Reach for the stars...

What would you think if you walked into a meeting room and found six adults, brandishing scissors, cutting out photos from magazines and enthusiastically sticking them down onto pieces of paper? That was the sight that greeted one of the guests attending the ActionCoach training seminar on Vision, Values and Purpose.

It had followed on from the regular fortnightly meeting and the exercise neatly tied in with working on creating our goals for 2008, helped along by some inspirational images. The theory is that if you can see who you want to be, what you need to do and what you want to have, you are far more likely to achieve it.

After Las Vegas our language has made our own ambitious goals for Morgan PR and beyond almost alarmingly real and our guru-like coach Sally Rainbow-Ockwell points out that the language we use has real impact on what we will achieve. Even just saying it can make it happen!

Sally had asked us to bring in our favourite magazines and laughed when Nigel brought in a copy of The Economist. Naturally she had hoped for a magazine brimming with aspirational images... Nigel finished his poster almost completely from The Economist, needing to venture into another only to secure a photo of an Aston Martin.

We all found it great fun and very revealing. Maybe not such child's play after all?

Big Night Out for the Breakfast Group

The great thing about members of Newbury's foremost networking group, as well as knowing how to do business, there certainly know how to party!

Over 40 of us gathered at the Michelin Recommended restaurant, The Square, in Weavers Walk, Newbury last night for the official Christmas Party of the Newbury Business Group and a good time was had by all.

Well, suffice to say that I suspect that some of the people enjoying themselves last night, might not be feeling to chipper this morning. Personally, I was the nominated driver so was sober for the evening and consequently bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning.

Quite fascinating was the emergence late on into the evening of the business equivalent of 'your my best mate you are' which variously revolved around assurances that great collaborative deals would be struck in 2008!

Anyway, I am indebted to fellow member and would be Paparazzi Eimear Noone for these photographs. More can be found on the Newbury Business Group website.



Pictured above left (and below left also) is my wife and Morgan PR Finance Director, Diane Morgan, with Eimear Noone and a rather scary looking Chris Turberville-Tully from Inspiration Ink. Below Diane is pictured with Robin and Judy Winnett from the Win IT Consultancy.






Above is your truly with Emily Turberville-Tully from Inspiration Ink, while pictured below are Mark Arrowsmith from Snappy Snaps and Tony Quinn from Recognition Express.

Food for thought at Breakfast Meeting

While sober may not be an option for many at tonight's Newbury Business Group Christmas Party, this morning's breakfast meeting was certainly sobering as Suzanne Goodland from Intergrating HR flagged up some of the pitfalls that face us business folk as we take on staff.

Suzanne had stepped up to offer the 10 minute presentation this morning and after a reassuring few flip chart pages of employment legislation that seemed familiar, she moved on to the Inland Revenue's penchant for deciding that Associates and freelancers might actually be de facto employees with all of the PAYE and National Insurance issues that brings.

Thankfully Suzanne's company, Intergrating HR, can provide the contracts of employment that will ward of such unwanted attention and it was clear that many of the members would be chatting with her very soon, not least Morgan PR!

However, the accolade for the most impressive performance of the meeting must surely go to Emily Turberville-Tully from Inspiration Ink, who used her one-minute to announce that she is pregnant! Heartfelt congratulations go to her and husband Chris!

Advertising Ellie Dickins

Morgan PR has been working with Ellie Dickins this week to design an advertisement to grace the pages of the Independent On Sunday after Ellie secured a quarter page in its TV magazine.

Out on the 23rd December it will no doubt be avidly read by Indy readers settling down for Christmas TV and hopefully they will be tempted to contact Ellie Dickins for her latest catalogue and news of the January sales.

Recently Morgan PR has been providing this service to more and more clients who have been less than thrilled with publications that take their money with little consideration or support given over designing an advert that would actually sell.

With them not offering so much as a call to action those clients have called us into action.

Las Vegas Reunion Tour

Graham and Karen Chapple, respectively of Garden4you and Irun (the website company formerly known as Web Build Pro) joined us in Hungerford for dinner last night – and their first taste of the ActionCoach game Leverage.

It was only our second game – you’ll recall we wrote about it here – but it was Graham & Karen’s first taste of the game they, like us, had heard Brad Sugars rave about as the ‘fun way to learn business’. It was actually the first time the four of us have been together since we attended the Entrepreneur's MasterClass in the States so it was good to catch up on the meteoric rise of our respective businesses.

Well, it was definitely more straightforward this time round and I do not mean just understanding the rules; there were nuances and probably trademarked blinding flashes of the obvious as principles dawned on us.

Less fun was the disarmingly named ‘Oops’ cards. We never got one of these last time we played and Graham – or ‘Lucky Graham’ as we shall ironically refer to him, picked the first and a few more ‘Oops’ cards. In fact we all did and learned a valuable lesson about those sneaky little problems that can thwart the most careful of business plans, from losing staff to a client going bankrupt and taking your unpaid invoices with them.

It was good fun – not least as I am far from convinced any of us imagine our dashing entrepreneur lifestyles involving Friday night board room sessions!