Newbury Business Group hosts guest event

There might not be such a thing as a free lunch, but there was a free breakfast for the dozen new visitors who attending a guest event at the Newbury Business Group this morning (Friday).

Chairman Mark Arrowsmith, who owns Snappy Snaps in Newbury, commented: “We welcome guests most weeks to Newbury Business Group, however this week we promoted today as a special ‘Guest Day’ and encouraged members to invite people who they thought would add value to the group, which sees a great deal of collaborative work carried out between members and also a good deal of referrals too.

“Both members and guests spoke for a minute to explain what they do and then several of our more established members explained how much they had benefited from membership, both through professional advice and referred business."

Actually those members were photographer Giles Penfound and myself, talking about the work we have done together, chiefly photography for Morgan PR clients that we have commissioned Giles to do and never failed to be impressed with the calibre of his work and the interpretation of the brief.

Anyway, I've interupted Mark there, he actually went on to say: “What was really encouraging was the number of guests who we serious about joining the group, although we like prospective members to visit two or three times before committing to join, just to be sure we are the right networking organisation for them.”

The independent group, established seven years ago, meets each Friday at the Donnington Valley Golf Club in Newbury and unlike many breakfast networking groups all members fees are invested in the running of the group, paying for the sumptuous breakfast for members – and their guests, and the annual Christmas party!