Published: Wednesday, 30th June, 2010 11:13am

Open Coffee Cavan networking initiative

Terry Rehill (whohasit.ie), Gary Rutherford (marketing consultant), Stephen Hewitt (redwindow.ie) and Stuart Meharg (chartered accountant) at the opencavancoffee.com networking meeting in the Alamo Restaurant, Virginia Shopping Centre.

It's another first for Cavan. A group of people, many meeting for the first time, turn up at a cafe to network face-to-face and share ideas and the lap top remains in the background.

It does not matter whether you are unemployed, recently been made redundant or a company director or school teacher, there's a place at the table for you in a chosen restaurant/meeting place of the week.

I caught up with them in The Alamo restaurant at the Virginia Shopping Centre.

A new website www.opencoffeecavan.com has been launched by Stephen Hewitt who has launched this most innovative idea, which involves the old idea of people meeting face-to-face to have a chat in an informal manner and share their experiences and maybe offer advice.

All updates regarding the next meeting and location will be on the website.

Stephen hopes to have this informal gathering in Virginia every two weeks and he will bringing the idea to Cavan town in the near future. It is open to anyone to establish the idea in a coffee shop in Ballyconnell or Cootehill.

"All you have to do is get in contact with me and I'll give your initiative the impetus it needs to get off the ground," said Stephen.

You will be free to twitter and use the face book page on the website and the internet will be used to get people to assemble in one place at a set time for an open conversation.

The more varied the people who come along, the better for everyone, because those in employment can offer advice to unemployed people, while students can also glean valuable information about the workplace.

Stephen is from the Burnley in the UK and has been living here three years and designs websites.

One of the people who turned up at The Alamo Tex Mex Cuisine restaurant in Virginia last Thursday was Ballyconnell chartered accountant, Stuart Meharg, formerly from Belfast.

Stuart who has his own practice in Ballyconnell told The Anglo-Celt that he came along because he believes it is good to meet different people with varying careers. "It affords the opportunity to make connections and if I have something to give people and they have some knowledge to impart to me, then it is all good. I like the informal setting where you can just talk to people on a range of different subjects and you can make new friends. We can maximise the potential of social networking sites, with these face-to-face meetings," he said.

Marketing consultant Gary Rutherford who is originally from Dublin and spent years in London, now resides at Lavey. He told The Anglo-Celt he moved back to Cavan with the family for a better life. "I'm enjoying it and working with small to medium enterprises to help them increase their sales and help with their marketing and generate more return on their investment from their activities.

It essentially cost effective marketing activity," said Gary.

By meeting face-to-face with people you help to generate new business leads and then develop them into good strong business relationships and revenue streams.

People like to do business with people and seeing the colour of somebody's eyes and building a rapport is very important and develops a trust which may not be easily identifiable on line.

"Cavan is the perfect size for these type of meetings because everyone is within easy driving distance. Cavan can lead the way this 'Open Cavan Coffee' initiative," said Stuart.

He urges people with small businesses to go to places where other people meet and strike up conversations. "It's all about person-to-person stuff and a lot of common sense."

Terry Rehill from Mountnugent told The Anglo-Celt that he had 26 years experience in industry and is qualified as an engineer. He has worked either on materials or management/purchasing.

"I took redundancy and I am now actually launching my own business. It is a web-based business for industry and it is a recession beating product as well. It will allow people industry to put their surplus stock online, so that potential buyers can access it. It can be searched by either part number or description and it will narrow the search right down to whatever product you are looking for," he explained.

Stephen Hewitt is building the website for Terry at present and he is using his network of contacts to generate some initial business. "The feedback is positive.

There is nobody providing this service for industry at present," said Terry.