High performance and expert handling - it must be Verbatim

Or it could have been the Audi R8! Perhaps it is both!

Morgan PR spent time at Verbatim today, our client and our supplier, to prepare press releases and coverage for the company newly launched Receptionist of the Month competition.

Verbatim answer our telephone when we cannot - whether on another call, with a client, on holiday or simply ring fencing our time, their call handling skills are second to none. Customer surveys reveal the high level of satisfaction among all their clients too, and yet still they strive for perfection and this competition is part of that.

Verbatim clients, including Morgan PR, have offered up prizes to reward the monthly winners of the competition; however, it was the heart racing rumble of the Audi R8, that captured the attention today, for that will be the prize for the overal winner - a weekend with the super car!

Dreamcarhire.com, who is a Verbatim client, have offered the £80,000 car as the main prize and Pete Dando, sales executive for Dreamcarhire.com had brought the good looking beast to the New Greenham Park offices of Verbatim, both for the photoshoot, and to give the staff a taste of what they would be competing for.

The proceedings were also captured by videographer Jay Blake from ichthus video, who also took the opportunity to capture a video testimonial from me; we'll bring you the highlights of that on this blog one day soon!

Incidentally, Greenham Common was pretty windswept today and the Verbatim banner, pictured above, took on sail like qualities as the breeze whipped up. Company founder Graham Hill was happy to wrestle with it, until that is, he needed to fetch something from the office and I was asked to take hold! Hang on for dear life more like!

Videographer Jay kindly swapped his camera for mine to capture the spectacle for this blog: suffice to say I was putting on a brave face, ever the professional.

Backing up over breakfast at the FBBC

A breakfast that is both satisfying, fun and even educational? Yes, it was that once a month trip to the Faringdon Business Breakfast Club this morning.

The satisfying breakfast was a tasty bacon and sausage affair expertly prepared and served by Sadler's Catering
and the fun was more than 20 like-minded local business owners gathered at the Faringdon Gateway Centre for this regular networking event.

David McCarthy from IDEAS-right treated the audience to the education when he shared his expertise on backing up computer systesm, carefully leading us through the need, methods and best practice of this vital part of any business.

He also pointed us to the IDEAS page on his website which is brimming with links to services that he personally has found useful.

I feel special mention should go to Andrew Hoon from CareerFit, who alongside being something of a guru for those thinking about life changing career moves, also has the best sign off line among the many one minutes I hear... he's a professional stalker! Hopefully obviously not in the sinister sense - unless your name happens to be Bambi that is!

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!

Failing to plan...

No-one at Newbury Racecourse today was planning to fail, as we took part in an ActionCoach 90 day planning session.

This day was run by 10 coaches from the SouthCentral region, so we had people travelling from the north and south to spend their day planning the next three months for their business.

This lively day was kicked off by some questions which really made you think about where your business was going and how you want to get there.

The next session involved breakout sessions and Morgan PR attended a brilliant session on marketing run by Mike McGuire, which left me brimming over with ideas, some for Morgan PR and some for our clients.

After lunch, it was time to put on thinking caps and map out how we plan to reach our goals in the next 90 days. Working with Sally Rainbow- Ockwell as our business coach ensures that we will be kept accountable for meeting these goals and gives us support and guidance for the steps we will need to take to get there.

4Networking Arrives in Newbury

I was at the launch of a brand new networking event this morning and I have to say 4Networking truly is something very different indeed!

Okay, yes it was a breakfast meeting and we did each spend some 60 seconds talking about our business to the group, but that was where the similarity ends! 4Networking has taken everything most other networking groups consider sacred... and dumped them in the waste bin of moribund business practices!

It was such a breath of fresh delightful air to hear how there are no restrictions on who can become a member - so if other public relations companies in Newbury wanted to join they would be welcome to sit alongside me! How odd is that in the world of networking? People from the same sectors in the same group? Heresy some would cry, before yelling 'Objection' and trying to ringfence their precious referrals.

Actually that is another difference - no referrals! The belief is you will naturally give referrals if you have them, but there is no complusion to do so.

What is most likely to lead to referrals is 4Networking's USP - the meeting concludes with a series of one to one sessions, time when you can really get to know someone and their business offering. How quickly will you discover if this is someone you want to refer business to? Exactly!

Hope to see you there soon!