The Thursday Challenge

What a great few days we have had, finally on Thursday we were able to let everyone know that we were through to the next stage of the ‘If We Can You Can 2011 Challenge’.  To start off in a brilliant way I was invited to the Entrepreneurs Forum conference.  It was an early start, up at 5 to get ready and leave the house by 7 (I didn’t want to be late).  The event was being held at the Hilton in Newcastle and I was a little daunted in making my way up to the event room at 8.50 (for those of you who know me I am very very confident), but on this occasion I was surrounded by my peers and well respected business people that I look up to and want to learn from. 

I entered the room and thought that I would be met by someone from the If We Can You Can team and the rest of the finalists, oh dear I was wrong and I suddenly felt very alone.  So I made my way over to get a tea and started to look around, ahhh I finally saw someone else that was standing all alone.  So I made a beeline over to her and introduced myself, as she introduced herself as Angela Anderson the owner of Zenith Recruitment a gentleman came and joined her, oh I felt so foolish, however he then introduced himself as David Harper from Harperco and straight away they both made me feel at ease.  They asked me lots of questions about our business and in turn I reciprocated and instantly we hit it off, phew!

Into the conference with another 250 people from across the North East for the rest of the day and I have to say the quality of speakers were amazing, I particularly liked Simon Calver from LoveFilm and Nick Wheeler (probably the funniest most thought provoking speech I have ever heard) from Charles Tyrwhitt shirts.  They both inspired me and I made plenty of notes.

The networking breaks came thick and fast and I lost my fear of being alone and started talking with some really nice people.  The food was also something to write home about, or blog about, I also have http://www.moreishfood.com/ and blog on http://www.moreishfood.wordpress.com/ so when I get a moment I can let you know how it was.  As the day grew to an end Paul joined me at the hotel and we went to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was brilliant, the event was so well organized, and the people we sat with were inspirational and interesting.  The awards were fantastic and I have to say Anne Preston was outstanding and a true entrepreneur.  A perfect end to a perfect day!