SME Success Series Presented by
Business Networking Evening <<<
Beach and business The SME Success Series Business Networking Evening, presented by ADCB, was a huge success. Conversations, contacts and consultations were the order of the day. We bring you highlights. After a long day at work, the last thing we wanted was to cram everyone into a room and bore them to death. So we decided to break away from the boardroom and plan a networking evening that would be both enjoyable and useful for everyone present. The aim was to walk away with a stack of cards and some great business leads. We thought it would be great if about 70 people turned up. Imagine our delight when we welcomed around 150 people from the vibrant UAE business community. People drove down from other emirates to attend and the feedback we got all evening, and even later, was that it was well worth it. Besides the opportunity to network, we also offered one-onone consultations with various subject matter experts all evening. Many of our readers had asked for the opportunity to discuss their concerns with experts, but not in a
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public forum. Attendees queued up to get specialised legal and financial advice which was customised and confidential. We passed the microphone around, so attendees could introduce themselves and maximise their chances of meeting potential business leads. Despite some initial shyness, it was great to see many of them open up and talk about themselves and their business. It was also amazing to meet so many of our readers and hear their stories in a less formal setting. We had the most heart-warming conversation with Farook A., who attended our previous event, quit his job, and then registered his own business. He said, “Even though you may not realise it, what you do makes a difference to people’s lives.” That was the best thing we’ve heard in a while. It’s not always easy to cover everything we’d like to; we do what we can and such feedback makes it worth it. There are many more events
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(L to R) Ketaki Banga, Senior Editor, SME Advisor Middle East; Mike Byrne, Sub Editor, SME Advisor ME; Richard Judd, Commercial Director CPI Business and IT
Nilanjan Ray, Sr. Vice President Head, SME Banking, ADCB, welcomes the audience
planned in the SME Success Series this year, along with our annual summit and awards in November. Do visit www.smeadvisor.com/events for regular updates.
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Date: 23 February Time: 6 pm onwards Venue: The Sandbar, The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort and Marina For more event photos, visit www.smeadvisor.com/events and www.facebook.com/SMEAdvisor.
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