Event: Opportunties 2012

Our brand new and exciting ‘Opportunities 2012’ event on 15 March, which brought buyers and suppliers together under one roof at Norwich City Football Club, was a huge success.

With over 70 exhibitors over two floors, both the Top of the Terrace and the Norfolk Lounge were full with stands. Feedback during the day from exhibitors was that the event had a real buzz and presented them with a great opportunity to showcase their innovative products and services to the business community.

Exhibitors tried to be as eye catching as possible by having interactive stands or great giveaways. Bramley Lakes received a lot of attentions by bringing an off-road segway vehicle in for demonstration as part of their team building days, and Kinnerton were handing out free chocolate samples…always a popular choice! In addition to the exhibitors, there were a series of ‘drop in’, bitesize, topical workshops. Each workshop was aimed at improving and enhancing business knowledge with practical, take-home advice. The most popular proved to be based on the subject of social media, with Duncan Johnson from Yodelay delivering a workshop on Social Engine Optimisation and Sean Clark from Soak Social filling us in on the 10 most effective ways to use social media in business.

The resounding success of the day was the Open4Business/Meet the Buyer event – where local companies booked one-to-one appointments with key procurement officers and buyers from a range of both public and private sector companies to pitch their products and services. The 29 buyers, including Bernard Matthews, QD and Wherry Housing, created an amazing 569 appointments, of which over 89% were booked!

A big thank you to everyone who sponsored, supported and attended the event. The day was clear proof that Norfolk is buying and selling and hugely positive about taking advantage of every business opportunity.