Welcome to a unique networking experience
Swindon Business Village
At the Campanile Hotel, Delta Business Park, Swindon
IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT BUSINESS VILLAGE
With great reluctance, we have decided to mothball Business Village from October 2020.
Attendance has been disappointing in recent weeks, particularly since September when we introduced the small £5 booking fee – a move we had to make, to ensure BV covers its costs.
If there seems to be enough genuine interest, we will consider reviving Business Village in the New Year. So if you’d like to see BV resurrected, please let us know, and subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates.
Over and out for now.
Hew, Jo and Martin
What makes Swindon Business Village unique?
Meet
All Welcome
Do Business
Varied Formats
Pay As You Go
Breakfast
Swindon Business Village Latest News
Staying safe in the digital age – know the risks
Hew Helps gave us a presentation entitled ‘Staying safe in the digital era – know the risks’. Read more about the presentation, and download the slides here.
10 spring cleaning treats to give your website
Martin Jarvis, of DMJ Computer Services Ltd, gave us a presentation this morning entitled ’10 spring cleaning treats to give your website’. In the presentation, Martin highlighted a number of actions that business owners could take to improve their websites.
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail
Many businesses people, especially those in the early years of their business, will act first and think later. Many entrepreneurs will argue that doing something, learning by the experience and failing fast if you are going to fail is the right approach.
Stuart Ball, of Swindon-based Absolute Management and Marketing, spends time talking about the alternative approach; that is thinking about what we are going to do and why, validating that it will deliver the right results, then executing the plan.
His presentation helps business people work out where the business is heading, before jumping in.
What’s Business Village ever done for you?
That’s the question we posed – just for fun and not academic research – at our last meeting of 2018. A kind of end-of-term, let-your-hair-down, and have a chat session.
And what emerged is that Business Village excels as a networking group in Swindon because it is supportive, it’s welcoming, it’s not exclusive and – just as you would expect – we get clients, contacts, referrals and recommendations.
So, if you’re looking for a networking group which doesn’t charge an expensive annual membership fee – or any membership fee at all, for that matter – is pay-as-you-go, weekly and effective, why not try Business Village? You’ve nothing to lose (apart from the meeting fee – £9-£12, depending on when you book) and everything to gain.
In fact, the first meeting of the New Year, on January 10th , is a free presentation on Fit for Business for 2019. For more details, book here. We meet Thursdays, 7.30-9am at The Campanile for breakfast and great networking.
Continue reading to find out what we all thought…
Helping Swindon Business Villagers find strength in the wild
The literal ups and downs of walking from Land’s End to John o’ Groats solo were the focus of a talk from inspirational coach Jen Le Marinel.
Jen, based in Cheltenham, took three-and-a-half months to complete her epic journey and shared her highs and lows of the trip; from peace, quiet and breath-taking scenery to a bout of food poisoning after a late night curry.
She talked about what she learned about herself along the way and how it helped shape her business, WildFire Walks. She has also written a blog about her adventure.
GDPR: what it is and what you need to know
GDPR is the buzzword of the moment, and with its enforcement imminent and its impact on businesses universal, the presentation to Business Village on these new data protection rules was listened to with interest.
Paul Himple, who runs HR consultancy Go Legal HR, gave an extremely informative talk on GDPR. It was, he said, an overview of the new rules, how they differ from current legislation, and what company owners and directors need to start thinking about and putting in place.
Up next at Swindon Business Village : Round Table Networking
This morning, we have traditional round table networking, followed by a round of referrals for anyone who has them.
