Brighton Racecourse.

Visitors had the opportunity to openly network with attendees, whilst exploring the exhibition packed with a variety of local exhibitors showcasing their products and services.

There 78 local businesses exhibiting and the buzz and atmosphere in the room was incredible.The event was extremely well organised, Mike Monk and his team did a cracking job. The Expo saw a huge variety in business being offered and their opportunities between exhibitors as well as hosts.

Now one thing my daughter always says to be when going to an event of this nature is, ‘mum, don’t forget the freebies please.’ Well…There were so many freebies and the merchandise standard and offerings have moved on in the last 5 years. Ella, my daughter was not disappointed.

She had the classic pens, notebooks, mugs but then also a key ring containing a poncho, a phone stand and cleaner in one, chocolate brownie and the list goes on.

Although it was never intended to give Ella these products to be rated, she did anyway and came up with two winners for Best merchandise 2021…

And the winners were Making your own bath salts from Camile Pierson at Float spa and the Stationary jars from Carol Whitney of the old ship hotel.

Charity golf day – Friday 17th September

On Friday 17th September, we held our second #share77k golf day at East Brighton Golf Club, which we co-hosted with the amazing County Business Clubs, and powered by TPG Sports Events.

We were greeted by beautiful sunshine for the entire day and spectacular sea views, and it was a fantastic day raising over £6,000 towards our #share77k charity campaign.

We had 18 teams battling it out for the coveted S7 Ted’s Trophy, with some superb scores being recorded.

Congratulations to SIA Group for winning the event, with their team recording a whopping 98 points, and to Bud Johnson of Rivervale picking up the best individual score, with an impressive 43 points.

Sadly, no one got a hole in one to take home the 5k cash prize or a golfing holiday, but I am sure that will happen at one of our events one day!

Massive thank you to Rockinghorse and Janella and Amanda specifically, for coming along and helping on the day and saying a few words, and to Mark from Clock Tower Sanctuary for also saying a few words on the day too – its ever so important to use our events to give our charities a platform to tell people about their challenges and how everyone can help.

On the day we also printed out brochures which had information about every single charity. Thanks to our main sponsor Southern Sheeting for their fantastic support, and to all the 18 hole sponsors. We were spoilt with some amazing raffle prizes – so a big thanks to funky hampers, HR Smart, Arena Racing, WPZ, TPG Sports, Wakehurst Place and Fitzrovia Hotel, London – for your kind donations.

To our other volunteers on the day, to our Lifeguard Jay from Oakwood Lofts, who went round the course fining people for messing up his sand with bunker fines, to Hazel for manning hole 2 and also dishing out bunker fines, and to Jo from Whitespace for coming along on the day.

We are very lucky to have great #share77k partners, with special mentions to Me&You, Eagle & Beagle, MCR Media for their superb efforts in supporting this particular event.

Another cracking golf day, and next up for the #share77k campaign is a pool tournament hosted by County Business Clubs & Metro Bank, supporting our cause – on November 11th, and then we have a final charity raffle before we reveal our grand total in November – fingers crossed we can hit our target. 

For anyone looking for more information on the #share77k campaign or to make a donation – please head to our JustGiving page – https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/share77k

Better Business Worthing – Thursday 23rd September

“It was a super organised, well communicated event, we had a wonderful welcome from Tracie (@Tracie Davey) and her team from the Chamber.  The room was light and airy, plenty of space and distance from each of the stands (hope they continue at the Leisure Centre – it did make a difference).  Alpha was in attendance representing the benefits all things health and safety – along with representation from Alpha’s sister company @Rescue2 as the event’s medic cover (sponsored by Alpha) who was on hand all day (luckily only a hot tea incident to report) and @FaceFitTestingUK.It was so great to see ‘real’ people, after so many months of being virtual – but we were all very sensible!  So good to Mr Sam Thomas in his pink jacket – looking very smart.  So many local businesses from gin to care services to recycling your coffee cups – something for everyone to benefit from – we are really looking forward to next year’s event.”

Best of British – Friday 24th September

What a superb event this was at the Grand Hotel with 470 guests along with guest speaker, Ex-Liverpool and England footballer, John Barnes. The food, service and the Rockinghorse team were fantastic as always. The event raised over £30,000 for the wonderful Rockinghorse Children’s Charity. 

Looking forward to the next one.

Good Business Club – Plus X 30th September

This was my first experience of the Good Business Club, limited to 30 spaces it was a lightly structured networking event. Interestingly I didn’t know anyone at this event which is unusual. The room was predominantly businesspeople with startup businesses around a year old. The structure of the evening gave people the opportunity to talk to everyone in the room with 3-4 mins a table to talk about you and your business to their participants. All in all a very good event for small start-ups.

Jackie’s Networking Adventures Next Month will include Mythbusters with CBC, Brighton’s Big breakfast club and Nyetimber Harvest.