Networking in London

The London Chapter of BITA has close to 250 members. Ordinarily we would regularly meet our members in the many “in person” events we have across London every month, so not seeing them has been a real challenge over the last year.

Whilst BITA has been great at providing lots of informative webinars and zoom discussions about a range of issues the one thing that we felt we was missing in the London Chapter was just a regular “catch up” or social networking event.

Finally, we found a solution that works and that was in the introduction of our Friday morning Networking Event. Using Remo a virtual meeting room we were able to create an event that is just like having a catch up in the pub (but sadly without a beer). Between 8-9am on a Friday anyone can join the event and have a chat with as many members as they wish. The room is made up of several tables and you just pop onto any table you wish and have a chat and either stay or move on to the next table – the choice is entirely yours! It has gone down a storm and the best bit about it is seeing some of our real “technophobe” members becoming regular attendees.

The event is open to members of all chapters and we often have people joining us from Ireland.

These are the comments from a couple of our members – so why not come and join us!

I’m very cautious about networking as, quite frankly, most of it is a waste of time and money. BITA is the exception. I joined after the first Friday morning network meeting just six weeks ago. The quality of people is high, and the combination of fun, business focused conversations was unexpected. I’ve already had many productive 1-2-1s and been featured at one of the Friday meetings. I will and have recommended BITA to other businesses without hesitation.

- Jonathan Slobom, Founder Peppered Moth Marketing

Attending the Friday morning networking session is a great way for me to catch up with many of the construction members within BITA. I have met some great smaller businesses from all the BITA chapters and made some great new connections

- Eamonn Dolan, Sector Leader – Specialist Trading Businesses at Laing O’Rourke

SUPPORTING THE LIC

Long term members, W12, are a one stop shop for maintenance and facility solutions. They are heavily invested in helping local communities thrive, which is why they are proud to partner with the London Irish Centre.

Every year the London Irish Centre (LIC) helps over 2,000 people by providing welfare support and hosting loads of Irish community and cultural events designed to enrich lives and bring people together. This year especially, their tireless work throughout the pandemic has been an inspiration to us all.

To make sure the LIC can keep making a difference, W12 laced up their trainers and joined the annual London Irish Walk. The goal: walk 50,000 miles to raise £50,000 before St Patrick’s Day. And they smashed it! All staff tracked their steps (even the office dog Alfie) and together they walked over 50,000 miles and were able to exceed their target amount.

What’s next for W12? They will continue to support the Centre by raising money when and where they can, in addition to providing them with free maintenance services. As many of you know, the two organizational charities supported by BITA are the London Irish Centre, and the Lighthouse Club. So, we were thrilled to hear that W12 is also now a Company Supporter of the Lighthouse Club. The Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity is the only charity that provides mental, physical, and financial wellbeing support to the construction community and their families. W12 provide the Lighthouse Club with an annual donation to give them ongoing support and link their engineers to the incredible charity.

If you have any questions about these incredible initiatives, questions about how you can help or want to find out more about W12 just visit the website. If you would like to see how they support their communities, visit the London Irish Centre or Lighthouse Club websites.