We are delighted to welcome back Emma Turner from My Social Secretary for September's Learning Lunch. She will be informing us about visual digital marketing, focussing on how your business could benefit from using Instagram.

Spaces are filling quickly and are already limited for this event, so make sure you book your space.

A chance to take your business to the next level.  Connect face to face with some of the biggest businesses - both private and public sector. Big businesses are looking for local or small suppliers and may be able to offer you exciting new contracts or opportunities.

When you register for the event, your profile will be assessed and given to the buyers, so that appointments can be scheduled for you with businesses who are looking for the products or service you offer.

To get you prepared there is a series of free workshops that can be booked in advance. Find out more

Congratulations to Reigate's CF Architects, one of six finalists in the Architects Journal retrofit schools category, for their work with Fennies in Woking. 

Local firm Shopper Anonymous recently re-branded to Insight6. The change reflects works undertaken with businesses in many sectors, as well as retail. Insight6 has many ways of capturing customer feedback - not just mystery shopping. Local Customer Experience Director Jim Smith said: "This is an exciting time for the firm. We have new tools to help us track and verify the customer experience of firms, and help them improve it, leading to greater customer attraction and loyalty. We are now one of Britain's biggest Customer Experience firms with 26 franchisees countrywide and over 1,000 clients." 

YMCA East Surrey is working with Surrey County Council to encourage local businesses and organisations to provide help in improving staff health and wellbeing. They recognise that healthier workforces are an asset to the employer: healthy, active staff are shown to be better motivated and take less time off sick, therefore reducing business costs and improving efficiency. YMCA East Surrey has become the preferred provider of free NHS Health Checks across the area and has already provided services to a range of local enterprises.

Free NHS Health Checks for the over 40s are available for Surrey workplaces and are carried out by a trained health advisor who will come to your workplace.  Click heading for more...

Coast to Capital has launched its Strategic Economic Plan. Its vision for 2030 is focused around eight economic priorities:

1. Deliver prosperous urban centres

2. Develop business infrastructure and support

3. Invest in sustainable growth

4. Create skills for the future

5. Pioneer innovation in core strengths

6. Promote better transport and mobility

7. Improve digital network capability

8. Build a strong national and international identity.

To produce the plan it engaged with local stakeholders (including businesses, local authorities and education providers) and held a public consultation, over the course of a year. The publication is the first step in planning and negotiating a strong Local Industrial Strategy with Government and attract significant investment for the region. Read the Strategic Economic Plan 

The Department of International Trade (DIT) has announced a number of events, including training and trade missions, over the autumn. For more information and to book a place, read more on the Exporting is Great newsletter.

The Utilise Plus programme is funded by the European Regional Development Fund. Utilise Plus helps eligible small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) save energy, reducing their costs and greenhouse gas emissions in the process. Since starting the programme in late 2017, the programme has already helped SMEs make an estimated combined annual saving of 125 tonnes of CO2 by reducing their individual annual energy usage, on average, by 27%. It has achieved this by offering a variety of complimentary services, including:

• Grant funding of between £1,000 to £5,000 to cover one-third of the cost of an energy saving project.
• Energy Audits, fully funded by the ERDF, to identify energy and cost saving opportunities that SMEs can then act upon.
• Energy Saving Workshops, outlining the business case for saving energy and helping participants create their own, unique action plans to tackle energy use in their organisations.
• Business Networking Breakfasts, featuring expert speakers on a particular aspect of sustainability and connecting like-minded SMEs.

Sustainability Tours of interesting organisations that have implemented significant energy saving measures, to inspire.