*The following article appears courtesy of Carl Mowatt, BNI Assistant Director to Northumbria.
On the morning of Friday, August 28th, the members of the UK Cookson BNI chapter began arriving for their meeting around 6:00 a.m. and everyone was abuzz with excitement. As a TV crew and bodyguards for the Foreign Secretary arrived, the room was full by 6:45 a.m., along with special guests Ian Robb, Executive Director of BNI Northumbria and Tim Cook, National Director of BNI UK/Ireland and the Netherlands.
Just after 7 a.m., as members networked energetically, the distinguished guest of the day RH David Miliband arrived. BNI Assistant Director to Northumbria Carl Mowatt, the man responsible for inviting Miliband, met and welcomed Miliband to the meeting.
Miliband proceeded to work his way around the room, holding open networking with the members and everyone agreed that Miliband was very interested in all members’ occupations and was courteous to all. At one point in the meeting, Mowatt invited Miliband to the front of the room and awarded the Foreign Secretary with an honorary ambassadorship to BNI Cookson and a business card folder pre-filled with all the members’ business cards. Miliband was very pleased and welcomed his ambassadorship with pride.
Miliband did his own 60-second presentation and provided a good amount of positive feedback during the “I have” section of the meeting. Then, after the meeting, not only did Miliband network openly with members, he took it a step further and joined Robb, Cook, and Mowatt for a visit to two of the members’ work places—Lee Surtees of Premier Maintenance and Paul Batchelor of Batchelor’s Joinery.
The day was a massive success and RH David Miliband plans to keep in contact with BNI Cookson, return to the chapter for another visit, and use the services of the local businesses when required.
*Apart from a big thank you to all chapter members, Carl Mowatt would like to extend a big thank you to Nicola Laidlow, fellow BNI Assistant Director to Northumbria, for doing a brilliant job in taking care of the press and media representatives surrounding Miliband’s visit. |