The dark and cold didn’t put any kind of dampener on our December meeting – quite the contrary.
We were delighted to host almost 80 people on the frosty morning of Thursday 4th December, though the reception was anything but frosty! We were so happy to have celebrated a hugely successful inaugural year of The Boardroom Network, and we really do seem to have a real momentum behind the group now – fuelled by a strong core membership. What was equally rewarding to see were the 29 guests – many of whom have decided to join us for the year ahead!
It was a special pleasure to host our cocktail evening at the Menzies Carlton Hotel (thank you to Paul Clarke for helping us to arrange this!). It was a relaxed, convivial evening, celebrating the year that has been, as well as getting us all ready for the festive period ahead.
As mentioned, our December meeting was a particularly busy one. We had two very interesting 2 minute spotlight presentations, in between the buzzing table-hosted sessions. Our first speaker was Mark Scott from Technovox www.technovox.co.uk– the experts in telecoms solutions, who shared interesting news about the advent of more and more companies making use of VOIP (Voice over internet Protocol) telephone systems in their businesses, meaning much reduced communication costs – something every business could benefit from!
After another busy (and somewhat loud!) table discussion, our Host, Jay Ratchett, introduced Tony Beales from Beales Gourmet www.bealesgourmet.com and The Italian Villa www.the-italian-villa.co.uk who told his personal story, all about how he went from Bournemouth College, to cooking for the rich and famous on luxury yachts in the South of France, including becoming the personal chef to the Queen of Bahrain! He regaled how he took the brave step to set up his own gourmet catering firm in 2005, and it was wonderful to hear how he, as one of our members, has excelled and achieved by winning countless awards and plaudits in the past few years. A truly inspirational story of how growing and nurturing a young business can garner huge success!
We wish all of our members a very Merry Christmas, and here’s to a happy, healthy and hugely prosperous New Year… 2015 is showing early signs of great promise and potential, and we look forward to sharing it with all of you.
Our first meeting of 2015 will be a little later in the month on Thursday 15th January at 7am, to ensure maximum attendance. We look forward to seeing you all there!