January 2011

With Ken back at the helm and Tim putting in his first appearance of the year thirty people were present to eat an excellent breakfast and hear Nigel Wild deliver his presentation "People Management NOT Human Resources!"

Nigel, who operates a virtual personnel management service, started from the premise that the introduction of the term 'human resources' had de-personalised the management of people. He went on to outline clearly and concisely, without the aid of a single Powerpoint slide (!) the basic components of a collaborative and effective personnel management and recruitment policy.

December 2010

Chris Hogan took over the chair for the third time as neither Ken nor Tim were available. The speaker was Ian McKay of ALLShred Ltd who operates a mobile shredding and data destruction servcie. Ian's comprehensive presentation, "Are you an Accessory to Fraud?" outlined the responsibilities we may not realise we have to dispose of commercial and personal data in a correct and safe manner.

November 2010

For our second meeting in the new venue Will Barton of WODC and Mike Leggett of The Southill Partnership encouraged us to consider entering the upcoming West Oxfordshire Business Awards (www.woba.co.uk). Businesses can enter from the website before the closing date is 31 December 2010.

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October 2010

Bill Heiner, Author, BBC Radio Oxford Broadcaster and Presenter. The caterers at The Golf Club changed on this day so Ken, had to find yet another venue! Bill discussed the pros and cons of being a familiar voice on BBC Radio Oxford. He's met some fantastic people, from Roger Bannister to Henry Kissinger, outed a peadophile and received death threats for his trouble, been locked up in Oxford Jail for a Children in Need stunt, hacked off a police marksman and of course embedded a shark into the roof of his house in Headington!

September 2010

Mega Breakfast at The Lido in Chipping Norton. The Club  landed a great speaker in Guy Browning a revered business guru who leads Smokehouse where other creative agencies have feared to tread. He has recently finished his first film "Tortoise in Love," tagline: "He likes you. He's just a slow mover," which he wrote, directed and filmed in his home village of Kingston Bagpuize. Having also enjoyed a career as a stand-up comedian the assembled company of 70 (swollen with members from Banbury, Witney and Bicester Networking Groups) witnessed first-hand why Guy is a sought after speaker at many a business conference.  The event raised £450 for The Lido.

August 2010

Brian Wooby, Chice. Local entrepreneur Brian Wooby presented his latest product, a revolutionary form of dice called CHICE. He covered the path travelled so far, using local businesses to help him get the product to market and leaping the hurdles he has encountered.

July 2010

Over thirty people heard 729 club co-founder Tim Lyon (@AscottTim – yes, three T's) hold forth on the burning issue of the modern world of business, social media. With the subtlest of back-handed support from compatriot Ken Norman (@NormanKen), Tim concisely explained why and how we should embrace the social media phenomenon of Twitter.

June 2010

The day it all went wrong. When calling the Greedy Goose venue the day before the event to confirm final numbers, Ken was aghast to be told firstly that they had no record of the event and couldn’t do it and then that they had no interest in our business anyway as, "it costs us money everytime you come.". Amazing. Sterling efforts by Ken and Tim to cancel the event and prevent all bar one from turning up were fortunately successful and the search for a venue a professional attitude and decent customer service began.

April 2010

Hugh Phillimore
Cornbury Park Festival

This was a combined mega breakfast with Witney, Bicester and Banbury breakfast clubs held at Cornbury Park. The assembly heard festival organiser Hugh Phillimore talk about Cornbury Festival's history, the habits of some well-known rock stars, and company entertainment options at the festival. He was supported by Lady Rotherwick on the attractions of Cornbury as a place to do business and the charity for the day, Rosy, and Alex McBarnett, the founder of the Bushcraft Company which operates from the estate.