Chamber confirms 'Meet The Buyers' event at The Rose Bowl on 29 March

23 Jan 12

"Meet The Buyers" event is set right up to boost the economy! The sixth South Hampshire Meet the Buyers event is to be held on Thursday 29th March 2012 at the Rose Bowl, Southampton.

Meet the Buyers enables major buying organisations within South Hampshire to meet local suppliers face-to-face and is designed to build local supply chains. The event is funded by the South Hampshire Meet the Buyers Partnership which includes Eastleigh Borough Council, Hampshire County Council, New Forest District Council, Test Valley Borough Council and Winchester City Council. The event is being run this year on behalf of the Partnership by Hampshire Chamber of Commerce whose main aim is to support initiatives which create growth and prosperity for Hampshire.

The previous Meet the Buyer event saw over 110 suppliers and 23 buyers take part, with an estimated nearly £2.3million of business as a result. Each year, almost all suppliers who have attended have expected to do business with companies they met at Meet the Buyers.

Senior buyers from organisations such as Hampshire County Council, Basingstoke and Dean Borough Council, Fassett Facilities Management Company, Lakehouse, the award winning support services provider, New Forest District Council, Geoffrey Osborne Limited the Construction, Refurbishment, Fit out Civil Engineering & Property Services Company and many more have already committed to take part. They will all be given a buying booth at the event, allowing them each to meet small and medium sized businesses on the day.


Councillor Peter Wall, Cabinet Member for Business and Skills said “We are proud to be involved with this year’s event which is set to be the largest yet. It is a great opportunity for local businesses to meet with some of the biggest public and private sector organisations in the region and generate income for the local economy.”

Once again the Partnership is offering more than just the one day event. This year a programme of events will help prepare people for a day of selling. The first is “How to Sell Yourself” seminar which will be held on March 20 at Eastleigh Borough Council offices. This event will enable suppliers to pick up tips on how to best sell their products and services to major buyers. The guest speaker for this event will be Denise Barlow, Head of Communications and Marketing at Hampshire Chamber of Commerce. Having run her own sales training company for over 20 years, Denise has a wealth of experience in the field of Sales and Marketing.
There will also be two public sector procurement training workshops “How to Win Public Sector Procurement Opportunities”. These will be held on Tuesday February 28th in Committee Room 1 at Appletree Court, Beaulieu Road, Lyndhurst, SO43 7PA. The second will be held on Wednesday March at 7th at Wessex House in Eastleigh. Both events will start at 1pm and end at 5pm.

If you are interested in attending as either a buyer or supplier please contact Hampshire Chamber of Commerce on 0844 4990446, or e mail janet.maxwell@hampshirechamber.co.uk

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