Devon Regional Office
137 St. Marychurch Road
Torquay
Devon
TQ1 3HW
Tel: 01803 322499 Fax: 01803 327659
e-mail:
23 August 2012
Dear Member
FIRST FRIDAY BREAKFAST NETWORKING MEETINGS
These were originally held on the Last Friday of each month, but due to too many falling on inconvenient days and subsequently being moved to the First Friday of each month, the FSB Mid Devon Branch Breakfast Networking Meetings have generally gone from strength to strength.
From friendly fireside meetings with coffee and croissants at The Hartnoll Hotel in Bolham, to wonderful fresh hand-made cream-filled scones at The Canal Tea Rooms at the canal basin in Tiverton, on to a superb cooked breakfast at The Quarryman’s Rest at Bampton to a brilliantly subscribed New Year meeting at the new Cullompton Community Centre with bacon rolls filled with superb bacon supplied by Peter Grieg at Pipers Farm, and to a “Meet the Neighbours’” breakfast at The Beambridge Inn (just into Somerset) where we were joined by our next door branch members from Taunton.
We also had superb meetings and wonderful welcoming hospitality from The Lamb Inn at Sandford, The Red Lion at Shobrooke, The Butterleigh Inn at Butterleigh, The Culm Valley Inn in Culmstock, Mallards Restaurant in Tiverton, The Woodleigh Coach House at Cheriton Bishop and we must not forget The Manor Hotel in Cullompton who have done it twice, Karen Milton at SELF who has also provided a venue twice and finally to Oxygen Creative who provided space in their offices in Tiverton.
We are now having meetings where we are getting upwards of 20 people with it reaching 23 at Bampton, 33 at The Beambridge Inn and we had 48 at the New Year meeting at the new Cullompton Community Centre.
In addition, the offerings have developed to a cooked breakfast (at a cost) at those establishments that can provide it, but still with free coffee and croissants for those who do not wish to indulge and at those non-catering establishments that we attend and hope to encourage in the future.
2
The concept is for member business, be it catering or non-catering, to sponsor a breakfast networking meeting for other small businesses within the Mid Devon area and the surrounding areas to get together and do business. The meeting is open to FSB Member businesses and Non-FSB businesses alike. The sponsoring business will also have an opportunity to promote itself during the introductions period of the normal meeting.
The sponsoring business provides the space, the coffee and the croissants (or similar) for free, should a cooked breakfast be available, then this will be offered at a cost to the attendee who wants it.
Looking forwards, we have a meeting at Sonic Fireworks and Event Decor8 who have offered to entertain us on 7 September at their site near Uffculme. We are at the Hayridge Centre (Cullompton’s new Library) on 5 October and back again at the Cullompton Community Centre for the New Year on 4 January 2013.
BE A HOST FOR A FIRST FRIDAY BREAKFAST
We are still looking for offers for 2 November and 7 December, so please, why not step forward to help us continue and promote your business to your contemporaries at the same time?
We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely
Chris Prentis
Chairman of Mid Devon Branch