VERY enjoyable lunchtime visit to the offices of Alchemy Marketing in Orton Southgate.
Naomi Gwynne emailed me in April and resurrected my enthusiasm for Peterborough Business.
I met the Alchemy team, including Sari (who used to work at my 'day job' newspaper Fleet News) and the managing director Gavin Elsey. I was slightly critical of the local Chamber of Commerce and its failure to respond to my approaches back in the winter, so it was interesting to learn that Gavin holds a senior position at the Chamber. Ha ha!
Anyway, that didn't stop us discussing ways to help each other grow.
Showing posts with label Chamber of Commerce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chamber of Commerce. Show all posts
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Sunday, 27 January 2008
More ups and downs
IT has been another week of mixed feelings about the idea of Peterborough Business.
This has been a very busy week. The new Fleet News website launched, we finished issue one of the brand new Fleet Business Europe and two days were spent judging the Fleet News awards.
I met a consultant from Deloitte who is based in Leeds and we chatted briefly about my idea. He seemed quite positive and told me about TheBusinessDesk.com, the new website an e-news service that was mentioned in the FT article that inspired me.
Looking at the TheBusinessDesk.com operation, it struck me how advanced it is and what high-calibre people are behind the initiative.
Later I chatted to a colleague about this and we both had a look at Crain's Manchester Business, the other publication featured in the FT article. We were struck by the apparent lack of advertising on this site. It is still quite new and maybe the website performs a different function. It seems to mainly promote the print product.
The other thing that stuck me is the scalability of these two ideas. TheBusinessDesk.com can expand from Yorkshire into Lancashire, Cheshire and across the UK, keeping its name and brand identity and growing regional communities under the umbrella brand. Crain's Manchester Business can be joined by Crain's Birmingham Business, Crain's Glasgow Business and so on. Peterborough Business won't be able to do that, so there's something else to think about.
I haven't heard back from the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce yet.
Then yesterday I went to the Peterborough United versus West Bromwich Albion FA Cup match at London Road. Sadly Peterborough lost, but the friend who invited me knows lots of Peterborough business people and as I looked around at the city's great and good gathered in the director's suite I again felt that there is a role in this city for a strong online business community.
I do need to get out and talk to people, to test the idea and then, maybe, spread the word.
But the next week is set to be busier than last week and I will struggle to find much time before April. It's still frustrating.
This has been a very busy week. The new Fleet News website launched, we finished issue one of the brand new Fleet Business Europe and two days were spent judging the Fleet News awards.
I met a consultant from Deloitte who is based in Leeds and we chatted briefly about my idea. He seemed quite positive and told me about TheBusinessDesk.com, the new website an e-news service that was mentioned in the FT article that inspired me.
Looking at the TheBusinessDesk.com operation, it struck me how advanced it is and what high-calibre people are behind the initiative.
Later I chatted to a colleague about this and we both had a look at Crain's Manchester Business, the other publication featured in the FT article. We were struck by the apparent lack of advertising on this site. It is still quite new and maybe the website performs a different function. It seems to mainly promote the print product.
The other thing that stuck me is the scalability of these two ideas. TheBusinessDesk.com can expand from Yorkshire into Lancashire, Cheshire and across the UK, keeping its name and brand identity and growing regional communities under the umbrella brand. Crain's Manchester Business can be joined by Crain's Birmingham Business, Crain's Glasgow Business and so on. Peterborough Business won't be able to do that, so there's something else to think about.
I haven't heard back from the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce yet.
Then yesterday I went to the Peterborough United versus West Bromwich Albion FA Cup match at London Road. Sadly Peterborough lost, but the friend who invited me knows lots of Peterborough business people and as I looked around at the city's great and good gathered in the director's suite I again felt that there is a role in this city for a strong online business community.
I do need to get out and talk to people, to test the idea and then, maybe, spread the word.
But the next week is set to be busier than last week and I will struggle to find much time before April. It's still frustrating.
Saturday, 19 January 2008
What are these events like?
TWO days in London this week has meant a bit of a struggle keeping up with messages and looking to see if anybody has visited the website.
The beginning of the week saw quite a lot of web traffic. Putting the idea for Peterborough Business onto Facebook (here and here, I'm still working out the difference between the groups)alerted all my work colleagues. I got about half a dozen messages of encouragement via Facebook, email and a comment from Dan on one of the postings here. This one particularly thrilled me because Dan and I spar online over our ideas around traditional and future publishing.
I particularly like having colleagues with different opinions who also find it very easy to say good things to each other. I’d like to see quite a lot of that in Peterborough Business.
Because I was staying in London on Thursday night I couldn’t summon the energy to go along to Charters on Wednesday evening. I’d seen that the Chamber of Commerce was holding an informal networking evening there and I rarely need an excuse to go to a decent pub for a couple of hours.
I emailed someone at the Chamber with my idea for Peterborough Business at the beginning of the week. I haven’t had a reply yet, but hopefully that will happen before the next informal meeting at Charters and I can go along for a face-to-face chat.
I’ve also noticed that the Peterborough Business Club UK is meeting at The Bell in Stilton on January 28 and February 11. If any of you reading this has been to Chamber and Business Club events, it would be great if you could post some comments on the forum. How many people go? What businesses are represented? What is the age range? Were they friendly? Was it useful?
This is a shockingly busy time at my proper job, so I’ll struggle to get to these events before April. In the meantime it would be great to get your feedback here.
The beginning of the week saw quite a lot of web traffic. Putting the idea for Peterborough Business onto Facebook (here and here, I'm still working out the difference between the groups)alerted all my work colleagues. I got about half a dozen messages of encouragement via Facebook, email and a comment from Dan on one of the postings here. This one particularly thrilled me because Dan and I spar online over our ideas around traditional and future publishing.
I particularly like having colleagues with different opinions who also find it very easy to say good things to each other. I’d like to see quite a lot of that in Peterborough Business.
Because I was staying in London on Thursday night I couldn’t summon the energy to go along to Charters on Wednesday evening. I’d seen that the Chamber of Commerce was holding an informal networking evening there and I rarely need an excuse to go to a decent pub for a couple of hours.
I emailed someone at the Chamber with my idea for Peterborough Business at the beginning of the week. I haven’t had a reply yet, but hopefully that will happen before the next informal meeting at Charters and I can go along for a face-to-face chat.
I’ve also noticed that the Peterborough Business Club UK is meeting at The Bell in Stilton on January 28 and February 11. If any of you reading this has been to Chamber and Business Club events, it would be great if you could post some comments on the forum. How many people go? What businesses are represented? What is the age range? Were they friendly? Was it useful?
This is a shockingly busy time at my proper job, so I’ll struggle to get to these events before April. In the meantime it would be great to get your feedback here.
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