Web Applications UK had a great success with the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Networking Event.  About twenty delegates from local businesses came representing all sorts of companies from Catering to Solicitors to Printers to Vehicle Care.  We even had a past president of Oldham Chamber of Commerce.  We would like to send a big thank you to Pauline Pawlykiwskyj from the GMCC for doing a great job as our Event Manager and to everyone who attended for making it such a great night.  I would also like to extend a special thank you to Mayor Jim McArdle for coming by early on in the evening and taking a tour of our offices.

You might be wondering what constitutes a ‘success’ when discussing networking events.  Allow me to explain.  The event was scheduled to begin at 5pm and end at 7pm.  A few people made their exit at 7pm in order to meet other engagements, but the majority stayed.  People had questions, wanted to know more and talk more.  All of a sudden it was 8 o’clock!  Where did the time go?  Had everyone left at quarter to seven I would be more reserved with my praise, but Thursday night was clearly an unmitigated triumph for Web Applications as well as for the GMCC.

So, what was so interesting that it kept delegates enthralled?  It may have been the food, those brownies were delicious, but I doubt it.  Really it was what we were demonstrating that was so exciting, we showed people the future.

The night began by taking groups of people around our offices.  The first thing to notice is always Naomi’s touch screen computer, then the curved glass that shields the reception area and finally our lack of phones, indicating that this is not your average front desk.  This was followed by a look around the rest of the office and mentions of our open plan office space.  Yes, the tour went everywhere and Craig showed off the whole office, even spaces we wish he had skipped (like the messy storage closet).  After the exhaustive tours were completed, everyone moved into the Meeting Room to participate in our Office Communications demonstration.  Craig Dean led the exhibition of the communications system we use instead of everyday telephony, and now that we have our latest competency, we see no reason to hold back showing off.

Robin, Andrew, Vivienne and Craig pulled together their resources to give an in-depth demonstration of our unified communications capabilities. Some of the features that were exhibited included sending instant messages via mobile phones, switching from IM to voice call, conferencing, transferring voice calls to video meetings, connecting to live meeting through email and screen sharing to name a few. Let’s just say, it was intense.  We at Web Applications UK love our unified communications and were more than happy to let others experience how easy and cost-effective office communications can be.

After the initial demonstration, the rest of the evening was spent in discussion, answering questions and getting to know the leaders in our community.  Everyone was involved, asking questions and comparing stories, making full use of the “Networking” part of the networking event.

We want to say thank you again to everyone who came and we are sure we will see you all again soon!