Past Events
Networking events are usually held on the second Tuesday of every month. In the past, we have invited inspirational speakers from business, enterprise and the not-for-profit sectors, we have provided skills for personal development, and we have held table networking events - all to keep the activity varied.
Our events in the last year are listed below.
Summer Networking BBQ
Date: 10 August 2010
Venue: House for an Art Lover, Bellahouston Park, 10 Dumbreck Road, G41 5BW
Description: Come along for an evening of informal networking. Taking advantage of a balmy summer's evening, we will enjoy a delicious barbecue on the terrace of the House for an Art Lover. In the (unlikely?!) event the weather is bad, we shall enjoy our barbecue indoors in the Art Lovers' Cafe.
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Making Genuine Connections when Networking
Date: 13 July 2010
Venue: Victorian Bar, Tron Theatre
Description: Many people find networking a daunting prospect and yet it’s one of the best ways to meet potential customers, suppliers, like-minded people and even new friends. So how can we become more confident when networking?
Amy McDonald of Creative Training Unlimited ensured we understood the qualities required to be a successful networker. introduced us to Victoria – a ‘character’ that Amy has met at many different networking events. Through direct interaction with Victoria, we found out what’s really holding her back.
In contrast, Amy then helped us to focus on our own positive qualities and to consider how we can maximise these in order to be a successful networker.
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Understanding your customers
Date: 08 June 2010
Venue: Dragon-i, Hope St
Description: Amanda Treend (Marketing On-Call) and Cat Cripps (Wildcat Solutions) shared with us how to work effectively with our customers, looking at the technology and marketing techniques available that can really help drive business forwards.
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May networking event
Date: 11 May 2010
Venue: Chardon D'Or, West Regent St
Description: An enjoyable and vibrant networking event at a wonderful restaurant, which provided the opportunity to find some fresh new contacts.
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April event - Edel Harris, CEO of Cornerstone
Date: 13 April 2010
Venue: The Brasserie on George Square, Millennium Hotel
Description: For this event, our speaker was Edel Harris, chief executive of Cornerstone, one of Scotland’s largest charitable organisations.
Edel spoke about
• her career journey from the police to the third sector
• juggling family and career
• why she loves leading one of the largest social enterprises in the country.
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March panel event - Confidence in Selling
Date: 09 March 2010
Venue: La Bonne Auberge, Holiday Inn Theatreland
Description: Following the experts' panel on marketing, this "Ask the Experts" session focussed on selling with confidence.
Deborah Hackett (4 the Love of Sales) gave us her top tips to help us feel more confident when making those first calls. Cordelia Ditton (voicebusiness) shared with us some insights into "How to pitch - formally and informally" to help us win our pitch for work.
Their stimulating and thought-provoking insights were followed by an animated Question and Answer session.
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A perspective on PR
Date: 09 February 2010
Venue: Sapporo Teppanyaki, 2-6 Ingram St G1 1HA
Description: It’s one thing for a PR company to advise you how to get press coverage, but who better to talk about the journalist’s perspective than a journalist??
Grace Franklin, who has been a journalist all her working life, gave us tips on how to attract press coverage for our businesses, which were both practical and thought-provoking.
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How to be a Network Angel
Date: 12 January 2010
Venue: Dining Room, 104 Bath St G2 2EN
Description: Before having lunch with the ever-popular table networking format, we were given tips on positive networking. Following on from previous tips on Network Vampires, today showed us how to be Network Angels!
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Wine tasting at Christmas
Date: 08 December 2009
Venue: Marks Hotel, 110 Bath St, Glasgow
Description: Our annual pre-Christmas "de-stressing" evening was held in Marks Hotel. Pete Stewart of Inverarity Vaults introduced us to 6 of his favourite wines in a relaxed, entertaining yet informative way. There was also the opportunity of testing the theory that wine and chocolate go well together.
Social media - turning buzzwords into business
Date: 10 November 2009
Venue: Touchbase
Description: Kyle MacRae of Blether Media educated us on the finer points of social media. Kyle was both instructive and entertaining, and definitely inspired a flurry of tweets! [Note: if you are tweeting, please do use the #SWIB hash tag]
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Don't be a network vampire!
Date: 13 October 2009
Venue: Windows Restaurant, Carlton George Hotel, 44 West George Street
Description: Janet Torley gave an amusing account of her introduction to networking. She then gave those present three 'silver bullets' to help deal with network vampires! This was followed by the ever-popular table-swopping networking.
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AGM and guest speaker Fiona Hamilton
Date: 08 September 2009
Venue: Fifi & Ally, 80 Wellington Street
Description: Our season's kick-off event allowed us to hear Fiona Hamilton, an equity partner in King Sturge and one of the founding directors of Fifi & Ally, an award-winning business featuring stylish stores, cafes/bistros and catering.
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Networking - bring a hat!
Date: 11 August 2009
Venue: Alea, Springfield Quay
Description: By popular request, this event was a table-based networking event. To help the networking along, attendees were asked to bring (and preferably wear) headgear of some description. A wide variety was on view: from caps to fascinators, helmets to trilbys – all used to say something about each of us to help us get to know one another better.
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A Question of Marketing
Date: 14 July 2009
Venue: Park Inn Hotel, Renfrew Street (formerly Langs Hotel)
Description: At this lunchtime event, we were able to pick up lots of practical marketing tips from our panel of 3 very experienced 'marketeers'.
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Networking for good
Date: 09 June 2009
Venue: Sloans, Argyle Arcade
Description: This event allowed members and guests to enjoy an evening of networking while also helping SWIB's Charity of the Year, Marie Curie's Big Build.
As well as networking, all present were able to enjoy browsing through the varied and unusual wares available at the stands of The Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust businesses as well as SWIB businesses.
One of the highlights of the evening was undoubtedly the very popular 'SWIB Bingo Card'!
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Previous speakers have included:
Kaye Adams
Louise Dalziel - Matchless Content
Mary Dickson - managing director of First ScotRail
Branka Dimitrijevic - an architect from Sarajevo
Cordelia Ditton - founder of Voicebusiness
Nora Farrell - managing director of Weber Shandwick
Nicola Horlick – founder of Bramdean Asset Management
Lorna Hughes - deputy editor Sunday Mail
Viv Lumsden
Natasha Marshall - founder of Natasha Marshall Fabrics and Wallcoverings
Jaclyn McKie - Isle of Arran Distillers
Katherine Morley - Reeling and Writhing Theatre Company
Alison Peebles - actress and director
Judith Robertson - head of Oxfam in Scotland
Anne & Mhairi Rushforth - of Scotnursing & Halo Nurseries respectively
Linda Urquhart - Morton Fraser (& CBI Scotland)
Susan Walsh - principal of Cardonald College
Tina Waters - founder of the Tour Company
Ruth Webber - Webber Marketing
Special events have included:
An open-top bus tour of Glasgow
A cocktail masterclass at Cafe Mao
An evening at the Tron Threatre, including a performance by Reeling & Writhing
We've been to venues such as Hotel du Vin (previously One Devonshire Gardens), the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, House for an Art Lover, Chardon D'Or, The Tron, Lux, Two Fat Ladies and the Willow Tea Rooms. Not to mention Harry Ramsden's!
