They say silence is golden. Try telling that to Collaborate MK’s Gold members club as they held their third face-to-face workshop at the Cock Hotel in Stony Stratford.
For the best part of four-hours, 32 Goldies shared advice, stories and experiences as the Marquee Suite came alive to the sound of business.
It was billed as a Double Workshop and true to form the members enjoyed a variety of seven presentations interspersed with no less than 15 breakout sessions covering a range of business related topics of interest to everyone who was there.
Sue Garner, of Garner Training Solutions, got the ball rolling, literally. Randomly tossing a small squeezy around the room with the ‘unlucky’ catchers having to speak on whatever topic was thrown at them. It was an effective way of warming up proceedings and we heard off-the-cuff speeches on everything from vegetables and skateboarding, to snowballs and more besides.
Steve Lloyd, of Exhibition Mastery, explained how to overcome exhibition misery. We’ve all fallen victim to that from time to time. Collaborate MK organiser, Tim Lee, let your Media-Vu contributor loose for a short session to run through the dos and don’ts of public speaking. It is remarkably frustrating how our brain starts working the moment we’re born but stops working the moment we have to stand up and speak in public.
Nick Lygo-Baker, from Paradigm CX, described how any company can improve its customer experience. And The Healthcare Guy, known to his family as Simon Evans, illuminated the benefits of SAE Healthcare Solutions, even if you’ve already undergone medical treatments in the past. Technology did its thing, of course, denying Simon any hope of showing the room his detailed PowerPoint presentation, but he kept going like a true pro, making sure everyone in the group was fully informed.
Simplicity Financial Planning’s Samantha Bradford patiently steered the members through the maze and confusion of retirement planning. Once she showed us the right path to follow the challenge of putting a viable plan together became far less daunting. And Sharon Lewis, of 360 Visual Media, explained how to get the best out of Google My Business. It’s so strange how many business owners and individuals sign up to the account and then do nothing about it. Sharon explained how we’re all missing out, yours truly included.
Fuelled by coffee, tea and a buffet lunch, the breakout discussions went into greater detail on the topics and only time prevented the members from carrying on the discussions well into the afternoon.
Find out more about Collaborate MK by contacting Tim Lee at tim@Collaboratemk.co.uk or visit www.Collaboratemk.co.uk
