Twitter SBS Winners meet Theo Paphitis

In January 2012 I won a Small Business Sunday Award from Theo Paphitis.

To be honest, I was chuffed.  Previously, my proudest moment had been winning my ‘Jester’ badge in the Brownies, but that was 40 summers ago.  (As an aside, I only lasted three weeks in the Girl Guides before they asked me to leave).

The first meeting of all Theos SBS winners was on Friday 30 March.  I was lucky enough to travel with another Basingstoke winner -Sandrine from The Nautical Company - (check out her website for some lovely French designer clothing).

I hadn’t had many dealings with many SBS winners before…only Dylan Moore from Aqua Design Group who made my lovely SBS winners badge, on my home page…

Over a tomato sandwich and a glass of cranberry juice (no, I don’t have a medical condition) we were finally able to meet fellow SBS winners and their guests – and what a lovely bunch of people.

I especially enjoyed chatting to Chris and Claire Hainstock of LincolnMedia and Acting the Party and also Brett Symes of Brett Symes Photography.  You were all so helpful and I look forward to chatting with you soon.

And another quick thank you to Tina Fotherby of Rymans…I really appreciate your help.

Theo Paphitis was a revelation.  He came through the room, happy to chat, and then took the stage. He was funny and interesting. What came across the most was his genuine enthusiasm for small businesses.  He didn’t make daft promises; he knows he can’t put us all ‘on the map’ but quite simply he’s passed us each a ball…and now it’s up to us to pick it up and run with it.

So what have we gained?  Well, there is now an special SBS winners website designed by Chris Wheeler of Metal Frog Studio.

Thank you Chris – it’s a cracking website, and we were all able to give our input into what we want from it.  I’m really proud to be part of it, and with a £50 online gift credit from Ryman Stationery I think it’s all more than generous.

We also had a question and answer session, with some great questions.

How exactly does Theo choose his SBS winners? Well let’s just say you had to be there to find out.  There were a couple of daft questions too…..but then if you put a camera in the room I suppose it’s inevitable.

So what happened next?  We joined the huge throng of people queuing up to be photographed with Theo.  He’s obviously the George Clooney of the business world and has the patience of a saint; managing to smile with an assortment of (mostly ladies) draped around him.

So, the good news is I’ve had my photo taken with Theo.  The bad news is that mine makes me look as though I’m high on cranberry juice…. so it’s probably just as well that I can’t upload it……

The icing on the cake?  A wonderful Goodie Bag from Rymans, which actually had goodies in it that you didn’t want to stuff into a cupboard and forget about.  Thank you!

And last but not least….a quick shout out to some lovely people who I especially enjoyed talking to:

Neil Jackman from Enzo Retail Ltd - I’ve never before had a business card with a pair of underpants on it…

Heather Maskill from Vintage Chairs - a lovely little business with some super furniture.

Sherlock Herring from Red Herring Games - I can honestly say I’ve never before networked with a fish…

Sarah Evans from Right Bag - another Basingstoke SBS winner.

Barry Slip from L F Designs - lovely to see your smiling face for real..

Louise Barson from Silver Concierge - same again…

and finally the lovely Marketing Expert Jenny Hinds  - thank you for being such good company.