City of York Council is running ‘Connect over Coffee’, a bi-monthly business support forum to connect and support York businesses to prosper.
The last 19 months have changed the way businesses operate, interact and network. The shift to working remotely not only restricted networking opportunities but also created unprecedented challenges and questions for many businesses.
Connect over Coffee first began in May 2020 by Louise Saw, City of York Council’s Business Growth Manager, as a response to the various challenges faced by York’s business community during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, over 36 meetings have taken place with 130 different businesses participating, and many returning for regular attendance. The business support forum continues to meet twice a month, generally every second and fourth Wednesday of the month via a mixture of Zoom and in-person events.
Chaired by Louise Saw, each Connect over Coffee session starts with a special guest speaker talking about a chosen support topic. The meeting is then followed by an open discussion where attendees are encouraged to share their views and experiences with fellow businesses to build and develop an effective peer-to-peer support system. The sessions conclude with a Zoom breakout room which allows businesses to network.
Connect over Coffee meetings aim to provide businesses with a collaborative and inclusive safe-space to discuss and address their challenges. Previous speaker themes have included sales, marketing and social media, SEO, skills, start-up support, R&D tax credits, investment, HR, furlough, legal, data protection, and working remotely, among others.
Adam Gill, Vidaveo, said: “Connect over Coffee is the most genuine and worthwhile example of business networking that I have had the privilege of being part of. Particularly since the first Covid lockdown I have relied on Connect over Coffee and Louise’s advice and guidance to help me navigate my business, not only towards discovering what support is out there, but also following her indications of how I might best ‘pivot’ my business as the new landscape emerged.
I would highly recommend any York business to attend the Connect over Coffee sessions, it’s an open and friendly platform where you can talk frankly with other business owners and ask questions about the latest updates regarding support, business strategies and new opportunities. I always learn something new at each Connect over Coffee session and come away feeling positive and energised.”
Councillor Andrew Waller, Executive member for Economy and Strategic planning, said: “The council recognises the unforeseen hardships that York’s local businesses have had to face since the pandemic. We understand that networking plays a vital role in the growth of any business which is why we are keen on continuing to create as many networking opportunities as possible.
The Connect over Coffee initiative intends to help local businesses connect with their peers and receive all types of support that is available for them from the council and our partners. I encourage businesses to attend these bi-monthly sessions and use all available resources for their growth and resilience.”
City of York Council recognises that these are challenging times for business owners and entrepreneurs as they continue to face obstacles, pressures and questions around running a business during a pandemic.
The council is determined to help them access the business support they need in order to survive and thrive by providing a wide range of support from grants, legal advice, training to HR through initiatives like Connect Over Coffee.
