The Cork City Chapter of BNI held it’s final meeting of the year on Friday last. In keeping with tradition, the usual rules were relaxed and the spirit of Christmas was in evidence.
The chapter’s award-winning documentary photographer, Roger Overall, captured the morning’s events here.
Posted in Chapter Members, Christmas 2009.
– December 21, 2009
Ciara Feely has an ass fetish.
She speaks freely about it at BNI meetings, even going so far as projecting one on a big screen during her recent 6-minute presentation to the BNI Cork City chapter.
In her business, though, “ass” stands for association, a key market for Ciara’s services.
And we should mention that the ass she’s been showing is Donkey, from the Shrek movies.
Ciara founded Find-A-Conference-Venue.com in 2007 to help conference and event organizers easily identify suitable venues. She also provides a tailor-made service to her clients, where she scouts venues and compiles reports based on a brief, usually including video of the venue’s facilities.
“This saves clients anywhere from 3 hours to 4 days, and cuts out a lot of travel,” Ciara explains.
Once she has narrowed down the choice for her clients, then they can view them for themselves.
“It means that my conference clients can concentrate on what is most valuable to them. For many associations, their conference and ancillary exhibition are their major income streams. The more time they can spend on encouraging attendance and marketing exhibit space, the more money they’ll make,” Ciara says.
Moreover, research shows that for conference goers the choice of venue is their number 1 or number 2 reason for attending.
Ciara has 13 years’ experience of the hospitality industry, having worked on the launch the Omni San Francisco Hotel and reaching Director of Corporate Sales level at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco.
Now back in her native Ireland, she has plans to roll out the Find-A-Conference-Venue concept worldwide. “It’s going to be more technology-driven,” she says.
In addition, Ciara is actively looking to recruit staff to bolster the tailor-made side of the business over the next year-and-a-half.
FUN FACT: Ciara auditioned to be a Spice Girl.
Posted in Chapter Members.
– November 30, 2009
The Cork City chapter of BNI is the most successful chapter of its type in the country. At this morning’s meeting, over eighty referrals (genuine opportunities for business) were passed amongst chapter members.
As the chapter is highly progressive and forward-thinking, planning has already begun for the Christmas Party!
Given the diverse range of services provided by the forty-six members, one eagle-eyed member realised that all the possible needs of the chapter could be satisfied by people in the room…
I know somebody who can source / supply:
- the venue
- Air conditioning equipment (to keep us cool)
- Balloons (an ideal promotion opportunity)
- Health and safety statement
- Legal services (for any after event court appearances, claims etc)
- Temporary accommodation for those who can’t make it home and did not book a hotel room (how many would you fit in one of those Portakabins ?)
- Loans for the spending money
- Inspection of the premises to make sure it is structurally sound
- services to keep the spending within budget
- Chiropractic services, for those who overdo it on the dance floor
- Accountancy services, provide a balancing statement after the event
- Insurance, 3rd part liability and income protection (for those who really overdo it)
- the PR to advertise the event
- A painter decorator, to re-paint / decorate the venue afterwards
- A photographer or two who can take the most amazing pictures, depending on whether we class this as corporate entertainment or a private event ?
- A printer to print the cards for the seating arrangements
- A landscape gardener, again useful if people get to exuberant and do things to the garden of the venue
- A fitness instructor who can help us all to get into shape for the event
- Floors, in case we go through it
- An architect, somebody who help us re-construct the venue after we’re finished partying
Of course, there are plenty more! If you would like to attend a meeting of the Cork City Chapter, please contact us to arrange a visit.
Posted in Christmas 2009.
– August 28, 2009
Recently, to recognise its ongoing success, the Cork City chapter received a special award from the founder of the BNI organisation, Dr. Ivan Misner. The so-called Founder’s Award is given to a tiny fraction of the thousands of chapters worldwide who demonstrate consistent success in generating new business for its members.
The Cork City chapter director, the person responsible for chairing the weekly meetings, Niall Hawthorne was both thrilled and surprised when Charlie Lawson, head of BNI UK & Ireland, visited the chapter meeting in June to present the Founder’s Award. Niall commented afterwards “Hand on heart, I had no idea that Charlie was there to present us with the Founder Award, and it was a genuine shock when he did.”
Niall admits that being director of such a successful chapter carries its own pressure, “From the day I agreed to become Chapter Director for my six-month stint, I always felt that I was simply trying to continue the incredible work carried out by my predecessors, and to try to lead the chapter to the heights previously achieved, and where possible to lead the chapter to even greater things.”
Like all true success, this was not an overnight process. Niall was quick to acknowledge this, “As part of previous leadership teams, I was aware of the amount of work and effort that my colleagues had put into the Cork City Chapter and this award was recognition of their efforts, and of the effort, integrity and honesty of every member of the Cork City Chapter, past and present.”
All of the leadership roles within a BNI chapter are rotated every six months. Niall’s term as chapter director ends in September. Niall realises “to be the Chapter Director when the award was presented was a personal piece of good fortune. To be a member of the Cork City Chapter when the award was presented was an honour.”
Posted in Awards.
– August 6, 2009
Most business people would be delighted to generate even more business for themselves and this is especially true in these recessionary times. Hundreds of business people in the Cork area are members of BNI, a networking and referral generating organisation, because they would like to grow and develop their businesses.
BNI, which is the most successful organisation of its type in the world, is organised into ‘chapters’ where groups of business people help each other find prospective clients for their products or services. It is based on the principle of “Givers Gain” – if you help my business, I’m more likely to help yours. One such chapter, BNI Cork City, meets on a weekly basis where almost 50 business people educate their colleagues on how to identify prospective customers for them.
The BNI Cork City chapter is comprised of business people from all walks of life. One of the unique features of BNI is that each chapter has just one representative for a particular industry, profession or trade so as to avoid direct competition amongst the members.
The Cork City chapter is the longest-running of the dozen or so chapters in the Cork area and some of its members have been enjoying the benefits of membership for over eleven years.
The Cork City chapter of BNI meets every Friday morning at the Ambassador Hotel, Cork. If you would like to visit, please contact info@bnicorkcity.com.
Posted in General Discussion.
– August 6, 2009
Welcome to the BNI Cork City Chapter Blog
BNI is a business professional organisation that allows only one person from each trade or profession to join a chapter. It is the most successful organisation of its type in the world – with over 5,000 chapters and tens of thousands of members worldwide.
The BNI Cork City Chapter meet every Friday at 6.45am in the Ambassador Hotel, Cork.
Posted in General Discussion.
– June 23, 2009
