Past Events

January 2012

The BBBClub enjoyed a good start to 2012 with the first meeting having taken place at the Botanical Gardens .We were treated to an excellent talk from Tim Pile, CEO of Cogent Elliott .

Tim was very entertaining, informative and thought provoking. He reflected on previous experiences of recessions, but pointed out that there were many opportunities out there. He felt 2012 would be a challenge in the first half, but was hopeful of an upturn later in the year. Seize the day!!

This was also the first meeting chaired by Adrian Hindmarsh.

April 2011

A select audience was treated to some home truths about our brains by Barry Mapp, who ran through several interesting concepts and made me (at least) realise that I can only function properly when I don't let the stress get to me!!! So thanks Barry and I hope the video came out well - look forward to a link to U Tube!!

March 2011

Edgbaston MP Gisela Stuart spoke very eloquently in support of some changes to the Higher Education policy and also noted that the pupils causing problems in under achieving state schools were not necessarily the most obvious culprits. This was followed by a lively debate within the audience. Thanks to you all.

February 2011

Well over 40 people were at February's Birmingham Business Breakfast Club to welcome Commonwealth Games Gold medal heptathlete Louise Hazel. She gave us an insight into her punishing training regime, her highs and lows in terms of sponsorship and her thanks to certain members of BBBC who were sponsors of "Team Hazel". Answering a barrage of questions from the attentive audience, she came over as a superb ambassador for sport in the UK in general and Birmingham in particular.

January 2011

We were delighted to welcome Mike Pagan to our January gathering - his positive message to "Stop Faffing" managed to give most of us a proverbial kick up the bum, which I for one needed! Mike’s profile can be found at http://uk.linkedin.com/in/mikepagan.

April 2010

How serendipitous inviting the Chief Executive of Birmingham International Airport to address the Birmingham Business Breakfast Club when no planes were flying! He spoke for 25 minutes with no notes outlining future plans pre 16 April 2010 and covered many other issues. We are all encouraged to spread the word that Birmingham Airport is ours to use and encourage . . . so please do so!

January 2010

Birmingham Business Breakfast Club had Graeme Chaplin Bank of England Agent for the West Midlands as guest speaker at their opening 2010 event. 50 of us sat spellbound as he gave us an insight into our current economic position and his and the Bank's thoughts as to where we are going in the foreseeable future.

December 2009

Our own Ian O'Donnell was the speaker in December - without the help of a wine tasting, he gave us food for thought - posing the very relevant question -"What is stopping you being a success online?" He opened our eyes to the plusses and potential pitfalls of Facebook, Linked in - and amazingly hundreds of other mediums (half of which I'd not heard of ( I am 57!!))

November 2009

Digby Lord Jones of Birmingham was the speaker at Birmingham Business Breakfast Club. A packed room of more than 115 breakfasters heard his thoughts on Inclusivity, the tragic West Midlands skill and education shortfalls and the future of governance in the UK. We were all sent out with the thought that there is much to do - but that we all have a vital role to play in helping to address the education and learning issues in the West Midlands area.

October 2009

The Birmingham Business Breakfast Club welcomed Rita Maclean to a recent breakfast. She gave us an excellent insight into the background of the metal detectorist's sensational discovery of the Anglo Saxon hoard, which had really captured the attention of us Brummies - 40,000 people queuing and viewing the 100 exhibits displayed in a couple of weeks!

September 2009

Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) was our guest speaker at a recent meeting of The Breakfast Club.

He held the audience spellbound for 20 minutes, briefly outlining the RSA's history and its present agendas, including its Academy in Tipton, which I had visited with Matthew on the previous day.

July 2009

At our July meeting we all learnt from Nigel Bromley of RBH what to do to get our marketing working harder for our businesses - and don't we need it - having said which my remaining manufacturer clients are all b(l)ooming - the largest one just took on several super new staff, who had been "let go" elsewhere - so perhaps the seeds of the "greenshoots" are starting to germinate.