Sponsored by Bedford Development Agency

Supported by Bedfordshire & Luton Chamber of Commerce

with Buyers from

Lockheed Martin, Bourns, Wells & Youngs, Autoglass, Axis Electronics, General Motors,
London Luton Airport, The University of Bedfordshire and the Bedford Borough Council's Office Supplies and IT Buyers

Local businesses had the opportunity on 25th November to meet the buyers from some of the largest organisations in the county in a drive to encourage local investment.

To see Local-News TV's coverage of the event, click here.

All of the buyers requested to see types of business relevant to their fields of work, which included office suppliers, IT, building trades and catering. Over 60 ‘speed meetings’ took place, lasting 10 minutes each.

 'Supplier' Partha Dey of National Sameday says " Lockheed Martin placed their first order with us today and we have just the delivered the consignment for them. So it definitely works!" 

Feed-back from the Buyers contained some great tips for potential suppliers to improve the way they pitch, so we are having feed back at three of our 2010 networking meetings:
Dunstable Business Breakfast Club 19th February 2010 Pam Woods will present the Buyers tips.
Bedford Business Breakfast Club 12th March Paul Broadhead of Lockheed Martin will speak.
Evening Business Networking Club 16th March Pam Woods will present the Buyers tips.
 

We are also having talks from Marketing Consultant David Winch on 'Pitching for Business':
Central Bedfordshire Business Breakfast Club 14th April 
Bedford SME Business Breakfast Club 8th October
 

 We hope this will make the next Meet the Buyer event even more useful.

The Mayor of Bedford Borough, Dave Hodgson, who opened the event, said: “In the current financial climate it’s essential that we do all that we can to help local businesses.  That’s why this excellent event must be the first in a series to take place to support local small and medium sized firms and provide them with the sort of access to major buyers that they wouldn’t usually have.  I hope to hear of many cases of local firms developing their contacts and securing work which will help them prosper and will in turn help to create jobs and wealth in Bedford Borough.”

Shion Vassell, Senior Buyer - Purchasing from Wells & Young’s Brewing Company said: “"The event provided an excellent opportunity for buyers like myself to gain a better understanding of the local supplier base and reinforced the view, that local suppliers are able to offer an excellent service when given the opportunity to do so.  Wells and Young's Brewing Company has always looked to the local community to source products and services and in participating in this event we were able to identify a number of potential partners for the future."

One of the local business owners, Jason Stephen from Springfield said: “Based on the quality of companies at the event, I can say this is the best networking event I’ve been to.  The actual decision makers were there and I came away with some very positive new business leads.”

More than 50 local businesses attended the event

The ‘Meet the Buyer’ event organised by Conquest Business Events and sponsored by Bedford Development Agency was held at the Barns Hotel in Bedford. 

To register your interest in meeting the buyers at a future event please send the following information to pam@businessclubs.biz
Registration does not constitute a commitment, you will be offered one or more appointments with buyers which you can then accept and pay for or reject.

Name:

Business name:

Email address:

Business category:

To register your interest in sending a buyer to the event, please contact pam@businessclubs.biz
Registration does not constitute a commitment, you will be offered one or more appointments with buyers whcih you can then accept and pay for or reject.

Click here to see list of business categories available in our network

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