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WATCH THIS!The Sport Business Network hosted its inaugural networking evening at the Valley, home of Charlton Athletic FC, recently and what a fantastic night it was too. On a foul and miserable night more than 120 business people attended the event to meet other business leaders and to hear the powerful story of the Charlton Athletic Community Trust. The SBN is a unique business networking group which puts support for those who deliver community sport at the heart of its brand. The network consists of businesses from the south east who all share the belief that the business world, and organisations like CACT, should work together for the betterment of society. This common cause helps to bring the members closer together and makes doing business with each other easier.The evening followed a format of free and managed networking for the members before a short speech by Roger McKerlie, CEO of the SBN, where he outlined the skills needed to be an effective networker. He was soon joined by Jason Morgan and Marc Leckie from CACT who presented the history and achievements of the organisation to an enthralled audience. However, the star of the show was Sam Masundi, a young man who credits CACT with helping him to get his life onto the right path. Sam, who is no stranger to public speaking, having previously addressed the Labour party conference, spoke eloquently and from the heart about how he now has a clear and bright future, in no small part thanks to CACT. He even took the opportunity to make sales pitch to the audience for funding to keep the rep teams going! He has a future in sales and marketing, that is for sure.Roger commented “ I met Jason and the guys a couple of years ago and saw first hand what they do and I was blown away. I decided there and then that we had to find a way of getting the business community involved and the SBN is the vehicle for this. It has been a fantastic night”. Jason echoed these views, adding “ this has been a great opportunity for us to talk directly to so many senior business people, but we can only show them the tip of the iceberg of what we do. We have been well supported with different pots of public money but we really do need more private and commercial money to help us. It is not just about donations either as Roger has worked hard with us to ensure that CACT has a very real commercial proposition to put to the business market.” Watch these inspirational videos recorded on the night. Anyone interested in knowing more about how they can work with CACT should contact Roger directly on roger@sportbusinessnetwork.com or call him on 07703 344139. If you are interested in finding out more about the SBN please contact Kahren Darwin or Ted Edwards on 01732 469006.
