Business seminar idea...?

[Eszter]

Hi all,

I've been wondering about whether we could take the networking aspect of our club a little further. I think a lot of people come to the club as a networking opportunity, and breakfasts when we've had speakers such as Tony Gordon or John Hirst from Cabot Circus have always attracted more people.

What would people think about having a business seminar type thing one evening? We could have something like a panel to discuss a particular issue and then questions from the audience, followed up with more of a chance to mingle and network...

For example, we could have a topic along the lines of "The effect of the credit crunch on businesses in Bristol". We could invite three or four people to be on our panel - maybe we could persuade John Hirst back, we could approach one of the big banks in Bristol (Lloyds TSB, RBS, Bristol & West, etc), I'm sure someone from a law firm would be happy to talk about the changes in the types of cases they're seeing (eg, more insolvency/litigation), maybe someone from a small local business (Bristol Ferry Boat Co anyone?), possibly someone at one of the universities from their Business departments, etc...

This kind of thing could include CPD points, so we could attract more people via organisations such as the local Law Society and RICS. We could make a nominal charge just to cover cost of wine and nibblies, and to ensure that people actually turn up. Or maybe charge non-Rotarians only, so we'd encourage people to join us.

We could perhaps hold such an event at one of our offices (I know Osborne Clarke always used to be up for this kind of thing). I think this could be a good way of publicising our club and organising something where we are not pushing one of our charities, but are focusing on the business side of our club.

What do people think? Do you think people would be interested in coming along to something like this? Any thoughts about topics to discuss or people to invite? Ideas for venues/dates/times/etc? Anything else?

Cheers,

Est