BSWN was delighted to hold the first Black & Asian Business Network event of the year on Thursday 23rd January 2020, welcoming an audience of 30 local Black & Asian entrepreneurs and business at Clarke Willmott who kindly hosted the event. The event focused on development of marketing & communication skills for your business, and was chaired by Bobbi O’Gilvie of Ready to Blog.

Attendees had a chance to hear from a key-note speaker Tash Pennant, an award-winning communications consultant specialising in internal communications and employee engagement. She advices clients with significant impact across the UK in the public sector, media and publishing industries. Through her business, Tash helps people connect with brands and organisations from the inside out.

Her key message focused on the power of networking, especially thinking about networking through its purpose; “Sometimes people see networking as a sell, but actually it’s a bridge to others.” By focusing and growing their already existing networks - through activities such as sport, events and even local neighbourhood, everyone has the potential to build new connections that may be advantageous for their business.

And what does Tash advise for repairing relationships that haven’t gotten off o the right foot? “Sometimes we get mixed messages, we misunderstand things. And it’s okay to admit that ‘I made a mistake, I’m not sure about that, did I offend you?’. Ask questions, seek first to understand what happened and work on it.”

Following key-note speech from Tash, the audience took part in an interactive session on social media marketing led by Joyann Boyce, Founder of The Social Detail. She works with SMEs, with a focus on technology companies to maximise their impact through social media. The Social Detail has worked with a range of organisations such as Bristol City Council, Black Girl Convention, SETsquared and Future Space; and is an avid advocate for diversity and inclusion partnering on projects with TechSPARK such as SHIFT to create diverse stock photography.

Joyann’s key advice to enterprises and businesses of all sizes is “When stepping onto social media as a business, you need to figure out what is your social media goal, why are you there, what do you want to gain from it and why is it beneficial to your business.”

Navigating the myriad of available social media platforms can however be time consuming, and keeping a continuous engagement with potential clients and partners can prove challenging for start ups and small business teams. Joyann suggests it’s important to “stick with where you’re going to be most constant and comfortable with. If that is LinkedIn and Facebook for your business, do that.”

The event concluded with further networking where businesses had a chance to put into practice some of Tash’s advise and find out more about each other’s mission in the city. One of the participants commented “I enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you for creating SUCH a welcoming environment. For the first time, I didn't feel like an outsider -- even though that was my very first event.”