Season’s Greetings
As we enter the holiday season, it’s a time to reflect on the past year. The trials, tribulations, and successes we’ve experienced. The connections we’ve made, and those to whom we’ve had to say goodbye.
The true spirit of Christmas is all about building relationships, uplifting each other, and helping through tough times. You could say that at TNG, we strive to maintain that spirit all your long, and what a year this has been!
This year marked a special milestone for TNG—our tenth anniversary! We’ve come a long way since our humble beginnings, and we have much to celebrate. Our celebratory gathering saw 150 members in attendance, along with Allison Mooney as our keynote speaker.
Of course, we’re not content to stop anytime soon. As a part of our continued growth and success, we are especially proud to have opened two new branches of our TNG this year—one in Christchurch and one in Palmerston North.
Throughout the year, we have come together to support each other in our professional endeavours, offering advice, connections, and a listening ear when needed. This has been especially important after adjusting to life with Covid.
As you’ll see, in this year’s recap, covid and its related challenges were a constant feature, but through resilience, new opportunities were found.
Let’s see what some of our members had to say.
For Ann Gibbard, 2022 was a year of consolidation and growth, despite murmurs of a looming recession. She said, “If you’ve got a strong business and you know your customers, you know your advantage, you’ve got good systems and processes, you’ve got good people, you’ll survive no matter what the economy is doing.”
Going forward into 2023, she aims to acquire greater reach and support more businesses.
Rich Ellis noted that while Zoom has been helpful in a time of limited connection, it hasn’t been a solution to every problem posed. For the past two years, he has been trying to get a new well-being programme off the ground in association with a partner organisation, but every time progress was made, Covid would rear its head again.
We’re happy to report that in the third quarter of this year, Rich’s programme was successfully launched. In reflection, Rich remarked that “The moral of the story is to never give up.”
For Baptist Lobo, a great personal success was finally being able to see his grandchildren again, after so many lockdowns and restrictions. On the professional front, he achieved organic growth of 40% through word of mouth alone.
In 2023 aims to expand his business by adding a new arm aimed at business advisory.
Sarah Linton spent a lot of time getting familiar with running events on Zoom, and this actually helped expand her reach beyond New Zealand into new markets. An advantage she’ll certainly be leveraging even when lockdowns are a distant memory.
She too was able to see family again, going to the UK on holiday.
Going into 2023, she aims to develop her LinkedIn offer in association with a fellow coach.
Malcolm Jensen is another member who was able to reconnect with family as travel has opened up. In a professional capacity, he is thankful for being able to make a breakthrough in his personal IT capabilities.
We’re also excited to announce that he will be leading the Cambridge TNG in 2023. Malcolm says despite doom and gloom in the media, he is optimistic about the new year.
Jaycee Hazooria suffered a personal loss this year, and all of us here at TNG wish to express our sympathies and our admiration for the resilience she has shown.
This year Jaycee completed her HR degree and has begun working to foster a sense of responsibility and compassion in her HR company.
She specializes in immigration recruitment, and for the year ahead, she plans to help employers meet their goals, and help support employees to find their place.
What would The Networking Group online meeting be without Dan Webster at the helm? This year he was able to travel and see family again that he hadn’t seen in over a decade.
He, along with his team, made a move to shift their target market from smaller businesses and startups to bigger businesses, with an established online presence they want to grow.
For 2023 he’s looking forward take his client’s businesses further, but in the short term, he’s just looking forward to the Christmas holidays.
TNG sales manager, Melanie Budden, is thankful for a return to face-to-face networking this year because, as she says, “TNG is mostly about face-to-face, connections, and it’s about building relationships.”
She’s proud of the growth the Networking Group has seen this year and aims to take it even further in 2023. She was proud to announce that TNG director, Mark Trafford was featured in Lead magazine this year, an international magazine aimed at business leaders and budding entrepreneurs.
On a personal note, she was very happy to announce her and Mark’s engagement! Here’s wishing them a wonderful wedding!
The past year has been filled with ups and downs, victories and losses. But through it all, we have drawn lessons and found strength in our connections with each other.
As we look ahead to the new year, we have set our sights on even more growth and success. TNG’s goals include expanding our existing groups and generating more leads through LinkedIn. We will be focusing on more face-to-face meetings, as well as online meetings, to grow relationships, enrich our members through education, and generate mutual business referrals.
Let’s continue to support and uplift each other, just as we would our own families. Let’s also remember to extend that support to those outside of our networks who may be in need during this holiday season.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous new year.
Sincerely,
Mark, Melanie, Sarah and Gemma
The Networking Group Team
