I was lucky enough to be invited to a meeting of the Askew Village Group earlier in the week and spent a fascinating (for me at least) hour in their company. Established by Anne Pennington of web designers Digitalplot (www.digitalplot.co.uk) and Charlotte Cottle (www.seymourprojects.co.uk ) who were joined by self- styled ‘Friendly Neighbourhood Geek’, Paul Smith of www.myfng.com , Rocio from Abode Renovations www.noplacelikeabode.com and several others; their aim is to pull together, to pool resources, to help each other to grow.
So far so good – small business-networking at its micro best and people getting on with helping themselves – nothing remarkable there?
But I think this is more than Business Networking – this is Civic Networking. They are determined to grow their businesses because healthier businesses will be at the core of an overall improvement in their bit of the borough.
Like so many people, I drive down the Askew Road all of the time. Its charms have faded a bit over time, the businesses and shops have a patchy appearance and it doesn’t exactly draw the passers-by with retailing magnets in the way it could. And that’s where the civic networking thing comes in. They know that it’s no good just one business pulling a Mary Portas style re-furb. They need to act together. And more than that, they have to do it with the local people, the charities and the rest of the people whose lives will be improved. They want to draw the community together in the same way they are pulling themselves together.
They’ll be the best spokes-people for what they plan so I won’t say too much here, but I’m hoping it will be a great model for other parts of the borough where a bit of business bonding can make a huge difference to local communities. I’ll try to get them to share their blogs and so on here so we can all stay in touch.
Please let me know if you have a similar scheme in your bit of the borough as I’m fascinated to track the progress of this kind of initiative.
