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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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Nice mix of business and pleasure.

Event was very good, venue was excellent and format great for networking.

Lovely relaxed but productive evening.

Great tonight - relaxed, fun and just what the doctor ordered!

Very lively. It's good to get to know about people not just their business - real networking.

Thoroughly enjoyed myself and very useful - thanks for having me as a guest.

Great food and really like this format.

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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Presentation was extremely useful but also very entertaining.

Good venue - food was excellent and speaker first class.

Great, entertaining speaker.

Another really enjoyable event. Thank you.

Excellent, everyone really friendly and enjoyed the overall day.

Great company, great food/format/venue. Will definitely consider membership.

Felt welcome as a visitor.

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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Expected great things, met high expectations!

One of the best events. Good opportunity to meet and talk.

Loved it!

I found everyone very friendly!

Excellent service - very good venue and food was nice. Speakers were excellent - very informative, I even took notes!

Thoroughly enjoyable. Food excellent.

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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Came away with lots of good contacts.

Liked the format of networking opportunities.

Wonderful food, great company and excellent opportunity to network.

Liked moving the tables and meeting people.

Thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed, friendly atmosphere whilst being able to network.

First event as a member, glad I joined!

Very friendly, welcoming and very interesting.

Excellent!


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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Speaker was excellent.

A very good event.

Excellent speaker - great range of experience.

Thanks to everyone!

Great idea.

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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Fabulous speakers, very motivational.

Excellent speakers - topics very relevant to everyone in the room.

Best 27pds I have spent in a long time.

For a SWIB 'virgin' I thoroughly enjoyed it and it felt welcoming.

Very well executed, confident and interesting speakers.

Great bunch of people - I'll certainly come again.

Excellent content - great speakers. A worthwhile evening.

Excellent and inspiring speakers.

Very good speakers - a double act.

Everyone very welcoming.

Beig self-employed it is a joy to meet so many new people.

I felt very welcome as a visitor.

Speakers were great!

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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Very nice way to network, relaxing.

Speaker did what a good speaker should do - instigate debate.

Really enjoyed Grace' topic.

Food ... very good.

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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First time attendee, very happy and enjoyed it.

Thoroughly enjoyed the event.

Really enjoyed the speakers and getting to meet new people.

Good attendance numbers made it even more worthwhile.

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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Excellent. Very informative and at the same time entertaining.

Great networking, informative and friendly.

Great advice from Kyle MacRae of BletherMedia.

Enjoyed it immensely.

Social but also good for business.

Would recommend this type of evening to others - it would benefit any business.

Great content and presenter.

Huge amount of good quality information imparted.

Everybody very receptive. Excellent topic of talk.

Excellent. Very informative overview of social media.

Great opportunity to network.

Supportive networking.

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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Excellent. Friendly company, really welcoming.

Always enjoyable and a great source of useful contacts.

Event very good. Good chance to talk and learn.

Good chance to network and meet other business women.

Thoroughly enjoyable!

Relaxed and informal. Friendly.

Entertaining presentations.

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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Excellent opportunity to network with no great formality.

Great energy, spoke with some great women this evening.

SWIB is always a great source of business and I always enjoy it.

Friendly, informative, motivating, inspiring and very enjoyable.

Friendly people, good networking opportunity.

Truly inspirational speaker/role model.

Lovely! Full marks!

A very inspirational and informative speaker.

A very good opportunity for making connections and re-affirming those you've already made.

Good balance between professional but relaxed.

Excellent opportunity for enjoyable, inspiring conversation.

Super - great surroundings, fab food, good company.

Good for both socialising, relaxing, and making business contacts.

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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Great way to make business contacts.

Good way to meet other like-minded women.

Structured and lots of opportunities to network.

Not only get to promote own business, also learn a lot from others.

Enjoyable and useful. I always take something away from it.

Very friendly, easy to network.

Very friendly and informative.

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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A great networking opportunity and always lots of fun.

Loved the panel format presentation.

Full of good ideas, ideal for meeting other people.

Good chance to meet other women involved in business in a relaxed environment.

Content, format and presenters were all excellent. Really liked the idea of 'top tips'.

Excellent for getting to know people. Each time I come I meet new people.

Excellent content from PR/marketing speakers.

Well structured/informative yet relaxed and informal.

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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Interesting, informative, enthusiasm excellent.

Networking opportunity excellent.

Really enjoyed the mix and the activity of SWIB Bingo! Great idea.

Everyone mingling and the buzz in the room.

Fun and good networking.

Helpful and encouraging.

Informal, social ... useful for business.

... something a bit different.

Great atmosphere, very friendly.

Nice to meet such great women.

Very informative and a good business opportunity.

Bingo sheets are brilliant!



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!