Starbucks, coppers and the SWPP Conference

Picture the scene, there I was sat in Starbucks on one of the arm chairs trying to write this blog posting. A couple of men join me near the window and sit on the sofa next to my chair

I mostly ignored them but as soon as I glanced up from my note book & magazine I could tell that they were plain clothed cops - I dont know why really, maybe it was their size 12 feet. Then a few minutes later they were joined by 2 other groups of rather cold looking cops from a local operation. I was totally surrounded (but didnt feel the need to put my hands up), it felt like I was on the set of The Bill, I reckon the banter was very similar.

Good luck with the shoplifting gang folks

Back on Plan B, I mentioned in my last posting that I had attended the annual SWPP (Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers) conference back in January. I came away after 6 days with a head & notebook full of information and have spent the last 6 weeks making sense of it all and trying to put some of it into practice within the business.

I'd signed up for the Business School sessions which formed the first 2 days of the conference which was held at the Novatel in a rather cold, wet & snowy Hammersmith

The 1st session I went to was by Michael Turner - Networking: It's good to talk. Michael covered all of the basic of using networking as a means of growing a business including the importance of developing a networking strategy as a part of the overall marketing plan. This is certainly a area I need to work on more as most of my networking seems to be happening online using social networking such as Facebook (both with Davis & Co Photographers and my own personal page) and twitter 

I've been exploring face to face networking "clubs" such as BNI, does anyone have any experience of them and their usefulness ?