Our next evening meeting will be held at the Royal Standard of England in Forty Green (near Beaconsfield) from 6:30-8:30pm.

We have a little space of our own inside the pub and can use a big table outside weather permitting.

Note: There will be no membership fees in 2008. However, there will be a £5 meeting fee so that snacks can be provided - they were great value last time. Drinks can, of course, be purchased at the bar.

For the time being the event "formula" will be "Just Networking" with minimal announcements and 5 minute sessions only if arranged in advance.

An informal session with 2 slots available for individual 5-minute presentations plus ensuing discussion. If you wish to take one please drop Paul a mail asap.

Your committee have been reviewing the programme and we will also be announcing some changes for 2008.

Most of us are offering services that are bought not on price or features but on trust. The sooner we can connect effectively with our audience, the sooner they can contemplate buying our services. Using more senses is a powerful way to improve the connection and, now that it has become affordable, we should all be thinking about doing this.

Our objective in this interactive session is to give everyone a head start. Used right, this medium can lead to more business sooner and we can always use some of that. We've thought about many of the practical issues and we want to share this. Most of us have a lot to learn so we'll provide help on where to start and how to proceed. Most importantly, we hope to generate some productive discussion.

Michael Garvey is a Chartered Surveyor and a Director of Stupples, a leading firm of regional Commercial Property Consultants with offices in High Wycombe, Amersham and Aylesbury. His face might be familiar as he writes a regular monthly column for the Bucks Free Press under the heading Property Doctor.

Michael will consider some current themes in the office and industrial property sectors and offer some predictions about demand and supply over the next 12 months, at a time when the uncertainty in the global financial markets is already having an impact upon the local property markets.

That Was The Month That Was

We've recently had great results with our 2 x 5 minute sessions where (volunteering) members have talked about their businesses and how Latimer Links fits into their picture.

Now for something a little different...

In this session we'll be talking about success stories around projects, customers, supplier relationships or whatever. Please come with a current 2-minute story: what went brilliantly in the last month or two? W'ell have time for 5 of them plus questions. If you are willing, we will podcast the results. Those stories we haven't got time for will go forward to another session sometime soon.

Many businesses now recognise the chambers logo and involvement in Chesham, but what happens behind the scene of a local membership organisation?

Graham will discuss his 4 years as Chairman during which the chamber membership grew by almost 50% and became a real presence in the town. He will discuss the good, the bad and the downright ridiculous events that happen when you are trying to bring a long lived historical organisation up to date. What gets in the way, what helps and what sometimes just makes no sense at all, but usually happens "because its always been done this way...."

Graham has run his own Management Consultancy company, Ley Hill Solutions, since 2000.

Graham worked in the process improvement and quality management arena for over 20 years, a proportion of this was spent within a major national organisation, but more recently he has applied his experience and skills to help other businesses improve their performance.

During a successful career in UK Industry of over 25 years he has held a variety of roles ranging from operational management to having responsibility for strategic development activity. In his last 3 years with The UK Post Office he designed and managed the Business Excellence self-assessment programme, which was implemented across 21 Business Units involving nearly 220,000 people.

This is an informal session. There are slots for up to 2 x member's 5-minute introductions if anyone wishes to nominate themselves. Guests welcome as usual.

Fred's Talk will be a light hearted look at the pleasures and pains of writing books for a living.

Many of us have wanted to write an article or even a book at some time and this will be a view from someone who has lived this - and had a best seller.

While an author's lot can sometimes be a lonely one, Fred is a people person and his friendly approach will provide an entertaining start to the morning.

This will not be a business talk but is certaintly relevant if you run a business. We all have to deal with stress from time to time - "a perceived inability to cope with perceived demands"

The key word is 'perceived'. A smile or a laugh goes along way to relieving stress .. a very good reason to come and hear Fred's talk.

Fred Nolan is one of the most recognized and popular historians of the old west and, amongst other qualities, an acknowledged expert on the life of William Bonney ("Billy the Kid").

According to recent statistics, more people in business hate the idea of having to speak in public than going to the dentist.

Do you wish you could improve your Public Speaking skills, with an audience, at meetings, at work, in voluntary activities and committees? Public speaking is a necessity in business that some thrive on while for many of us even the thought is terrifying.

Come and find out about learning to speak with confidence and enjoying the experience, based on the Toastmasters International approach. Toastmasters is an international network of clubs and individuals who meet to learn, practise and celebrate the art of public speaking.

Jacqui Hogan, Toastmasters District Governor for SE England, holds an MBA and is an innovation consultant for CoCreative Ltd. She has worked with a variety of industries including information technology, retail, service, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, government and not-for-profit organisations, where she has run seminars and workshops on a variety of topics including public speaking, innovation, project management and business planning.

Innovation is the lifeblood of organisations, whether in new products, new ways of working or completely new businesses. Even traditionally stable areas like the professions and the public and voluntary sectors are facing icy winds of change and competition. Yet innovation, 'the successful exploitation of ideas' is much harder in practice than in thought.

How do you make innovation work and pay? Is it about creativity, flair and entrepreneurial energy? Or can anyone put innovation to work, and how?

This event is for everyone with innovation on the agenda. David will be speaking about practical approaches and tips, 'what works and what hurts', as well encouraging us to join in and share innovation experiences, one of the keys to success. As part of the session we'll be invited to test drive an innovation best practice audit, a great way to home in on priorities.

David Rose has been helping organisations innovate and change 'for longer than I would like to admit', as manager, consultant and non-executive director. He was a member of the CBI & DTI team that created the UK's Innovation Best Practice initiative. David specialises in science and technology based companies and has worked or consulted with the engineering, consumer goods, retail, professional and public sectors, not least as Group Marketing Director of British Alcan, then just down the road at Chalfont Park.

Research shows that 40% of executives in a new job begin to fail within their first few months.

The financial costs can be enormous. (Recruitment costs, opportunity costs, loss of valuable information and management time) This can amount to as much as double the executive's salary.

Think of an executive salary and double it. How many failures could your organisation suffer before the bottom line was being seriously affected?

Stephen Harvard Davis uses humour to turn the selection and recruitment process upside down and to illustrate many of the costly mistakes that are made by executives in a new job and the and some or the errors made by the companies that hire them.

Then Stephen discusses how your organisation can reduce the time it takes a new hire to become a net contributor to the wealth of the business.

If you are responsible for the success of your direct reports,your organisation's profits, for the employment terms and contract then you need to hear this talk.

Stephen has over twenty-five years management experience at strategic levels and is a leading B2B consultant, speaker and writer. Stephen is recognised as the UK's leading authority on job transition. He is the founder and Managing Partner of the Business Relationship Consultancy, part of the Harvard Davis Group, which specialises in developing and mentoring business professionals during career transition, induction, change management and is a specialist at retaining top talent within a business.