November 2003 - Guests Evening

With nearly 20 guests swelling the numbers of the Andover Women in Business Club’s November meeting, the Networking Plus event produced a very busy and enthusiastic evening this month.

A record number of 17 members requested tables to display their wares and promote their businesses for the evening, providing an extremely varied range of products and services on show.

Members at the meeting discussing the displays

Held at the Hampshire Golf Club, members and guests enjoyed a glass of wine, followed by a delicious three-course meal. Guests had the opportunity to talk to members, new and old, and to find out what the Club has to offer them.

Following the meal and further opportunities to look at the displays, five members spoke in greater detail about their own business, all with a health theme.

First to speak was Birgitta Bergsten, who specialises in the creation of marketing awareness of products and services central in the wellness industry. Extolling the virtues of a special magnetic mattress and the need to drink pure water, Birgitta’s products created considerable interest.

Nikki Dake, of Naturally Health Foods, spoke of the benefits of the Health Notes OnLine programme, available via a PC touchscreen in her shop. The service provides access to the latest research and expert advice on drug/herbal interactions, health concerns, dietary problems and much more.

Continuing the health theme, Suzi Dale, a counsellor working for National Health Service GP surgeries in Wiltshire, specialises in counselling for anxiety, stress, depression and bereavement, together with offering help on a private basis.

Jean Lannie, Project Co-Ordinator of the Andover Family Learning Project, gave the Club a brief outline of some of the Project’s new work, based in Kings Somborne, supporting isolated families in the village. Working closely with local doctors and health visitors in the area, the well-being of people of all ages, from children to grandparents, is being addressed by the introduction of the weekly ‘Coffee Pot’, the hugely successful venture which has proved so popular and beneficial at the Projects Longmeadow Centre, Cricketers Way.

“Theatre is Therapeutic” began Vera Hughes of Chester House Productions, the final speaker of the evening. Well-known locally, Vera and husband, David Weller, provide theatre of many kinds, from talks with a theatrical theme to a range of societies and clubs, to full productions of their work in local theatres.

A talented writer, Vera has most recently adapted 10 of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and has created the show, ‘From Canterbury to Canberra’. Freely adapted and placed in the 21st Century setting of the cruise liner ‘Canberra’, the show is written entirely in verse and features Vera and David enacting Chaucer’s witty and often bawdy tales. As a finale to the evening, members and guests were treated to Vera’s version of The Merchant’s Tale – a fun and amusing end to an evening with a health theme.