Springbok legend John Smit, who recently made his debut for Saracens Rugby Club, will be speaking at the Breakfast Indaba on 7 December at the SA High Commission in London.

This week’s Breakfast Indaba Victoria will feature a talk by Alison Kemp called, How to quickly build up client rapport and win negotiations without saying a word.

BREAKFAST INDABA PUTNEY

TheSouthAfrican.com and The SA Chamber of Commerce have partnered to deliver the monthly Breakfast Indaba, the most pro-active business networking opportunity within the South African community.

Every participant will be given the opportunity to present to the group of 40+ South African orientated business networkers, enjoy a great breakfast and GENERATE BUSINESS.

What’s great about working with other South Africans? They speak your language. They are friendly, clear, honest and direct in their business dealings and, like you, know what hard work means and they have fun doing it. You and your business need people like that – people you can trust.

The Breakfast Indaba asks each business person to do a one-minute business presentation so everyone can understand the clients they are searching for. There’ll also be an educational plus a coffee and a decent breakfast served during the proceedings.

You are welcome to come as a guest the first time and the breakfast costs £10. However, To secure a membership and have exclusive rights to present your chosen profession/industry for the year then please email: [email protected]. Memberships cost £150 plus vat for 12 months.

Venue: Carluccios, Putney

Time: 7.30am

To buy tickets click here

I meet Councillor Jane Cooper, the Mayor of Wandsworth, at her home in Southfields, or “South Africa-ville” as she calls it. Despite an incredibly demanding schedule (she has already attended more than 200 events as part of her duties since May) the Mayor is very welcoming and introduces me to a dog she is looking after for a council colleague.

TheSouthAfrican.com and The SA Chamber of Commerce have partnered to deliver the most proactive business networking opportunity within the South African community over a monthly Breakfast Indaba. Every participant will be given the opportunity to present to the group of 30+ South African orientated business networkers, enjoy a great breakfast and GENERATE BUSINESS.

The South African and The SA Chamber of Commerce have partnered to deliver the most proactive business networking opportunity within the South African community over a monthly Breakfast Indaba.

When you get out of bed at 6.30 to go to a networking event, you make damn sure you’re doing something effective!

This is possibly one of the secrets of this growing phenomenon. The Breakfast Indaba concept is a collaboration between TheSouthAfrican.com and The SA Chamber of Commerce, and aims to provideaplatform for South African (related) business owners and decision makers to proactively network.

41 people attended the latest event on 11 August, despite three nights of rioting and instability. The Breakfast Indaba Putney welcomed its 18 permanent members and a host of new visitors. Guest speakers were Donovan Crutchfield from Taxagility.com and Babalwa Ntabeni, (Director for Higher Education Institutional Support and Sector Liaison in South Africa). Members of the SA High Commission attended, as did members of the ANC and DA Abroad. Businesses attending ranged from dentists, to financial advisors, recruiters and web developers.

“I like the format for a few reasons,” said Steven Uprichard, a new member from Martech Social. “You get 60 seconds to pitch your business needs, meet like-minded business owners and most importantly, members pro-actively help you push your business between events.”

Patrick Atherton, one of the directors of Blue Sky Publications, is convinced the media organisation has tapped potential that has existed for a while.

“As well as being an efficient, highly energised networking environment, it allows the SA-UK community to finally work together for mutual benefit.”

“The Breakfast Indaba Victoria will be launched in early September and memberships are limited, so we strongly advise people to contact us now. Keep in mind that we only accept one member for each business sector – FX, shipping, travel and so on…”

Contact:[email protected] or Tel: 0845 456 4910.

If you’re planning to go into business, the best time to do it is very early in the morning. This is the impression you’d get if you were in Carluccio’s restaurant in Putney at 7am last Thursday. If you’d ventured outside at that hour, you would have seen a large group of suited businessmen and women filing into the restaurant, eager for both networking opportunities and really, really strong coffee.