Heather White - Speaker, Coach and Trainer
Heather White is the founder and CEO of Smarter Networking Ltd, previously known as The Magic of Networking. Prior to starting this business she worked in sales, marketing and operations across various industries including: insurance, leisure, medical, retail and transport.
Heather started this business after losing her job in 1998 when, because she didn’t have a network, life was pretty tough. So she did what any other determined person would have done – got out there and made it happen for herself. Heather’s strategy was to simply attend every networking event she could, to watch, listen and learn how others networked. She then applied these principles and turned her career around. One day someone asked if she would explain her networking techniques to others and Smarter Networking was born.
Heather is described as a networking architect as her unique skill is being able to break down all that doesn’t work and rebuild it into something extremely effective.
She specialises in helping businesses and professional individuals create networking strategies which enable them to find and break into new sectors, form internal and external collaborations and find new business opportunities. Her focus is on creating confident, engaging and willing people who enjoy networking.
She also specialises in coaching business leaders on how to use networking as an effective tool with which to achieve their performance targets and be more productive.
Heather has worked in the private and public sectors, with not-for-profit, voluntary and membership organisations and business schools. She works with sales teams, back office staff, international groups, lawyers, accountants, business owners, sole traders, senior management teams and many more.
In action: Making Networking Connections, GLE One London, 100 business owners, 50 mins on how to network including a session on working a room. The podcast: Open Link The video: Website Link
National everywoman Conference 2009, Smarter Networking...Be authentic, Be profitable and Do it in style by Heather for 300 business women, Video Link...
Read more: online interview with Heather White with We Are The City. Open link....
Stephanie Peckham - Trainer, Coach, Speaker and Facilitator
What sort of person are you? What's your most effective approach to networking? How do you relate to other people? What motivates you to perform well? If you want to answer some of these questions, then Stephanie Peckham is the right person to ask!
Stephanie understands the way people work and the way they relate to others. This may explain her unique ability to turn any presentation into a shared voyage of discovery that entertains, engages and ultimately delivers new knowledge in a truly memorable way. It's an approach that delivers powerful training and coaching in networking as well as in presentation skills, leadership development, self-awareness and a whole host of soft skills.
Following a long career in the banking sector, primarily focused on learning and development, Stephanie became a career coach in 2001, starting her own business and becoming a lead consultant for a global career consultancy.
She met Heather White (through networking!) in 2004 and joined Smarter Networking in 2005. Since then she has designed and delivered many of Smarter Networking’s successful coaching and training programmes and is responsible for the recruitment and training of our highly qualified Associate trainers.
At Smarter Networking Stephanie has worked with a wide range of organisations including the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. She has a particular interest in all aspects of diversity and how diverse networks can bring benefits for individuals, organisations and communities by harnessing innovation, fresh ideas and different perspectives
Stephanie is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and holds an MSc in HR; she is a qualified performance coach, mediator and practitioner for the Myers Briggs Type Indicator steps 1 & 2 and 16PF5.
Read Stephanie's article in FUMSI on networking for information professionals
Michelle Brailsford
Michelle's primary focus is "adding life back into work" by helping organisations build authentic relationships.
She has been able to apply her considerable blue-chip experience, gained in a wide variety of human resource roles, to make a real impact on the people side of her clients' businesses. She worked as an internal organisational consultant, trainer and manager for MCI Telecommunications for twelve years before leaving to set up her own boutique consultancy.
Michelle has consulted across various industries in both the US and Europe including a number of FTSE 100 companies.
She holds a BA in Business and an MSc in Organistional Behaviour and is certified to deliver a number of cutting edge programmes including Organisational Savvy ©, The Leadership Compass ©, Positive Politics for Powerful Female Leaders © and Better Buyer Relationships ©
Simon Card OBE
Simon Card quite simply is a connector, an introducer. He is an expert on relationship management and executive networks. He is also a non-executive member of BT's South East Regional Board, is a member of the SEEDA (South East England Development Agency) Corporate Cabinet and is involved with The Briefing Circle, a high-level briefing programme for directors of FTSE 250 companies and their peers in the public and not for profit sectors.
Until recently Simon was Head of Strategic Relations - Pan Government at BT, responsible for developing high-level relationships between the company and the UK Government. He has held a series of senior marketing and relationship management roles during his 14 years at BT both in the Global Finance and Government sectors and at Concert (the BT / AT&T Global venture).
Simon's career has included experience of the retail sector at J Sainsbury, commodity trading and senior sales and marketing roles in the financial services and technology sectors.
Apart from his family, Simon takes a keen interest in politics, countryside pursuits and local, national and international affairs, is chairman of the Ambassadors at Merlin (www.merlin.org.uk) the British medical aid charity and Honorary Town Crier for a local village in Buckinghamshire!
Peter Miller-Smith
Peter is a professional coach with 25 years commercial experience, and a proven track record of running businesses and leading teams in the UK, Europe and USA. He works with executives in the private and public sector, managers and business owners wanting to improve their own and their business performance. He brings commercial awareness, challenge, and incisiveness, and a well-tried and proven approach.
Peter’s successes with clients are in a number of areas including:
- Enabling executives get clarity and focus, and delivering on the objectives for the business
- Accelerating the performance and effectiveness of individuals and teams
- First 100 days into new role – High Impact coaching
- Career Transition - Preparing for a new role
- Building confidence and clarity to enable individuals to perform at their best
Michael Vincent
Michael Vincent is a professional magician and speaker. His expertise in the arena of presenting magical illusion is linked to the art of building rapport and communication with others. He has worked with audiences from all over the world and this has given him a unique perspective on people, life and how we communicate. Consider the skills of a magician – they have to be able to build instant trust and rapport in order to distract people from the trick. How do they do that?
His three passions in life are magic, people and communication. These three components have allowed him to explore how best he can serve and authentically liberate others in the process. One of his key presentations is called The Tapestry of Communication and Rapport Dynamics © and gets audiences to look that much deeper inside themselves and how they choose to develop their relationships.