The Curtain Comes Down on Canterbury Tweetup

It's the end of an era. Canterbury Tweetup has been brought to a close.

It hasn't been an easy decision, but numbers attending have been consistently low for some time, now and as we also have Lenleys taking place, later each month, it makes sense to end Tweetups at The Miller's Arms. The venue has never been anything but accomodating. The staff have always looked after us and offered a highly professional and friendly service - no complaints at all and we would heartily recommend the establishment.

We will continue meetings, within our remaining three venues, comprising The Hotel Continental, in Whitstable, Creek Creative Cafe, in Faversham and in Canterbury, Lenleys.  These are proving stronger, in terms of attendance - particularly Lenleys, where we are able to have guest speakers.

We sincerely hope that the remaining meetings will continue gathering strength and that those who have networked with us will continue doing so, along with telling others, in order for us to grow further.

Here's hoping to see you at a meet up, very soon!

Slope Off Friday - October 7th

Jules Serkin 

Friday 7th October

2 courses for £13/ 3 courses for £17

Chicken liver parfait with port jelly

Beautiful cauliflower soup (v)

Homemade terrine of the day with Corner House chutney

Goats cheese salad, trio of beetroot, toasted pecans

Smoked mackerel pate, pickled cucumber & toast

Flat iron steak, triple cooked chips & homemade ketchups (£4 supplement)

Slow braised pork belly, cauliflower puree, mash, proper pork scratching & cider jus

Chestnut mushroom, leek & Kentish blue cheese tart, super salad & triple cooked chips

Mussels Kentish style cooked in Biddenden’s cider, onions, parsley & cream, triple cooked chips

Herb crumbed cod loin, mash, spinach & tomato fish cream (£2 supplment)

Two scoops of homemade honeycomb ice cream

Lemon posset with homemade biscuit

Flourless chocolate brownie, salted caramel & peanut butter ice cream

The Great British cheese board with walnut & raisin toast & port jelly (£4 supplement)

Kentish Gypsy tart, crème fraiche & fruit compote

Please let us know your menu choices & keep in touch with us on Twitter 🤗 This meal will be hosted by Andrew Knott (Jules is away in Singapore).

Slope off Friday - September + October Details

Welcome to the September @crescentturner, Whitstable- Free Parking available .  #SlopeOffFriday - We are now taking bookings, so time to get your orders in:

Starters

1. Soup of the day (Vegetarian)
 
2. Ham Hock Terrine, Toasted Brioche and Homemade Chutney

3. Baked Goats Cheese Salad with toasted Pine nuts, and Balsamic dressing.

Main Courses
1. Slow cooked Shoulder of Pork, Saluted new potatoes Broccoli Pork Jus.

2. Catch of the day (Usually Whole Plaice or Fillet of Sea Bream) Crushed New potatoes and wilted Spinach Green Beans.

3. Emental and Beetroot Soufflé on a bed of Roasted Vine Tomatoes Jus Green Beans.

Desserts

1.Poached Pear and Ice Cream

2.White Chocolate Torte.

3.Tiramisu Teardrop.

TWO Courses at £14.95 per person.

In case you missed it, the August #SlopeOffFriday was a fine summery affair with 20 Kent businesses enjoying Kentish lamb chops & the hospitality of The Faversham Creek Hotel. 

"Very cool first Slope off Friday experience,” wrote Richard Torble, Commercial Headshot and Portrait Photographer. "Very informal and chilled out but it has led to a number of good leads. The perfect way to do business. Looking forward to the next one.”

"The pie was fantastic and the event was really enjoyable,” said Troy Smith at NatWest. "I would love to attend the next event and have marked it in my diary.” 

Last month, magician Stuart Weller @Stuentertains enthralled the guests @CrescentMargate on Margate seafront.

Jules Serkin said: "This was our 2nd #SlopeoffFriday lunch, attended by 17 diverse Kent movers & shakers from the business World. This monthly event is strongly supported on the Twitter feeds.” 

#SlopeoffFriday is held at 2pm on the 1st Friday of each month & we are looking to showcase more leading Kent venues. Next lunch is 2pm Friday 2nd September at Crescent Turner Hotel, Wraik Hill, Whitstable, CT5 3BY. 

All businesses are welcome to attend. Please contact: Andrew Knott  07747 114627 or Jules Serkin 07761015300 @julesserkin to reserve your lunch. Set menu £14.95 pp. Deadline Tuesday 30th August.

October #SlopeOfffriday October 7th at 2pm The Corner House, Canterbury. 

www.cornerhouserestaurants.co.uk @cornerhousekent

Directions We are a 15 minute walk from Canterbury West train station and a 5 mintue walk from Canterbury East. There is also a car park behind us called Holman's Field which is free after 9pm. To see directions to the restaurant, please click the following link. • Directions from Google Maps

September Slope Off Friday...

Welcome to the September #SlopeOffFriday - venue:  Crescent Hotel, Whitstable.Friday September 2nd.  Time : 2pm NB. This is a relaxed lunch & will take over 3 hours minimum. We are now taking bookings & numbers are deliberately kept to 20 , so time to get your orders in:

 

            Starters

            1. Soup of the day (Vegetarian)
             
            2. Ham Hock Terrine, Toasted Brioche and Homemade Chutney

            3. Baked Goats Cheese Salad with toasted Pine nuts, and Balsamic dressing.
                        

            Main Courses
            1. Slow cooked Shoulder of Pork, Saluted new potatoes Broccoli Pork Jus.
            
            2. Catch of the day (Usually Whole Plaice or Fillet of Sea Bream) Crushed New potatoes and wilted Spinach Green Beans.

 

            3. Emental and Beetroot Soufflé on a bed of Roasted Vine Tomatoes Jus Green Beans.

 

            Desserts

            1.Poached Pear and Ice Cream
            
            2.White Chocolate Torte.

            3.Tiramisu Teardrop.

            TWO Courses at £14.95 per person.

 

 

In case you missed it, the August #SlopeOffFriday was a fine summery affair with 20 Kent businesses enjoying Kentish lamb chops & the hospitality of The Faversham Creek Hotel. 

 

"Very cool first Slope off Friday experience,” wrote Richard Torble, Commercial Headshot and Portrait Photographer. "Very informal and chilled out but it has led to a number of good leads. The perfect way to do business. Looking forward to the next one.”

"The pie was fantastic and the event was really enjoyable,” said Troy Smith at NatWest. "I would love to attend the next event and have marked it in my diary.” 

Last month, magician Stuart Weller @Stuentertains enthralled the guests @CrescentMargate on Margate seafront.

 

Jules Serkin said: "This was our 2nd #SlopeoffFriday lunch, attended by 17 diverse Kent movers & shakers from the business World. This monthly event is strongly supported on the Twitter feeds.Use the #SlopeOffFriday in all your related tweets to reap maximum benefits” .

 

#SlopeoffFriday is held at 2pm on the 1st Friday of each month & we are looking to showcase more leading Kent venues. Next lunch is 2pm Friday 2nd September at Crescent Turner Hotel, Wraik Hill, Whitstable, CT5 3BY. 

 

All businesses are welcome to attend. Please contact: Andrew Knott  07747 114627 or Jules Serkin 07761015300 @julesserkin to reserve your lunch. Set menu £14.95 pp. Deadline Friday 26th August.

 

Small businesses bearing the brunt of cyber crime

A new report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has found that small firms are unfairly carrying the cost of cyber crime in an increasingly vulnerable digital economy.

The report, ‘Cyber Resilience: How to protect small firms in the digital economy,’ suggests smaller firms are collectively attacked seven million times per year, costing the UK economy an estimated £5.26 billion.

Despite the vast majority of small firms (93%) taking steps to protect their business from digital threats, two thirds (66%) have been a victim of cyber crime in the last two years. Over that period, those affected have been victims on four occasions on average, costing each business almost £3000 in total.

Cyber crime costs small businesses disproportionately more than big businesses when adjusted for organisational size. Currently the responsibility largely falls on small businesses to protect themselves [2]. FSB is calling for more support to be given to those smaller firms least able to bear the burden of the increasing global cyber threat.

Almost all (99%) of the UK’s 5.4 million small firms rate the internet as being highly important to their business, with two in three (66%) offering, or planning to offer, goods and services online. Without intervention, the growing sophistication of cyber attacks could stifle small business growth and in the worst cases, close them down.

Mike Cherry, FSB National Chairman, said: “The digital economy is vital to small businesses - presenting a huge opportunity to reach new markets and customers - but these benefits are matched by the risk of opportunities for criminals to attack businesses.

“Small firms take their cyber security responsibility very seriously but often they are the least able to bear the cost of doing so. Smaller businesses have limited resources, time and expertise to deal with ever-evolving and increasing digital attacks. We’re calling on Government, larger businesses, individuals and providers to take part in a joint effort to tackle cyber crime and improve business resilience.”

The types of cyber crime most commonly affecting small businesses are phishing emails (49%), spear phishing emails (37%), and malware attacks (29%) [3].

Small firms are also concerned about hacking and fraud when the card is not present, with the average information breach setting them back 2.2 days [4] [5].

To combat this, four in five small firms (80%) use computer securing software, and well over half (53%) perform regular updates of their IT systems.

The FSB report also found room for small firms to improve security. Currently just a quarter of smaller businesses (24%) have a strict password policy, four per cent have a written plan of what to do if attacked online, and just two per cent have a recognised security standard such as ISO27001 or the Government’s Cyber Essentials scheme.

Mike Cherry added: “Small firms are understandably focussed on building their businesses and creating the jobs which drive economic growth. The vulnerabilities of the digital world affect everyone and the responsibility for improving resilience should not be left to the group with least resource to do something about it.

“Security is important, but given that an element of risk will always be present when operating online, resilience must also be championed. Without a concerted effort to reduce cyber crime and improve resilience, small businesses could be at real risk.”

There needs to be significant simplification and consolidation of cyber security information provided by Government. The National Cyber Centre should become the hub for this, providing a one-stop-shop for advice and guidance for all small businesses alongside a determined marketing effort to ensure businesses are aware of it.

Schools should try to incorporate digital learning so that young people have a better understanding of the dangers of being online and are educated about how to be cyber secure.

There should also be better incentives for small businesses to encourage them to invest in cyber resilience measures and adopt best practice when it comes to increasing their cyber resilience.

The law enforcement response to cyber crime must be improved at the local, regional, national and international levels. There must be more investment by the Government in law enforcement resources to effectively tackle cyber crime. Businesses should be encouraged to report every crime and they must be reassured that it will be taken seriously.

SlopeOffFriday Business networking Lunch - 2pm Friday 1st July

Crescent Victoria Hotel, Margate. Hosted by Andrew Knott, FSB membership co-ordinator & PR Consultant, Jules Serkin

Set Menu as follows:

Massive Pool of Creative Talent in our Midst

My husband, Gavin Serkin, has just published his first book, Frontier: Exploring the Top Ten Emerging Markets of Tomorrow.

It’s a travelogue-style diary of his journey across four continents with some of the world’s top performing investors. As a journalist by profession, he also probed the darker side of the countries he visited. He encountered violent police corruption in Nigeria, was detained by police for taking a photo of a man lying motionless on the ground by a security checkpoint in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, and he witnessed a beheading in the middle of the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Among the book’s rave reviews, the Financial Times said “Serkin certainly set the standard with Frontier” – a “must read.”

The book - and the praise it received - has opened my eyes to the huge pool of literary and artistic talent in our midst.

Among Whitstable’s eclectic cocktail of artistic events is the WhitLit series of interviews – one featuring the veteran war correspondent Kate Adie. This is a group of incredibly gifted writers, meeting to share their ideas and experiences.

Kate, the BBC’s chief news correspondent for 14 years, was shot twice – once Tiananmen Square in her elbow and once in her collarbone by a Libyan. Her talk ties in with an art exhibition at the Horsebridge by fellow correspondents Triona Holden and Susan Stein looking at women on the frontline – a statement of the feminine response to war.

My introduction to the group came from a friend and fitness instructor, Whitstable’s Ted Bassett-Myers, whose wife, Sue, just happens to also be a burgeoning author. At the Phoenix Tavern in Faversham, the publican doubles as the organizer of the London Press Club. Even the man selling coffee at Whitstable station doubles as a hugely impressive literary agent.

            Jules Serkin

This is the mix that makes Whitstable such a unique creative hub. Tweet me @julesserkin .Tune in to my shows @SCOFFQUAFF food & drink show for Kent every Tuesday live 11-12 & 1pm @businessbunker with me & @vanillaweb  on www.channelradio.co.uk

 

Attend free business networking : www.kentbusinesstweetup.co.uk 

@kenttweetups