Dear members and readers,
It has been a very busy and successful year for PBLink, with lots of new events introduced as part of our continuous innovation process.
In all, we ran more than 30 networking events across the UK in 2019. The Congress of Polish Entrepreneurs was hosted by a new member, the White Eagle Club in Balham. While the Construction Forum was hosted by NatWest in Central London. Meanwhile, our roadshow events took place in 10 UK cities. Polish Consulates through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Poles Abroad Cooperation Fund supported our Roadshows. Over 200 people registered and we helped many entrepreneurs to progress their business to the next step.
New event formats introduced include: Business Insights Lunch in the Polish Embassy, Business & Craft Beer Networking, Rooftop Networking and Business Roundtable Discussions.
We have 115 members at present, with around half from the construction sector, then service industries (accountants, web designers, etc) and trade (trading goods in the UK). Our aim is to keep our members together in these times of difficult trading conditions and uncertainty around Brexit. We support Polish Entrepreneurs in the UK and help UK Entrepreneurs to do more business with Poles. We achieve this through our networking and by arranging profitable introductions.
As we move forward to look at 2020, I’d like to encourage members to forward PR content, so we can promote it via our database to around 4,000 people. This is a valuable resource, available free of charge as a member benefit.
In communications, watch out for our new-look website, with a focus on promoting our events. Following on from that, we will launch a dedicated PBLink messaging group, to improve communications with members, track incoming leads and other projects. Additionally, Anna Drogon will start as part-time Head of Events & Membership Engagement – every member will hear from her soon. Anna will be responsible for events in 2020, including workshops. The first is a Networking Skills Workshop on the 23rd January, followed by Transforming your Sales using Hubspot CRM, in February or March.
Keep an eye out also for details of an interactive pop-up event in a PBLink member’s kitchen showroom, with an invited chef.
All PBLINK members should have received their Annual Membership Survey. We encourage you all to take part and give us valuable feedback.
Finally, I’d like to wish all our members a happy Christmas and a prosperous 2020.