I was delighted when my business was selected as a winner in January 2011 by the well-known entrepreneur Theo Paphitis in his weekly Twitter competition known as Small Business Sunday or #SBS.
He tweeted his decision to his 223,000 Twitter followers and I was thrilled when the congratulatory tweets started arriving to my Twitter handle, not to mention the kudos of having a nod of approval from such a successful businessman.
As the competition began to gain popularity, the idea of a winners get-together was mooted and a year or so later the idea came to fruition.
Now, it's not very often that I manage to escape the keyboard, but on Friday 30 March 2012, I attended the inaugural networking event in Birmingham.
The event was a first of its kind, held at the home of Warwickshire County Cricket Club at Edgbaston, a unique venue with potential for UK businesses to sample and experience a new way of working together.
The stadium reception area was buzzing with entrepreneurs, business owners big and small, with drinks and nibbles in hand wondering what to expect.
It was a great experience to meet the faces of the people who I had previously only communicated with on Twitter, not to mention the man himself as he browsed among us, taking time to chat and showing a real interest.
After drinks and networking in the reception area we were ushered through to the conference room where everyone took a seat and waited for the man of the moment Theo Paphitis to make an entrance.
The atmosphere of anticipation was upbeat and relaxed.
There was a live feed of tweets on a huge screen which made for an interesting timeline.
Every time one of the audience saw their tweet on the screen there was a loud cheer! The entrepreneur arrived and after the initial applause, a hush settled as he began to speak.
We were introduced to Kypros Kyprianou, Ryman's CEO before Theo took the floor for over 2 hours.
We were taken on a tour via images on the screen of the new official SBS website which was produced by a fellow SBS winner.
Theo was charming, amusing, informative and encouraging, not to mention very generous with his time especially during the question and answer session.
He was reminded a few times by colleagues that he had gone over the time, but he took as many questions as he could.
There followed a bar break generously sponsored by Theo's company Ryman's while an orderly, alphabetical queue formed for our individual official pictures.
Theo posed patiently with each and every one of the 300 odd business owners - his smile never faltering.
As a winner, my business is eligible for a profile on the winners website which has already generated valuable exposure to my target customers not to mention the advice and further networking opportunities.
It was an honour and a pleasure to meet Mr Paphitis.
His passion for business is infectious and support for the small business like a ray of sunshine in these difficult times.
He tweeted his decision to his 223,000 Twitter followers and I was thrilled when the congratulatory tweets started arriving to my Twitter handle, not to mention the kudos of having a nod of approval from such a successful businessman.
As the competition began to gain popularity, the idea of a winners get-together was mooted and a year or so later the idea came to fruition.
Now, it's not very often that I manage to escape the keyboard, but on Friday 30 March 2012, I attended the inaugural networking event in Birmingham.
The event was a first of its kind, held at the home of Warwickshire County Cricket Club at Edgbaston, a unique venue with potential for UK businesses to sample and experience a new way of working together.
The stadium reception area was buzzing with entrepreneurs, business owners big and small, with drinks and nibbles in hand wondering what to expect.
It was a great experience to meet the faces of the people who I had previously only communicated with on Twitter, not to mention the man himself as he browsed among us, taking time to chat and showing a real interest.
After drinks and networking in the reception area we were ushered through to the conference room where everyone took a seat and waited for the man of the moment Theo Paphitis to make an entrance.
The atmosphere of anticipation was upbeat and relaxed.
There was a live feed of tweets on a huge screen which made for an interesting timeline.
Every time one of the audience saw their tweet on the screen there was a loud cheer! The entrepreneur arrived and after the initial applause, a hush settled as he began to speak.
We were introduced to Kypros Kyprianou, Ryman's CEO before Theo took the floor for over 2 hours.
We were taken on a tour via images on the screen of the new official SBS website which was produced by a fellow SBS winner.
Theo was charming, amusing, informative and encouraging, not to mention very generous with his time especially during the question and answer session.
He was reminded a few times by colleagues that he had gone over the time, but he took as many questions as he could.
There followed a bar break generously sponsored by Theo's company Ryman's while an orderly, alphabetical queue formed for our individual official pictures.
Theo posed patiently with each and every one of the 300 odd business owners - his smile never faltering.
As a winner, my business is eligible for a profile on the winners website which has already generated valuable exposure to my target customers not to mention the advice and further networking opportunities.
It was an honour and a pleasure to meet Mr Paphitis.
His passion for business is infectious and support for the small business like a ray of sunshine in these difficult times.
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