Kirsty James Networking

29/08/2025

Friday Feel-Good Feedback and team thanks. The sweaty, Oompa Loompa-looking person is me, working on hols somewhere hot. The other 4 were not on hols BUT were also giving up their time for TEDxWarrington speaker curation work.

I'm hugely grateful to Gill Fletcher, John Cooper, Emma Baylin and Carlos Munez who alongside me have worked very long hours June to August to review every single video application (and we had a lot) for both core and young person categories.

We now have our shortlist and some amazing talk ideas emerging. Those people will go into final selection stages in September which the wider speaker support team and the rest of my 30-strong team will also attend to watch and add their feedback.

Super grateful to each and every teamie who gives up their personal time for this unpaid event project. Thank you 🙏

31/07/2025

If you have a young person aged 16-25 in your organisation or life with an idea that merits hitting a TEDx stage and audience, the deadline is 5pm, today 31/7.

#

📢 Only 1 day to go before young applications close!

Have you submitted yours yet?

❌ Applications will close at 5:00 PM tomorrow, Thursday 31st July. Don't miss the opportunity to share your big idea on the red dot.

28/07/2025

Monday morning traffic but NOT as it usually looks as the observant may notice different surroundings in my lane.

Monday is feeling very different today. Not only am I the right side of the road (literally) as the traffic opposite is queuing heavily into Luxembourg from France, but I also have the benefit of having my out of office on for the 2nd of 6 Mondays.

Last Monday, I was on the Norfolk Broads with 21 family and friends aged 1 to 78 across 5 boats for my brothers 50th. All still talking and the only thing overboard was a kids speaker. I'll take that as a win!

This Monday, I'm on a road trip to Spain that my 12 year old son has planned. The stops and activities are his choices to keep him interested since his 2 sisters are working then flying out this year.

Is there a work-related point to my post though.

I think so.

First, to those who may message, tag or email me. I will reply BUT on delay unless its an urgent issue. The laptop is with me for commitments on client work, Literary Lunch and networking event and course planning, and TEDxWarrington (I'm doing young applicant shortlisting next week then on speaker coaching during August).

Modern tech offers many of us the luxury of remote working. Not everyone's job allows distance working I realise but how much have you explored what is actually possible?

Second, my long summer break (this is my 11th year doing this of 18 years in business):
has NOT ruined my business,
has NOT made me invisible afterwards, and
has NOT lost me work or clients.

BUT, it has offered me recharge, perspective and family time with 3 kids and my teacher hubby - my why's for being self-employed.

I've realised over the years that no one has to get your Why's except you.

When I take my long break, I'm usually met with comments like "nice if you can" or "you're lucky". Maybe!? I view it as my privilege for long working hours in term time. Not 1 full day off since Easter so I'm not feeling guilty.

Oddly, when I choose to work on my long break, some say I should switch off completely and not mix work into my holidays.

You can't win if you listen to other people's views too much which is why the best conclusion is do what serves you best whilst fulfilling work commitments responsibly.

I love my work, I don’t hanker for Fridays or hate Monday traffic, but for now, remote working and summer breaks are how our lane moves, even if it tipped down on arrival last night so we ended up wrapped in towels in the car eating biscoff spread out the jar!

My lane won't be for you but your lane and your WHY is.

Best nip off now. The Lindt chocolate factory in Zurich awaits these 3 chocolate-loving, hungry Brits.

25/07/2025

Look who I "roped" in recently!
Possibly the oddest message they've had from me - "Fancy going climbing?"

Here I am, inappropriately overdressed in my TEDx hoodie for hot climbing work, with the first of our amazing TEDxWarrington 2025 sponsors Management Ltd & Rebecca Wray Coaching Consultancy.

We "pulled" together to do this clip with 2 big messages for now:

1. Applications remain open until 31 July for 16-25s.

2. Sponsorship opportunities for the live event on 2 Dec are now open.

I'm sure there could have been easier ways to shout about these opportunities but it was fun filming, albeit harder than expected. I genuinely thought I'd be up the top ringing the bell in seconds 🤣 🤔🤪

16/07/2025

📚 Are you a book lover, writer, published or aspiring author, publicist, book club member or organiser, publishing house, literary enthusiast, book seller, or literary organisation? This may interest you 👇

One of the events people may not know I’m involved in is the annual The Literary Lunch in Cheshire.

It was run for 13 years by friend and networking compatriot Sue France. When she took semi-retirement last December, myself and book mentor and editor Sian-Elin Flint-Freel decided that the event could not retire with her. We wanted to maintain the magical concept of The Literary Lunch which is a celebration of writing and reading, and is supportive and nurturing to those who appreciate and wish to unleash creativity.

The annual lunch will unite authors, writers, readers, publishing organisations and literary enthusiasts in a beautiful Cheshire setting we’ve secured.

📚 If you know someone that would enjoy and benefit from this event, please share this with them.

📚 If you feel your organisation could benefit from reaching 150 (mostly women, both businesses and consumers), please drop me a line to find out more about our remaining sponsorship/partnership opportunities.

And,

📚 If you know an author that would like a wonderful outlet to display and sell their books, please flag this to them.

We’re delighted to have the support of two powerhouses in the field of publishing too – TAUK Publishing led by Estelle Maher and Moja Publishing led by Sophie Milliken MBE.

So, who’d like to join us on Tuesday 7th October?

The EARLY BIRD offer runs until this Friday 18 July and is an absolute bargain for what we're offering.

News is generally over on The Literary Lunch page.

For all of our contact details, visit: https://linktr.ee/theliterarylunch

To read out latest newsletter announcing our first author and partner offers, so please take a read and subscribe at: https://mailchi.mp/7cef2aa70ede/authorticketannouncement

15/07/2025

WiFi + 100-150 legal folk + Zoom + moi = fingers crossed!
Delighted to be speaking on networking and community-building at this event today.

Home WiFi picked its moment to play funny buggers. I blame the weather of course – I’m British. Extreme heat, then rain – does anyone in the UK know where they’re at right now 😉

Luckily I have a hotdesking and small office solution to head to - thank heavens for the facility of Lymm Business Centre I helped set up, just for this very type of situation for small businesses.

Seriously though, it’ll be fab and I have a LOT to share and will thoroughly enjoy being quizzed and questioned by Blume Expertise webinar host Zoe Holland MBE

12/07/2025

Another work-related weekend. This time supporting and learning from lots of fab businesses at Warrington Wellbeing Festival

Love that so many networking connections have turned turned into friends.

Congratulations Becca Percival, Neil Lewis and team on another cracking day with plenty of great talks and activities and a lot of melting moments too from that weather you ordered 🌞

11/07/2025

Q: How can an event stating that 2 woman a week and 2 men a month are killed by domestic abuse be 1 of the most enjoyable events to host in ages.

The answer in short is IMPACT.
Let me explain.

I’m 18 years in business this month.
In that time I’ve organised, spoken at and hosted a LOT of events
Yesterday was remarkable though.
It summed up everything about WHY I do what I do.
And the impact of networking in generating awareness and support.

Having an impact, either directly, or by way of being a catalyst, is at the heart of my life and business purpose

My goal in any event is to host great events in interesting settings with unique speakers to offer learning and emotional connection. It’s why, despite cutting events down, I still do Women and TEDxWarrington.

Yesterday’s CWiB event was NOT about a colourful room full of powerful and beautiful women having lunch in leafy Lymm in Cheshire.

It was about making a difference.

We heard from Dr. Jill McGarry about the sleep cycle and the impact of light, heat, routine and nutrition on sleep hygiene

Jazz McPhail covered gut nutrition touching on rest, stress, eating slowly, chewing (‘stomachs don’t have teeth”); eating to 80% full, gut bacteria and making friends with your poo 💩

And then, after a healthy veg-based lunch, our keynote Saskia Lightburn-Ritchie shared unbelievable personal stories and scary statistics (UK). You could hear a pin drop!

* 2 women a week and 2 men a month are killed by domestic violence;
* 10 of each gender commit su***de a week (and half of the men do so to inflict further abuse on their victims!);
* Only 5% of cases lead to criminal proceedings and few get convictions;
* Teen abusers now out-number adults;
* Cheshire has 37k domestic abuse perpetrators with only a fraction known to authorities;
* 1 in 4 women experience abuse and it is not just physical.

We had 76 Cheshire women on the list yesterday so these stats scare me!

I could not be prouder of the event Tricia Peters and I hosted yesterday and the impact it has had

And the reason I know how impactful it was is 3-fold:

1. Alongside £465 raised in a raffle, Saskia received several significant offers from various businesses totalling ££££££s and useful connections to support her work at MyCWA (Cheshire Without Abuse)

2. Our amazing venue Groobarbs Field Kitchen expressed how much they love hosting this event, the sense of community and the impact it has on real lives; and

3. I overheard my 17 year old daughter and friend who helped at the event (I often take my kids out of education to get these experiences) discussing the topics they’d heard.

This is the true reward of an event like this.

Thank you to our 3 wonderful speakers, our sponsors Bennett Brooks, FW Capital and McAlister Family Law, our stunning venue, and everyone who attended. Official photos from Andrew Collier will follow on our page and via Cheshire Life Magazine soon

11/07/2025

09/07/2025

Consistency and Community:
2 of the themes discussed yesterday whilst networking & 2 of my favourite C-Words.

2 networking events this week
1 attending (yesterday). 1 hosting (tomorrow).

I've attended Alex of Altrincham HQ's events for years and he has attended mine. We always discuss the importance of collaboration, mutual referrals and date-sharing to support each other's respective offers. I've sent folk to his events and he allows me to mention mine because we don't step on each other's toes - geographically, with dates or formats.

Respecting and working with - not against - your "theoretical" competitors can be invaluable.

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We also discussed the importance for networkers of attending different events, getting involved in the community, and maintaining consistency and visibility - on or offline - even when you get busy!

Great to hear all about the community focused-work done by speaker Denise Laver - I learnt plenty, thank you.

And lovely too to have a few of those less deep and meaningful but equally valuable networking moments.

Stolen chats in the loo.
I joke about networking in the women's toilets a lot but it really is a thing.

And chatting about whether what you wear matters when I found myself sat in the "yellow area".

And yes, what you wear does matter, I think. It shouldn't, of course. But it can help. I always wear colour. Easier to stand out and be found - and brightens up the day too 😉

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Onwards now to the 2nd event tomorrow.

KTS Women in Business bi-annual lunch at Groobarbs Field Kitchen - SOLD OUT which is wonderful for our speakers Dr. Jill McGarry - Sleep expert, Jazz McPhail and Saskia Lightburn-Ritchie as well as our sponsors Bennett Brooks, McAllister Family Law/Beyond Law Group, and Capital.

06/07/2025

Lovely day to top off a very busy but enjoyable weekend

06/07/2025

What a fab weekend! All work - ish, but lots of play! I'll come back to Saturday's TEDxNorthwich when I've gathered my thoughts. As for today, it saw a very enjoyable first - Polo!

A great day at Cheshire Polo Club for the National 4-Goal Championship sponsored by WR Partners. Huge thanks for your organisation and generous hospitality.

Best work-related Sunday in ages! 🍾🐎