The team from Conservatory Outlet are increasingly becoming key industry figures having been involved with the organisation of GlassTalk a new networking event for the upvc double glazing industry.

So did GlassTalk work? The answer was an overwhelming yes with around 160 people attending the glazing industry’s first networking event at the Hilton Metropole, Birmingham NEC on the 18th March.

It was a bold move to put together a networking event in just 4 weeks and was first conceived by Matthew Glover, Andrew Glover and Jon Twigge after the change of plans for Glassex in 2009. More recently Barry Dunlop, Paul Godwin and Iain McInnes put further resources behind the programme of events and the result was a full event.

A mixture of systems companies, fabricators, installers and other companies associated in the sector attended the one day event which was hosted by Barry Dunlop. The morning session took the form of 3 sessions of networking with tables allocated at random to keep the conversations fresh and engaging.

The afternoon involved a number of couch interviews, with Paul Godwin the man asking the questions to a number of leading industry personnel on topics including recycling, internet marketing, planning for conservatories and Energy Rated Windows / the environment. Evening dinner followed with a number of bar sponsors which included Ultraframe, Synseal, Conservatory Outlet, RoofWright, Blinds2Go, Business Micros, Edgetech, A&B Glass and Mila. Given the non-profit status of the event, the remaining balance from the bar was donated to GM Fundraising.

There was an overwhelming consensus that the event was excellent, productive and should happen on a regular basis. GlassTalk can now lay claim to be an important part of the industry’s calendar and now plans are afoot to make it a permanent fixture. For further information, log on to http://glasstalk.wikidot.com or read Renegade Conservatory’s blog on the event at www.renegadeconservatoryguy.co.uk.