Business Networking in Newbury

I was up bright and early, well initially it was just early but I soon brightened at the welcome I received from the members of the BNI Jack O'Newbury chapter at their breakfast networking meeting.

Admittedly I did know a good few of the members and was ribbed by Anne Thomson, of Mindset Hypnotherapy and Diets Make You Fat fame, when she discovered I was substituting for Lucy Venables of Red Prosper Marketing. Anne has been asking me to go for many many months and I have just never been able to fit it in!

I've been to BNI Jack O'Newbury, which meets every Friday at the Newbury and Crookham Golf Club, once before to write a piece when they received an award and I have also guested at the BNI Kennet chapter, which meets on Thursday mornings at Donnington Grove Country Club.

So I gave Lucy's one minute presentation - which she had diligently sent me - and then got to give my own, which I used to talk about the www.floodadvice.org website we set up for Easton Bevins in the wake of the recent floods.

BNI is more formal than many of the groups that have followed in its successful wake and that suits many, but not all - which is presumably why so many other networking groups have also flourished in West Berkshire and beyond.

Flooding Advice Website Advert Launched in Local Press

The promotion of Easton Bevins' flooding advice helpline and website - cunningly called www.floodadvice.org gathers pace and today we began placing the above advert in a multitude of local newspapers across the flooding region.

Flooding Advice Website on The Best of Reading

No sooner do I mention The Best of Newbury featuring a story about www.floodadvice.org than it appears on its independent sister site The Best of Reading. The combination of the two probably goes someway to explain the increasing amount of traffic to the website and the enquiries that are coming through.

Flooding Advice Website on The Best of Newbury

News of the launch of flooding advice website www.floodadvice.org is spreading as media organisations grasp how important the service launched by Easton Bevins actually is.

The latest to feature www.floodadvice.org is The Best of Newbury, the foremost directory of local business services and certainly somewhere that those effected by the floods will be looking for help.

Flooding Advice Website on Severn Sound

Another radio interview followed hot on the heels of my session with BBC Radio Berkshire this morning when I was asked to talk about www.floodadvice.org on the leading commercial station for Gloucestershire, Severn Sound.

This one sought to tie today’s introduction to the Home Information Packs to the flooding and need for surveys. Admittedly I’d encouraged this in a conversation with the reporter, for it provided an opportunity to illustrate just how vital it is to get a survey done now if you’ve been flooded, because you can be sure the next person to buy your home will.

Once again the floodadvice.org website statistics showed the number of hits going up just after each news broadcast on the hour, which bodes well for Easton Bevins as it will be able to help anyone who uses the website or calls the local rate 0845 003 8757 helpline number.

Flooding Advice Website on Radio Berkshire

With my Easton Bevins Chartered Building Surveyors regulatory if metaphorical Hard Hat at a jaunty angle I made my way to the near palatial environs of BBC Radio Berkshire today, part of the BBC Monitoring Station at historic Caversham Park, to talk about the launch of www.floodadvice.org on the Andrew Peach Show.

It was nice to finally meet Andrew, someone who often interviewed me back when I was reeling out the thin blue line of spin for Thames Valley Police, but whom I had never actually met!

In the fabled (on Radio 4 that is) 8.10 am slot I was quizzed about the website and in true BBC style Andrew was quick to challenge me on what was in this venture for Easton Bevins.

The encounter lasted all of 1.45 seconds but led to a flurry of activity on the website over the next two hours, anyway, courtesy of the wonders of modern science - and for the purposes of a review under the 1988 Copyright Act, here is that interview:

Flooding Advice Website on Kick FM

Kick FM were quick off the mark and were the first radio station to seek an interview about the launch of www.floodadvice.org admittedly it was a pre-recorded interview that will be broadcast tomorrow, but it will nevertheless serve to raise awareness about the very real need to have a surveyor examine your home or business if it has been flooded.

Flooding Advice Website Launched

The exhaustive work the Morgan PR has been doing for Chartered Building Surveyors, Easton Bevins came to fruition today with the launch of their Flood Advice website and helpline; over 30 pages of useful advice and contact details for flood victims across Berkshire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

Press releases have gone out to the media across these areas and as Mike Bull from Easton Bevins Newbury Office, which has teams helping people who have been flooded in Thatcham, Pangbourne and in Oxford and Abingdon, indeed throughout Berkshire and Oxfordshire, explained: “We really felt there was a need for a central point where people could get impartial and independent advice on their situation.

“Our surveyors have dealt with flooding in the past, but never anything on this scale and it has become quite clear that there is conflicting advice being offered to the victims of the floods.

“With devastation on such a large scale it is easy to see why there has not been a consistent approach to assessing the damage caused, but it is essential that this is done by a qualified professional like a Chartered Surveyor who has the training to perform such an important function.

“Many people will discover that their insurance policies will cover the use of such professionals as ourselves; we are specialists in building construction as opposed to the loss adjusters that many people are seeing and who have been clearly overwhelmed by the unprecedented number of claims.

The website gives helpful tips on the problems people should be looking for together with an enquiry form that will put them in touch with one of our Chartered Surveyors who will offer any advice and can arrange a visit if required.

An additional benefit to using Easton Bevins is how the company can project manage any remedial works it identifies as necessary and secure the necessary accredited professionals and tradesmen to carry out the work, reducing the flood victim’s exposure to rogue traders.”

Couldn't have put it better myself!

With the releases, well.. released we now have to wait to see what is published and broadcast.

Citizen Photographer and the Flooding in Berkshire

Happy to heed the advice to avoid non-essential travel, like so many I have been glued to my PC watching the flooding story unfold. The media are doing a terrific job in the face of chaos and flooded transport routes, but while they scrabble for the helicopters it is the local people with a camera and an internet link that are coming to the fore.

Not so much the citizen journalists that have been name checked so frequently in the wake of bombings and other urban stories, but citizen photographers who are giving the media a glimpse of the floodwaters at their most treacherous at a time when the professionals simply cannot get there.

I know that hundreds more photos will be published soon, but I wanted to present to you a review of the images posted on Newbury Today and BBC Radio Berkshire, both with a burgeoning selection of images. Literally, each time I move another image into the video below, and credit it accordingly to each media, more have appeared.

So here, by no means definitive, is a review of Citizen Photographer's contribution to the local media:

Torrential Flooding in West Berkshire

And I thought I had it bad! That rain! I was driving back from New Greenham Park just after lunchtime today; I been dashing from car to appointment through heavy rain all morning, but nothing prepare me for the flooded roads and abandoned cars.

A 30 minutes journey took me two-and-a-half hair raising hours. Other people are still stranded. I know it is all relative, but my car is not a boat!

With the main roads awash and the transport system sloshing to a halt I opted for the back roads I imagine persistant drink drivers to know. They would have known the dips that would be flooded. I didn't. Thank the emptying heavens for reverse parking control as it made 39 point turns in single track roads an air-conditioned breeze.

I was dry until chivalry got the better of my sense of dry-preservation when I found an half submerged and as it turned out abandoned Nissan Micra in a particularly deep pond on nameless road in north Hampshire.

Back safe and dry I am watching the situation unfold online and it is clear that the flooding is going to be horrendous - and it is still raining.