The theme of last week was definitely business development as I and my colleagues at Jacksons were out meeting new contacts and discussing opportunities to work with different organisations.
I started the week at the official opening of Gloucester House by the Mayor of Stockton (pictured left). This building is brilliantly placed on Church Road in Stockton and has been very sympathetically renovated and converted by Jeff and Caroline Highfield as serviced offices. It is really unusual to get a building so close to the town centre with period features but modern communications and meeting spaces plus that magic ingredient plenty of parking and I am sure it will not be long before all these units are let.
On Tuesday we were exhibiting at Tees Business Summit at University of Teesside. This was a really busy event with lots of great businesses exhibiting and visiting. I couldn’t get there myself but it was very encouraging to catch up with colleagues afterwards who were enthusing about contacts they had made and opportunities they had picked up. I guess it is rather like wandering around the shops – no two people look at exactly the same things – and certainly the different people we had attending the summit found the contacts and businesses that were of interest to them.
As the week progressed with more meetings where we spent some time with a company or service provider and found out all about their business while explaining ours. All of these contacts have been made while we have been out and about at different events – sometimes specific networking events but often charity events where you sit next to someone at dinner and find out that you have lots in common and that both your businesses could benefit from getting to know each other. One such event had been the regional finals of Young Enterprise which had been a truly inspiring evening with some incredible talent from the competitors. It was great to see our regional winners from Cumbria interviewed last week on BBC Breakfast, and while they were not the overall winners, they can be very proud of how they represented this region.
Finally, I must commend to you our new workplace the Sunderland Business Innovation Centre. My colleague Paul Clark is working from there part of the week and really enjoying meeting people from the businesses based there. He has started some networking sessions there – inviting the neighbours in for coffee and pastries so everyone can get to know each other better. If you are in that area get in touch with him and call in at one of these meetings. The next sessions are being held on 11th July and 15th August from 9am until 11am. Details of future dates will be added to our website in the next couple of days.
At last, some good news for our country with Andy Murray winning the men’s single title at Wimbledon for the second time. It’s fantastic to see the positive news headlines today in the media – a refreshing change from Brexit!
My next blog will take a more rural theme as Jacksons are off to the Great Yorkshire Show this week. Hoping for good weather but know it will be fun anyway.
Jane
