Sunshine Coast meetup report

[kbrookes]

Thanks for everyone who joined us this morning for our new Sunshine Coast networking group!

We met for breakfast at La Dolce Vita on the foreshore at Happy Valley, Caloundra. It's a great spot with excellent coffee and everyone was there right on 7am.

In attendance (from left to right) were:

• Helen from Nature Spa
• David from Simple Telecom
• Jeanne from Witch Words
• Justine & Kelsey (myself) from thinksync
• Michael from World Web Books

The topics covered were quite varied. Helen discussed the nature of her products and the challenges she faces competing with pool companies turning over lots of cheap ( and chemically caustic! ) water conditioners against her own natural product.

Much of the discussion focused on marketing, either online or off, with a fair amount of time devoted to discussing search marketing (not greatly surprising, considering I was at the table!) AdWords and other techniques.

David discussed the business of 1300 numbers, a topic which was of interest to most of us - we were mostly unaware that 1300 numbers could be obtained so easily and with relatively little expense.

Jeanne, Justine and myself were of course discussed design and copywriting a great deal - it's our feeling that a great number of clients don't realise that designers expect them to provide the copy: even tho it seems obvious, to many business people there's not such a great distinction between the roles - they simply expect designers to also write their copy for them.

Michael's a long time member of the technical community on the coast - in fact founding the first ISP on the Sunshine Coast! He's currently working on some online tools that could help small businesses with their books. He also had a great deal to contribute to online marketing discussions, being an old-hand at all things internet.

Jeanne also pointed out the value of the networking meetings she'd been going to around the coast, citing it as some of the most valuable promotional work she does for her business.

So we're all keen for another meetup in a month!

I'll be sorting out a venue further up the coast this time, most likely around the Maroochydore/Cotton Tree area, probably an evening catchup.

If you're interested in joining us, please get in touch!

[Blue Sky Bookkeeping]

Yes please - count me in!
Thanks for the update Kelsey
cheers

[FS Concierge]

Hi Kelsey,

Thanks for organising this, and especially for posting the picture so we can all put names to faces. Sounds like a great morning, and I hope the Sunshine Coast chapter has many more

Jayne

[c2cemploymentrelations]

Hi Kelsey

Please count me in for the next one!!
Looks like you had a great networking morning :-)

[naturalspawater]

Originally Posted by kbrookes

Thanks for everyone who joined us this morning for our new Sunshine Coast networking group!

We met for breakfast at La Dolce Vita on the foreshore at Happy Valley, Caloundra. It's a great spot with excellent coffee and everyone was there right on 7am.

In attendance (from left to right) were:

• Helen from Nature Spa
• David from Simple Telecom
• Jeanne from Witch Words
• Justine & Kelsey (myself) from thinksync
• Michael from World Web Books

The topics covered were quite varied. Helen discussed the nature of her products and the challenges she faces competing with pool companies turning over lots of cheap ( and chemically caustic! ) water conditioners against her own natural product.

Much of the discussion focused on marketing, either online or off, with a fair amount of time devoted to discussing search marketing (not greatly surprising, considering I was at the table!) AdWords and other techniques.

David discussed the business of 1300 numbers, a topic which was of interest to most of us - we were mostly unaware that 1300 numbers could be obtained so easily and with relatively little expense.

Jeanne, Justine and myself were of course discussed design and copywriting a great deal - it's our feeling that a great number of clients don't realise that designers expect them to provide the copy: even tho it seems obvious, to many business people there's not such a great distinction between the roles - they simply expect designers to also write their copy for them.

Michael's a long time member of the technical community on the coast - in fact founding the first ISP on the Sunshine Coast! He's currently working on some online tools that could help small businesses with their books. He also had a great deal to contribute to online marketing discussions, being an old-hand at all things internet.

Jeanne also pointed out the value of the networking meetings she'd been going to around the coast, citing it as some of the most valuable promotional work she does for her business.

So we're all keen for another meetup in a month!

I'll be sorting out a venue further up the coast this time, most likely around the Maroochydore/Cotton Tree area, probably an evening catchup.

If you're interested in joining us, please get in touch!

Kel, Thanks for organising a great breakfast, it was a interesting morning and I feel I have gained valuable information. I look forward to the next meeting.
I would like to make a correction if I could, My product is a NON Chlorine Sanitiser for Spas, so the challenge is to enlighten customers there are better alternatives for Spas.
Thanks Helen, Nature Spa.

[kbrookes]

Thanks Jayne, it was my pleasure!

No worries, Brooklin, I'll be scouting out locations this week coming and I'll set the time for the next meetup after that.

[JenG]

Me too!

I missed this one but will definitely try for the next one.

Jen

[kbrookes]

Great Jen!

I'll be putting the call out in the next week in the QLD forum. I'll also post it on the Sunshine Coast Networking Group - I'm always going to post notifications there too, so if you're subscribed there too it could make things easier.