On Thursday 13th July Neil Newstead our CEO, along with his assistant Emma Hawkins and Samantha Hensher, our Financial Director attended a Rightmove live event at the Guildhall in Winchester.
The event was one of a series of events being filmed in front of a live audience to be launched later this year. There were four guest speakers whom all shared an insight into their life in business.
The first speaker of the day was Connor McNicholas who was the Editior of NME from 2002-2009. Connor did a fantastic 20 minute talk on his time at the NME sharing all the issues he faced including the decline in magazine sales and how they evolved the brand to account for this. The NME used to be the way new rock bands made themselves known in the industry, that was until the internet took over and the introduction of MySpace and other social media meant that bands could reach their audiences directly without the need for the magazine.
Connor was followed by Tony Anderson the former Marketing Director at EasyJet. Tony was part of the team at EasyJet when it launched back in 1995 now over 20 years later it is one of the most successful budget airlines in Europe. Tony discussed at length the marketing strategy of EasyJet to stand out from British Airways who they considered to be their main competitor, including buying the advertising space above the BA check in desk and BA baggage reclaim at Aberdeen Airport. EasyJet took risks and were one of the first airlines to offer a discount to passengers who booked online!!
After an interval Miles Shipside, Commerical Director of Rightmove did a presentation giving an insight into how him, Ed Williams and Nick McKittrick founded Rightmove in 2000 offering a ‘one stop shop’ for house hunters to find property. Now some 17 years later Rightmove is the largest, most recognised property portal in the UK. Miles shared information on the initial recruitment process at Rightmove which included all 3 Directors interviewing each applicant and they all had to be in agreement when offering a job at the company, needless to say nowadays that just isn’t feasible!!
The day ended on a sweet note with Josephine Farley telling us all about how she started Green & Blacks organic chocolate back in 1991! Craig Sams, her husband, was the founder of Whole Earth the organic food company and he was sent some organic coco beans from that he made a sample dark chocolate made up of 70% coco Josephine tried it and had never tasted anything quite like it. From that she formed Green & Blacks using £20,034.00 she had in her bank following the recent sale of her property. The name Green & Blacks came from the fact the ‘Green’ symbolises the brand’s ethical and sustainable beliefs and Black represents the intensity of the high cocoa content of the chocolate. Green & Blacks pride themselves on being and ethical fair trade brand.
It was a fantastic afternoon with 4 very different but equally as inspiring talks we certainly took something away from each of them, as well as a sample bar of Green & Blacks!!