AN OKEHAMPTON firm is starting Wednesday morning breakfast meetings in order to encourage the local business community to establish stronger links and to raise the business profile of the town.
The breakfast meetings will be held once a month and start on Wednesday, November 24.
The idea is for local business people to get to know each other and to listen to some interesting speakers.
The meeting will start with a cooked breakfast at 7.45am, giving plenty of time for a guest speaker to provide a short talk, and still be in the office by 9am.
The idea has been developed by local accountants and tax advisers, Motivation South West, who are based at Okehampton?s Exeter Road Industrial Estate.
Mike Davies, who is also deputy mayor of Okehampton,said: ?So often I receive invites from Exeter and Plymouth to attend business or sports breakfasts, lunches, and dinners and I thought it would be good to do something similar in Okehampton.
?Within our business community we have a lot to offer, so why not get some speakers to come to us?.?
The idea is to have a variety of speakers, from a wide background. Mike is already booking up speakers who have excelled in the world of education, politics, business entrepreneurs, finance, sports, and the media.
He pointed out that you do not necessarily need to be involved in the business community if you are particularly interested in hearing one of the visiting speakers.
For the first breakfast the speaker will be Graham Dawe, from the world of rugby. Graham is chairman of rugby at Plymouth Albion and had a long and successful rugby union career starting with Launceston in 1978.
After moving to Bath in 1985, he established himself as a member of the England squad for much of the next ten years.
As well as reaching fame through his rugby ability, Graham is a West Country farmer and has continued to operate his farm despite the distractions of playing for England and also now running a National Division One rugby team.
Before joining Plymouth Albion for the 1999-2000 season Graham was a player-coach at Sale.
Over the past three seasons Plymouth Albion have progressed from Jewson League Two (South) through National League Division Two to National League Division One under Graham?s leadership.
Graham?s first county appearance for Cornwall was in 1983 and he was a member of the team that scored the historic victory over Yorkshire in the 1991 County Final. He played for Devon in the year 2000.
A full list of dates and speakers and details on attending one of the breakfasts can be obtained from Motivation South West on 01837 659233.