I really felt that the pressure was on when I arrived at The Aspire Centre early on Tuesday evening...

Why? Well it was only a few short weeks ago that we had our highly successful Official Launch for thebestof Lowestoft in the stunning setting of Somerleyton Hall.

We'd set the bar rather high with the launch and now here we were with the first of our regular An Evening With's.

I had an inauspicious start when unloading the car. Tried being clever not practical (it's a bloke thing) by carrying as much as I could. Went to slam the boot lid which I did but not before it had ripped my box of goodies from my hand scattering the contents to all points of the compass! Expletive deleted.

To make things worse the three framed certificates were all broken with wood and glass littering the ground around my feet. Another expletive deleted.

A few deep breaths later and just the odd spot of blood from the broken glass and I was heading off to get properly prepared...

My part of the evenings 'entertainment' was to explain the new website that we have in the offing so technology would undoubtedly be the next thing to trip me up. Thankfully my laptop talked to the projector and sound actually came out of the speakers. No expletive needed.

Wendy welcomed our 25 guests and we played them the fantastic video of our launch that Michaela and Paul at Ferini Media had produced for us.

And now my turn...

I think I'd rehearsed my presentation so many times I could have done it without Powerpoint and it all went swimmingly. Yay!

And now to the real reason why everyone had turned up - our star turn - Emily Barclay of The Perfect Wine. Emily had brought along three wines for us to taste and gave some great tips for choosing the right wine for Christmas as well as things to look out for when buying wine - I certainly learnt much about my favourite tipple!
Emily's style of delivery was relaxed, down to earth and not at all pretentious (which you might expert a wine expert to be!). I'd really recommend Emily if you'd like your own wine tasting event - whether at home or for a corporate do.

We kept rumbly tums at bay with some great food from Mark and his team at A Piece of Cake - the cheese straws we're a real hit!

Vanessa Bell from EACH was also deep in conversation with a number of our members and I'm sure some fundraising for this fantastic charity will get underway soon.

And that was our first An Evening With thebestof Lowestoft over... It was good to see so many connections being made and ideas being exchanged.

Better start planning the January evening now...

Is your business one of the best in Lowestoft? Should you be part of this group of successful Lowestoft businesses? Find out more by visiting www.iamthebestof.co.uk/lowestoft