BNI Hutt Valley recently organised a networking event in Wellington, featuring the Professional Development Manager for The Hurricanes and Wellington Lions, Steve Symonds, as guest speaker.
Organiser and Hutt Valley Chapter President, Craig Reddin, says BNI Members who attended gained insights in to the behind the scenes life of a professional rugby player, a franchise such as The Hurricanes and the amount of infrastructure provided to not only support their growth the personal development within the game, but also outside of the sport – remembering that the average playing time of a professional rugby player is nine years.
“This was the first of our initiatives in relation to group networking and the new leadership team will be working on a group dancing event, most likely in conjunction with The Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce,” says Craig, who organised everything personally given his role with the Hertz Sevens and Wellington Rugby.
“D4, where we held the function, is a commercial partner of the Hertz Sevens, and they supplied complimentary nibbles and the venue at no cost,” says Craig, who attends the chapter as director of Reddin Associates LTD.
“There was a spot prize at the end for a signed Hurricanes jersey, which was won by Gaylene Hughes from JDI Business Coaching.
“Given that Steve (Symonds) and I are work colleagues, we are keen to see something like this grow and we are going to work on the possibilities around inviting all of the local BNI Chapters along to another networking event, however, this time up at the Hurricanes training facility – maybe to watch the team train and then have a BBQ lunch along with some networking,” says Craig.