Wednesday, August 17, 2011

#1 Home Boardroom Lunch was fab, fun & fulfilling!

Yesterday was the first shared 'Table of Fabulousness' and was by everyone's account (8 of us) a fab & beneficial event. We had < 3 hours to devour bite size pieces of information on each others business, savour delicious food (recipes to follow) and sip on a signature, award winning 'Celestial' cocktail (tx Alexx of  Luxury Tastings).


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Appetiser Miang 
a David Thompsen inspired hot, sweet, salty spoon salad
(little pieces of bbq prawn, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, peanuts, coriander, mint and thai basil leaves, roasted galangal, ginger, lime ruby grapefruit, pam sugar, fish sauce ...you get the idea!)
Main course of beef poach in Asian broth with greens and shiitake (Rowie Cakes inspired & Neil Perry recipe)
Dessert 8 hour pears with vanilla yoghurt & home made sponge fingers to soak up the vanilla infused red wine 
(fruit in season, healthy yoghurt & a 'biscuit' I have never cooked)

The mix of people and their biz types & stages married really well. We had businesses from Virtual Assistants & PR/Events thru to e-learning & online waste trading! Just by introducing ourselves & our biz each of us got at least 3 unplanned 'take -outs'. We did not make it right round the table in full as the time slipped passed quickly (we better sack the chairperson - moi!) Sorry Mel & Liana -  you are both at the next one/s so we shall make up for it there.

There was a quick discussion that it would be good to have an online table, a place where we could meet and keep chatting & sharing about sharing specific topics between lunches. I am thinking an online table would also attract new guests and perhaps even be a desirable destination for 'experts' to join us IRL and share their expertise.  Table of Fab #2 has been filled (8 guests) with 6 returning guests, this means there are not many places for new people - this is telling me that you would like to build 'real' relationships.

My initial thoughts on where to create an on line Table of Fabulousness are about time & effort to maintain and ease of use for guests. It probably works best being phased: eg
Start with a dedicated Facebook Page for the Table of Fabulousness as it is so easy to setup and add content, run the events, set up an online enquiry/database, view pics/data jpgs etc. The trouble with this is you don't get much depth in conversation as the discussion page app I have on my luk site is no longer available.
Move 2 a wordpress blog/site so we can above but also have discussion forums / subjects, profile each biz etc

At the next Fab Table I think we should keep it simple. Finish the introductions + welcome the 2 new guests (Suellen and Naomi), and either discuss a particular subject of interest (which we can work out before hand) or set ourselves a biz goal that we wish to be accountable for by the next meeting. These are just ideas - I will kick start this discussion on our dedicated facebook page soon.

We need to think about what to do if we keep getting enquiries to join. Perhaps people will volunteer to be a host and hand pick their own table! Just seeding the thought....lets let it go organic!

We have just a few pics of our day (Tx Melinda) - all before guest arrived as we were too busy sharing & connecting, learning and being inspired!

Here is a little taste of our fab few hours. I look forward to our next shared Table of Fabulousness - the  Home Boardroom Lunch for small biz owners!





3 comments:

Ruby Ruby Designs said...

sounds yummy, and like you had a great time. Maybe you could try setting up a closed group on Facebook? You can start discussions and mini threads that are easy to follow and get involved in. By having it closed, only invitees can 'attend'

David said...

Hey Cuz, sounds like one and all had a good time. I am happy to hear of the possibility for an online luncheon table. I told my partner Joy that one day I would have to get you to set up a Laptop and webcam at the end of the table so that I could attend from here in Toowoomba. For a Online version you could use buddypress on the wordpress platform.

cheers, Dave

Cindyluken said...

Bec - thanks for your thought. I explored the 'closed group' idea via another thing and discovered you have to be friends first. Problem with that is i don't believe all of us we want to mix biz with personal stuff.

Dave - LOL, what a great idea, we can have Skype set up on the side board (gotta love wireless), we actually had a couple of ladies who wanted to attend like that too. A Blast! Actually, I could set up the Sony video recorder or turn it into a (boring) podcast! Food for thought

Maybe you could set up our "Table of Fab" wordpress site and I'll send you a meal in the post!

Never heard of Buddy press - gosh you are up with it!

Cx