The Black Country Diners’ Club (BCDC), hosted by BCRS Business Loans, is held on a quarterly basis. The BCDC has been a premier networking event in the Black Country for over 10 years and continues to attract many leading business people from across the Midlands.
The April instalment of this event continued to deliver on that promise. BCRS were proud to attract just shy of 70 people to this event, from a whole range of different business sectors – from bankers to accountants, solicitors to consultants, recruitment to hospitality, to name just a few.
Upon arrival, guests were welcomed into a bustling networking arena where they were encouraged to get chatting and form new working relationships. Numerous individuals even commented that they had arranged further meetings to discuss the possibility of agreeing new deals and partnerships.
As the time approached 12:30pm and guests had enjoyed 45 minutes of busy networking, it was time to wind down and enjoy a two-course meal. Everyone tucked into a main course of Slow Cooked Blade of Beef or Potato Gnocchi, each served with a selection of vegetables; followed by a dessert of Eton Mess and coffee to finish.
Devya Athwal, who is founder and Director of Athwal Resourcing, was our special guest speaker for this event and shared her thoughts on how we can ‘bridge the development gap between the workplace and educational institutions.’ Born and raised in Wolverhampton, Devya clearly has a passion for promoting business in the Black Country and currently commits a lot of her time to supporting the need for stronger links between employers and those currently in education.
She went on to say that although the Black Country has a population of 5.3 million people and is home to over 40,000 businesses, it still consistently scores incredibly low LEP statistics. The region scores lowest in terms of training, employment, job creation and entrepreneurship.
According to Devya, the only way we can facilitate future growth in the region and harness the talent that the next generation possess is to introduce students to business from an early age – whether that be visiting schools and giving presentations or offering a range of student placement opportunities.
The event also received high praise through a number of tweets posted on Twitter. A guest from Headz up for Business commented, “Great turnout – well done. Hope to attend your next event”, while another guest added, “Interesting dinner event – thanks for the invitation.” The hospitality of Wolves Corporate and the quality of our guest speaker also received compliments from attendees, with one post reading, “Great food and fantastic speaker.”
A key issue facing entrepreneurs – not just in the Black Country, but across much of the West Midlands – is a struggle to access finance from traditional, mainstream lenders. BCRS realise the difficulties SMEs face, which is why we offer loans ranging from £10,000 to £150,000 over a period of 1-7 years. For more information please visit www.bcrs.org.uk or call us on 0845 313 8410.
