GEC2012 Liverpool

I got the opportunity and received a ticket the day before from a person who couldn’t make it. I sent him the monies for the ticket and printed it off in excitement. I attended my weekly BNI meeting the same morning and proceeded to tell everyone where I was going the rest of the day.

The GEC is something I have wanted to go to since I saw the hype about it; “Sir Richard Branson is coming to town…“. Now for me that’s not something I could not miss.

Born on the same day as Richard  (18th July) I would like to think that Koogar is the next Virgin….. Well, I can always dream and you never know do you.

I left the Hard Days Night Hotel just after 8:30am and parked in the closest car park to the Echo Area and excitedly walked towards the doors and then into queue to tell them I have arrived so I could collect the bites and pieces they give out. I quickly realised I left my ticket on the table at BNI with a few of my other things but I was able to show the Steward my ticket via my Blackberry, which helped me secure my seat and lanyard moments after.

Once sorted, I gathered my bearings I called a BNI colleague to see if he could see my file, which he did and will be passing it to me next week. (Saved my day; Mr.Mark Wilson)

I saw a few faces I knew said Hi and waited patiently until we could be seated for the forthcoming events of the day and this is what I thought of #GEC2012:

Sir Richard Branson – If I’m honest I was a little disappointed that the #GEC decided to interview him and not give him the opportunity to speak to the 3,000 strong crowd by giving us tips and inspiration to keep us going to do what we do. Instead he was interviewed by a person who said “If I get him, I’m interviewing him” which I thought to be quite selfish… (All about the me not the we!) But hey, I just expected it to be more than what it was and I think others around me did too. I did make plenty of notes and the biggest thing I took away from Richards slot was to:

“Get the right people in place, delegation is important and will help your grow as well as passion!”

Since the event I have come away and looked into The Elders to find out more about them and what they have been doing as I hadn’t heard of them before.

Sir Terry Leahy delivered an excellent talk about “The Winner Within” -

“Show courage and take the risk”

The day carried on and the next highlight for me was The Black Farmer; I think I now love Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones.

His island twang coming out ever so slightly during his interjections on the panel. He is a straight talking, no bull-s**t kind of guy who just wants to get the job done and doesn’t wait around. He mentioned that he couldn’t get his sausages into the large supermarkets so proceeded to ask his audience “If you like my sausages, please email the nearest person to you and tell them”.

Now that’s a great way to market yourself and product as well as to use your network!

Lord Heseltine was awesome! What a man… I thought he might be a little humdrum but no! He was the complete opposite. A very interesting man who has achieved a lot. One thing he said was “We are all unique, so why should I give you any advice?”, which made me laugh. The point was that we all think and do things differently. His biggest message during the day was;

Passion; make sure you enjoy getting up on a Monday morning. If you don’t change your job!

The next few people who finished off the day for me was Martha Lane Fox – who I have heard is a great speaker but not seen her before the day. And I agree! Very passionate, knowledgeable and a down to earth kind of lady.

Lara Morgan – What a cool woman! Quietly reserved but leading lady. One of her tips during “The Power of We” session.

“Delegate, be fair, grow people and give them a voice. The power of many! Things will go wrong but the more you trust them the more they trust you”

Michael Hayman by far was the best panel facilitator. He was fast paced, interesting and kept the momentum of the session along with Doug Richard who moderated a different session in which he was cheeky and controversial.

All in all the day was good! 6 pages of notes written and now I need to do something about them!

It would have been really good if the GEC could have give us workshops or handouts of exercises to do during the day which gets more engagement/participation from the audience.

I’m glad I went as it gave me the KUTA (Kick up the arse) I needed. How about you, what did you think?

Koogar was given the opportunity to give a talk on “Social Media and WHY you should use it within your business“.

The talk lasted around about 45 minutes and we decided to record it so that you could listen to it again, if you wanted to.

We covered a lot about your target market and who they are. Have you even spoken to someone at a network meeting or listened to someone say “I would like to speak to anybody/any one who…“

The next time you attend a network meeting and someone asks you who you are looking to work with I challenge you to tell them exactly who you’re looking for without saying “anybody/any one who…”.

Without knowing our target market we wont be able to follow the right people or even get business from Social Media. Listen again to the talk and let us know who your looking to work with, you never know we might know that person!

Koogar Talk BuzzTuesday March 22nd 2011 by koogarsox

We also recorded a few testimonials given from the delegates who turned up for the Buzz Tuesday Event in Rossette to find out what they thought of the Networking Event and of Amanda as a speaker.

If you are one of the people who gave a testimonial we would like to say a BIG thank you! We all appreciate your comments.

Marketing: What, How & When

Many peoples’ perception of marketing is that it is too expensive, a waste of money and resource and it doesn’t work. However, marketing is essential if you want your business to succeed. 

Therefore, because of all the negativity surrounding marketing Koogar & Azzure Marketing have teamed up and organised another FREE Marketing forum this time in Nantwich, which will discuss marketing and the importance of not only using it, but using it effectively. 

Effective marketing can: 

• Be the difference between a potential client choosing your business over your competitors.
• Help to sustain as well as grow your business.
• Save you money and time – if done properly of course!

The FREE 4 hour event will consist of two speakers, detailed below, with the chance for questions and networking. 

Amanda Daniels (Koogar): 

‘Attracting New Clients’ - The key information you need for a successful online presence.

Julie Webb (Azzure Marketing):

‘Promoting your Business’ - Understanding your business position to target your customers, using the right marketing tools. 

Event details: Marketing: What, How & When 

Date: Wednesday 20th October 

Venue: Reaseheath College, Rease Heath, Nantwich, CW5 6DF 

Time: 09:00 – 13:00 

Places for this event are limited so please be sure to book your place in plenty of time.  You can book you place by following the link below: 

 http://freemarketingworkshop.eventbrite.com 

You will also have the opportunity, after the workshop, to sign up for our full day workshop, which will focus on and personalise marketing for you and your business. 

*Date and time to be announced.

Hi there!

Just to say a big thank you to people who came to the event, we hope you found both topics interesting and the forum as a whole beneficial to your own businesses.

Both ourselves and Azzure Marketing are extremely pleased with how it all went.  Both talks went into detail about completely different areas of marketing, but complemented each other well, posing a lot of thought provoking questions.  We have received a lot of positive feedback about the forum we held.  Many people now know what their next business step has to be, which is great!

We hope everyone has taken something from this morning’s event away with them that they can utilise within their business, whether it be branding, ensuring you keep your marketing plans updated or simply to be proud of your business card!

Don’t forget!  We’re also hosting a Marketing Workshop on Wednesday 26th May, which will use the whole day to look at what your business is doing now, what you want it to be doing next year and everything in between.  We’ll be going into more detail about the workshop very soon and will keep you all updated.

Until then…happy marketing!

I have done quite a lot of writing today and creating the wording for different event notifications- so have thoroughly enjoyed myself!

A New Upcoming Networking Event!

I started off the day by creating an email invite and the follow up website wording for a new networking event that Koogar and Azzure Marketing ( http://www.azzuremktg.co.uk/)  are organising for the near future.  The event is aiming to outline marketing and its importance within a business as well as getting people to welcome the idea of marketing instead of flinching from the mere mention of it!

After an hour or so of creating a couple of drafts and then typing it up I set my mind to proofreading the MyWirralHub website as a couple of people have mentioned there were spelling mistakes- I had a look and found two.  I re-worded parts of it and added parts to bulk it up a bit more and try and explain the idea behind some of the decisions, which I hope you find helpful next time you visit the website.

Networking!

Today is Monday…which means it’s the second instalment of Koogar’s new feature- Marketing Tips.  Today’s tip is all about networking and how important it is for any business, old and new.  Having been to a networking event with Koogar I have seen first hand how effective it can be for generating new business.  I have also included a few important hints concerning networking events as they differ greatly.  However, don’t just think you have to network at these specific events.  You can network virtually anywhere.  I knew a girl who wanted to move to Canada and work for a large company over there but had no clue where to start.  Then one day she got talking to a woman at the bus stop whose daughter was Chief Executive of the company she wanted to work for and she was immediately given the necessary contact details!  I’m not saying every old lady at a bus stop will be able to help you with a job or generate thousands of pounds of business for you, but it just shows, you never know who you might get talking to…

As I’m on the subject of networking I should mention that tonight I am going to one of the My Wirral Hub networking events in Neston which promises to be a huge success as 30 people have indicated they will be attending!  I can’t wait as I’ve seen how much organisation Amanda, Lucy and Ida put into the events and now I’ll be able to see how they actually function.  It’s still not too late to show up, just have a look at the website for more details www.mywirralhub.co.uk and remember a buffet is being provided and it’s £5 to get in, but all of this is going to The Roy Castle Foundation.

For the remainder of the afternoon I have been re-writing a featured business article for Koogar as we are trying to get featured in a number of publications.  I completed one a few weeks ago and have just, in the last 10-15 minutes, completed the second- leaving me two more to do over the next week or so!  So I’m going to get back to typing up the second version as I only have half an hour left in the office!

Don’t forget to check out the new Marketing Tip- it should prove very useful if you’re not already doing it so…enjoy!

I was asked by a client who attends a WiRE network meeting if I would give a talk on Social Media, as not everyone knows what its and how it can benefit their business.

Obviously Koogar jumped at the chance of speaking as this is something we would like to do at least once a month.

The presentation I delivered was called “How Social Media WILL benefit your business” and we went through what social media is, how you can use it to benefit your business and also went into what you need to do to setup your profiles.

At the end of this talk Koogar was asked to come back and finish off the talk as it over ran due to a large amount of questions being asked by the audience. We have taken up the offer and will be back speaking to WiRE members (Northwich) in March 2010.

If you would like Koogar to give a presentation on Social Media, please contact Amanda on 0844 811 8464.