Pennyhill Park fam trip

A record attendance was noted at this year's BNC Summer Forum when 30 people met for a two-day networking event at Exclusive Hotels' flagship property, the five red-star Pennyhill Park.

The venue was selected for its ideal outer-London location and for its outstanding offering of the complete events package. The weekend consisted of a Friday all-day meeting, an evening dinner and entertainment and a day spent in The Spa. Due to its parkland setting and attention to detail what Pennyhill Park lent The BNC Forum was a feeling of being in a destination plus absolute concentration for some serious networking. Attention and focus was much needed for on the agenda were some heavy items such as risk assessment, ROI, security and contracts, to name just a few. Less serious, but equally as important topics such as problems with service staff, delegates who fail to RSVP and what type of shoes to wear during events, were discussed at some length by a talkative bunch of conference, marketing and event managers.

The Club is made up of just over 800 events people holding many different positions. Normally at events we attract a mixture of seniority and experience. Pennyhill Park, it seems, lured all the top people and we had some serious, opinionated and experience-led discussions happening. There was hardly a quiet moment, which was fantastic and very fulfilling' says Kim Paulden, Managing Director of The Buyers' Networking Club.

'What never fails to amaze me with these events, however, is the attendants' willingness to learn and share experiences. We have some BNC members who have been in the industry for almost 40 years - and they are at the top of their game and have achieved serious respect from their colleagues and bosses - yet they find our events places of learning and stimulation.

A fantastic networker and incredible organiser, Julia Jepps of the Council of Mortgage Lenders wrote to me to say:

"Dear Kim, Melissa and Liz.

Thanks for the excellent Forum on Friday. I have come away with some valuable ideas and practices, which in these hectic and uncertain times will be very useful.

It was great to see familiar faces and meet up with some new members - it never ceases to amaze me the range of talent, experience and creativity that flourish within BNC.

Looking forward to the next time we all meet.

Best wishes, Julia"

'Practising what it preaches (this time to the extreme!) The BNC opened the 2005 Summer Forum with a 'Speed Networking' session. It was felt that as the BNC Forums are a great place to meet up with friends made at previous BNC events people have a tendency to fall into familiar groups. So we decided to mix things up a little and get people talking to new contacts and discovering new things about their BNC colleagues,' reports Melissa Ruel. '

We did this by getting people to line up in two lines facing each other, and at the ring of a bell to commence a minute of talking the pairs of networkers had to introduce themselves and give away 'something no one knows about me'. The atmosphere in the room was buzzing and there wasn't a silent couple in the room. Then the bell rang and the lines shifted again and again until everyone had met each other. It was a great ice breaker.

As the format has proven a great success previously, the BNC Forum was again chaired by Elizabeth Floyd, the Managing Partner of BNC-recruitment, the specialists in events recruiting. 

Elizabeth herself is a great believer in the power of networking and has many contacts in all areas of business, one of whom - Veronica Lim of  www.innerthinking.com - presented at the Forum in the after-lunch slot. Veronica is an executive coach and founder of Inner Thinking and her expertise and teachings in the fields of communication is highly respected.    

During her forty-minute talk Veronica got the group to think about the impact that one's thought processes has on body language and then how that body language gives off the right, or wrong, signals to colleagues and clients.

Overall BNC Forum delegates are taking away with them new ideas, new strategies and hopefully some new contacts and friends plus an experience from one of the Club's most highly recommended properties.

With thanks

'We are forever thankful to our Exclusive Hotels' hosts: Danny Pecorelli, David Broadhead, Claudia Harrison and Russell Cox, who make up an exemplary team of professionals at one of the country's best loved venues,' remarks Kim Paulden.  'When people walked into the Sandringham meeting room on the first morning they were very impressed by its size, elegance and charm. At every turn they were further impressed by many aspects of the property from the quality of the buffet lunch to the softness of the pillows and bed linen. Each Club member found a plethora of things to recommend about this property and perhaps the most highlighted one would be The Spa which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone on the Saturday.

'I would also like to thank our sponsors, Farida Messaadi of Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, and Harry Fine, of Harry Fine Associates, which represents DMCs around the world. Farida and Harry attended the official networking session and contributed to the discussions, providing an interesting 'supplier' point of view. In both cases they learnt a lot and listened well to the needs and opinions of the buyers so from events like these we would hope that the industry grows in integrity and improves in quality of service and communication. It was a pleasure to have them on board.'

The next BNC Forum is in January and will be hosted overseas. Many BNC members have already expressed an interest in attending that we are considering options for increasing the events from two to four a year. Look out for announcements on this website about forthcoming dates and destinations.

Read more on The BNC Summer Forum at Pennyhill Park in a forthcoming issue of BNC news online.

Contacts:

Pennyhill Park
Claudia Harrison
01276-486 100
01276-478 398 direct
Mobile: 07967 833367
Claudia@exclusivehotels.co.uk
www.exclusivehotels.co.uk


Harry Fine Associates
Tel: 01525 221690
harry.fine@btinternet.com


Hyatt Hotels & Resorts
Georgina Griffiths Sales Co Ordinator - M.I.C.E
Tel: 0208 334 7295
General Tel: 0208 334 8098
ggriffiths@hyattintl.com
www.hyatt.com