WiFi and Wellies: Lucy reports back on the WiRE conference

Women in Rural Enterprise (WiRE) is a networking and business club for rural women in business that Lucy joined earlier this year.  She just got back from their annual conference (called ‘WiFi and Wellies’!) and here’s what she had to say:

“I wasn’t sure what to expect as I set off for Shropshire at about 6am and made my way to Harper Adams University, where the conference was being held.  I kept thinking of the last time I was at Harper (putting on a speed dating event) and all I knew was that it would be pretty different this time round.  But was it?!

I got there in good time and faced the first challenge of any kind of networking event as I walked into a huge hall of people all drinking coffee and chatting away and wondered how the heck you actually are supposed to “network” at these events.  Do you just strut over to someone you like the look of and boldly introduce yourself, or do you sidle up to a group of people who look like they’re having a good conversation, laugh heartily at the punchline of a joke that you didn’t hear and hope they won’t notice that you weren’t there all along?!  Do you look for someone else standing by themselves and mutter something about the weather/worrying about being late and see if you can engage them in a more interesting conversation?  Or do you just hang out by the tea and coffee and eat lots of biscuits?!  My strategy was probably a combination of the last two…so certainly room for improvement(!)…but luckily I did vaguely know one or two people there, so I wasn’t completely mateless.

At 10am we all went up to the main hall and I got chatting to a really nice girl called Claire who set up The Country Monkey making her own granola and muesli – I love the name!  There must have been a couple of hundred people in the hall and I couldn’t think of  the last time I had been surrounded by so many women – probably school assembly when I was 15 and still at an all-girls school!  There were one or two men (one was a journalist, I think) and I felt for them a bit – particularly when one of the speakers yelled to one guy standing at the back that “if he couldn’t pull here, there was no hope” and we all turned round to gawp at him [it was quite funny though]!

First off, we had a couple of talks from WiRE members who had set up their own businesses.  There was a mother-and-daughter team, who had set up Simply Staffordshire offering eco-friendly accommodation in the Peak District; a South African lady who told us about the trials and tribulations of settling in the UK and setting up her ‘affordable web design’ company W3 Web Designs; and two really fun ladies called Jeanette and Rachael who had started a company called Alternative Meats supplying exotic meats such as kangaroo, crocodile and springbok.

Next up a coffee break, where I learnt that you might as well keep your business cards in your hand, as delving around in the tardis that is my handbag every time someone asked what I did wasn’t too slick!  I then headed off for a ‘Speed Networking’ session, which kind of works the same as speed dating, except you talk business and don’t try it on with anyone at the end!  It’s a good concept actually as it gives you a chance to tell 30 or so people what you do and find out what they do in return.  However, I must admit that, by person number 20, I did lose a bit of enthusiasm for my Muddy Matches spiel!

Lunch was delicious and an excellent opportunity to indulge in two of my favourite pastimes – scoffing and talking (although, not at the same time Mum, obviously)!  However, note to self about chocolate eclairs at all-female conferences: don’t think you’ll grab one later when you’ve eaten your savouries, in those circumstances there is no ‘later’!

We then had a couple more talks in the afternoon, both of which were brilliant.  First off was Anna Farmery on “Blogs, Pods &  Twitters” and how she used social media and an impressively small budget of £500 to start her business The Engaging Brand.  She’s great fun, really inspiring and very good at explaining technical things in non-techy speak.  I also had a nice chat with a girl next to me called Katherine Hutchinson who is in the process of setting up Roots Farm Shop on her family farm in North Yorkshire.  I’ve just discovered that she – the dark horse – has been writing about the whole process on a blog for the WiRE website (click here), which makes interesting reading for anyone who has, or wants to, set up their own business.  Finally, we were lucky enough to have the day wrapped up by Nicky Pattinson, who gave a motivational speech about how to improve sales and develop your business.  Nothing I can say will do this lady justice – just imagine your favourite comedian imparting sound business advice in a broad Yorkshire accent!  In fact, why not go and see her for yourself on her Fabulous ‘Facelift’ Fund Tour!

All in all, an amazing day: I turned up barely knowing anyone, met loads of really nice and interesting people and had lots of fun in the process…so maybe not that different to speed dating after all?!   I highly recommend WiRE to any muddy ladies running, or thinking about running, their own businesses – I certainly wish we had known about it when we were launching Muddy Matches back in 06/07.”

Talking of speed dating, don’t forget about our Muddy Speed Dating sessions coming up in April!