Are you standing comfortably? Arms by your side and breathe…
There was a buzzy, warm atmosphere as our members chatted over their early coffees, and we welcomed lots of new faces to our South Norfolk breakfast at Barnham Broom. The diversity of businesses that attend our events was definitely on show, ranging from Mark Fraser Valuations covering Probate Insurance, Cruise Ship travels with Maxine Smile to the Amazing Anthony, Magician and Mind reader.
One guest, who was invited along by one of the Customer Experience Team asked, ‘Do I have to stand up and talk? I’m not sure what I have to do?’
After reassuring them there is no standing up and talking (unless, of course you are our guest speaker), helping them to a coffee and introducing them to other members, they could see how relaxed and informal our networking events are. As Account Managers, our role is to support you and your business in your membership from your first event to
Our Guest speaker Paul Ward was witty and refreshingly open as he explained the motivational route that led him to Director and founder of Solace Coaching.
He took us on a journey that had us searching for a head up the midnight hills of Dartmoor, back to the offices of retail giant Argos!
Paul created Solace Coaching with a focus on improving business performance, and has led projects on improving customer service, introduced coaching into retail management and supported the transition of management within retail to that based on coaching, removing limits on the traditional model. In other work, Paul has worked within the charity and non-profit sector where he was responsible for staff satisfaction at all levels from those who volunteer within retail environments, to chief executives and directors. We heard about two of the tools he uses; NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and Motivational Maps – if you would like to hear more about these you can contact him here.
Our feature charity was New-U Enterprises, with Sue Buffin and Caitlin Searle coming along to talk about their wonderful charity. New-U offers individualised work experience placements in a flexible and supportive environment, to long term unemployed young people to help them progress towards work, training or volunteering.
They do this in our clothes and accessories swap shop in Castle Mall, Norwich
If you are interested in finding out more, or how you could help Sue and Caitlin then please email Sue Buffin who would love to hear from you
You can read some case studies, and more about New-U in the attached file.
