May 15, 2025 • 23 mins
In this episode, Lorraine Briffitt, CEO of Connect Reading, shares the story behind the organisation's mission to connect various sectors in Reading for mutual benefit.
Lorraine discusses how Connect Reading has grown to facilitate collaboration between businesses, charities, the education sector, and public sector services, to foster a better local community, economy, and environment.
The episode also highlights Connect Reading’s initiatives, including the Summer Giving Appeal and the development of a quality standard. As well as the challenges faced by local businesses, Connect Reading’s collaborative ethos, and future goals for expansion.
Lorraine also reflects on the importance of collaboration, the evolution of Reading, and the organisation's role in supporting the local community.
TIME CODES
00:00 Greeting
00:28 Introduction to Connect Reading
01:27 How Lorraine got involved with Connect Reading
02:08 What is Lorraine’s mission for Connect Reading
03:10 How has Reading changed over the last 20 years
04:17 What Lorraine’s learned from her leadership roles
06:17 Examples of Connect Reading Projects
08:45 The challenges facing local businesses
10:54 Suggestions for how people can minimise these challenges
12:15 Collaborative opportunities for hospitality
13:12 How Connect Reading measures success
15:23 How Connect Reading helps local businesses
18:28 How Connect Reading is financed
20:40 Connect Reading’s plans for the future
22:26 Final thoughts for listeners
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome to the My Local Marketer podcast.
I'm Maria and I'm speaking today with Lorraine Briffitt, CEO of Connect Reading.
Lorraine, hello, thank you so much for coming on.
How are you?
I'm okay, thanks for having me on this beautifully sunny day.
It is, it's so hot for recording this in April and it's boiling.
Yes, yeah, I shouldn't complain though.
Sunshine is good for the soul.
(00:21):
It is good for the soul.
Yeah.
Good for the skin too.
Well, not too much.
In measured amounts.
Now, obviously you're here today from Connect Reading, which I'm sure many people wouldhave heard of, but for those who aren't familiar with Connect Reading, could you just give
a bit about what Connect Reading is and its mission?
Yeah, no problem.
So we've been around for about 20 years.
(00:42):
Our first iteration was as Reading Business Community Partnership, but we're all about notjust businesses and charities, which is kind of our previous incarnations, we are about
connecting sectors for mutual benefit.
So we run campaigns, events, have services that we try and give to our member network.
It's actually anything that will help Reading become a better place for everyone, not justthe sort of privileged few, then we're pretty much up for it.
(01:05):
Good local community, good local economy and good local environment.
I love this collaborative side.
There's so much in Reading and people are doing things by themselves and it's so muchharder.
If you collaborate, then you just get a wider reach and you can find people and it's justmuch more engaging and happy.
You're just doing something with someone.
They're sort of motivating you as you go along.
So I really love the mission for what you do.
(01:27):
So how did you become involved in Connect Reading?
So I mean I first experienced Connect Reading in about 2012, 2013 when I was leading adifferent organisation and went to a couple of their events.
They used to have quarterly forums and I met some really interesting people and just lovedthat opportunity to meet people from other sectors.
I joined Connect Reading in 2020, what a wonderful time to lead a networking organisationin the January and I guess I've been in the Reading area for more than 20 years.
(01:56):
I just found this concept of connecting across sectors
for this mutual benefit and kind of mutual benefit of the town and beyond yourself, beyondyour own organisation, that that really resonated with me.
to have the sort of job you do.
This isn't just a job, this is something that you need to keep really motivated on,inspiring.
So what's your personal mission when you talk over a CEO of Connect Ready?
(02:18):
I think the title, I mean, our name connects Reading.
I would say it's, some people say calling, probably my husband might call it compulsion,that I can't help but want to make connections between people.
And I think the organization itself as a charity, my commitment in this job is aboutloving Reading and its people, its diversity, its communities, the incredible way that it
(02:43):
can just evolve, I think, over time and having been here for 27 years.
It has changed as a town hugely and there are so many opportunities and I'm like, okay,well, if we can connect the dots on these, then the opportunities for Connect Reading to
be a more resilient and vibrant town and to have all of its residents feel like they haveskin in the game, then I'm like, well, that's what makes a good community.
(03:07):
That's what makes a thriving town.
You say that it's changed a lot over the last 20 years.
How has it changed?
Do mean there are just more opportunities for business now to get involved in?
I think not only the sort of physical appearance of the town has changed.
I mean, we're sitting in one of the buildings that didn't exist, you know, like five yearsago.
There are a lot of developments.
There's been a lot of change in the different sectors that have been present.
(03:31):
Cine Valley in terms of the studios, but also in terms of the tech.
For charities, I think there's just been a lot of need, certainly in the last five years.
And so a lot of the existing charities have had to evolve or form new partnerships.
And so
The changes in Reading, I guess, have been physical in what we can see around us, butthey've also been in the way that different communities interact with each other.
(03:53):
There have been some really devastating and tough things that have happened in this townover the last kind of two decades, but there's also been some incredible responses.
And I think that makes a town stronger.
And then it's like, well, what can other organizations or infrastructure or public sectorservices do to harness some of that incredible community response and resilience to help
(04:14):
again?
like make the town a better place.
Before CEO of Connect Ready, you've obviously been in other leadership positions before.
What sort of lessons have you picked up?
Because with your uh compulsion, if you use your husband's word, to network, you must havelearned so much and gained so many skills over the years.
What have you learned?
What lessons can you share?
I mean, I'd like to think I'd learn something, but I think I'm still constantly learningand relearning as well, because you can know something theoretically, that kind of
(04:42):
difference between knowing it ontically and no ethically is just like knowing it becauseyou've learned it in a book versus knowing it your body because you've lived it when you
didn't do it quite as you should have.
So I guess the main thing is that one person can't do it all.
Even when you have a sense of calling or purpose, no matter whether it is a one personbusiness or organisation or a couple of hundred people is
(05:04):
one person can't do it alone and you know we talk about being agile and being able to takethings on in terms of an autonomy in your role and those things are really valid but they
need to be within the infrastructure or ecosystem of either your own organization orbusiness and others because without that then firstly you don't have anyone buying your
stuff or doing things with you and secondly it's really lonely and people experienceburnout whether they're running a business, running a charity, working in public sector
(05:30):
service or in education.
I really love that point.
And as you said, the point of being in business is you've got to have something which issustainable and grafted and going hard, that is, for the short term, if you need to get
through a short term, but not for the long term.
you're collaborating, it takes pressure off you and I think it gives you uh some sort ofaccountability to someone else and makes you want to do it even more.
(05:51):
I wouldn't say it's all rose-tinted spectacles either, because, you know, everything wouldbe really easy if it wasn't for people, as they say.
However, I think there's something about that continual learning for yourself, of seeingwhat other people do and how they do it, and that much as we might all think our way is
right, that obviously isn't always true, because we need to make space to learn, andwithout others you can't learn in a more reflective way, unless you just sit down and read
(06:14):
a book, and that doesn't change your behaviour.
Can you share some of the Connect Reading projects that you've been working on?
Some examples for how people can collaborate and what people can do together.
Sure, so I mean, when I took over, Connect Reading was just working with businesses andcharities and making connections between those.
And I made it my kind of first year's mission, whilst interrupted by the pandemic, toinclude the education sector and work more intentionally around public sector connections
(06:41):
because the town is made up of lots of different weird and wonderful organisations frommany sectors made up of many local people.
And so some of the things that we've done either with our campaigns or our projects, theyhave really, really focused on.
how to make sure we engage across all of those.
So for the summer, as we're looking outside to the sunshine, the Summer Giving Appeallaunches in May, and that is about connecting vouchers from Aldi to, or Aldi, I always get
(07:07):
told I say that word, to local families in need over the school holidays, because puttingfood on the table or a sort of special buy toy in their hand for your own sanity during
the summer holidays can be really tough.
And so that's one of things we're working on at the moment.
And also over the last couple of years, we've been working on developing like a qualitystandard
that we're supposed to be specifically for businesses, but we really wanted to broadenthat out to other sectors.
(07:30):
So a lot of the time, if you're a business and you want to do business well, and you wantto show that you've done that well, you are measured by a certain set of metrics.
As a charity, you might be like, we want to show off that we treat our staff really well.
You're measured by a slightly different set of metrics.
Same for schools, whether you're rated by Ofsted or whatever.
For public sector services, they like to win various awards.
(07:51):
The funny thing is, is when you really boil it down,
It's the same set of metrics really, isn't it?
You're looking at do people treat their staff well?
Do they play nicely with others in whatever context that might be?
Are they looking at their carbon footprint and having a positive impact on the localenvironment?
What are they doing to work with others within their sector or across sector boundaries tobuy local or support local?
(08:14):
All of these things are things that any organization, any business charity, whatever, theyneed to be thinking about these things because that's how we make a more resilient
economy.
And so we've been developing how to help measure that so that local organizations in theReading area can be like, I do this.
And then we can kind of help map it out and then sort of rate them a kind of gold, silver,bronze way so they can show off the great stuff they do and encourage others through that
(08:40):
wonderful thing of positive peer pressure.
Oh, I like that approach.
Now, for businesses, think one of the difficulties that they come across, one of thechallenges is, like I said, thinking about the long-term when you're so in the moment,
you've got so much to do, you just want to get through today and this week.
Never mind think about six months, one year down the line.
(09:00):
What sort of challenges have you seen local businesses face?
I mean, on a facetious note, no one's invented time travel yet, which would really helpfor those of us who have an overstretched diary.
I think the biggest challenges that we've seen have been costs and recruitment.
So last week I was at a Bank of England citizens forum and they talked a little bit aboutwhat the challenges in terms of cost of living, what other things around inflation or
(09:24):
interest rates that are kind of up and down and the joys of the international economy andcertain leaders of different organizations or countries making rash decisions.
that have huge impacts across the globe.
How has this impacted local businesses?
So with the small, medium enterprises, SMEs, we've seen that the rising costs aroundutilities and of course the massive challenge of increased national insurance, that has
(09:48):
been tough.
Not only has it impacted the bottom line and turnover on a regular basis, but it also hasan impact on staff morale because they know that for the nth year running, a pay rise is
really hard and it's certainly not going to be in line with whatever the inflation is atthe moment.
Another aspect that we've really seen in terms of a specific part of a sector ishospitality.
They have been so hit by this issue of cost of living.
(10:11):
So people's disposable income has been massively impacted.
And so going out for a nice meal is not always something that you can do anymore.
And then beyond purely the private sector, it's important to remember that charities alsohave to run as a business.
They have to pay their staff, they have to have their running costs.
And for them, they have all these challenges too, plus
these rising costs and reduced statutory funding plus the demand on their serviceincreasing.
(10:35):
And that has massively created a squeeze on the donors that might have supported thembecause their personal purse has shrunk.
And then it's reduced the donations that they receive.
they've kind of got increased demand, increased costs.
And so that kind of the scales of balancing those two things out has been really tough.
It's tough out there.
mean, I'm not expecting you to give an answer to solve everyone's problems with a wand.
(10:57):
uh Do you have any suggestions for how people can approach or start to minimize the impactof these things?
I think collaboration.
I think there are people out there who have sort of simple solutions.
So if you're in the charity sector, we've put a resource page on our website that helpssignpost people to free resources, whether that's streamlining some of your processes, a
(11:19):
lot of software and stuff is available to the third sector for free or a hugely reducedrate.
Secondly, is making connections into other sectors.
So if you're a business, think about, well, can you do a bit of kind of gifting kind orreduced rate in kind?
for another business whose services you could do a bit of a swap on, whether it's IT,whether it's financial support and accounting, whether it is cleaning services, who can
(11:43):
you recommend by creating a kind of almost like a group buying thing?
We're in conversation with a couple of people in the hospitality sector to try and seewhether this is something that could work for town centre businesses who work in
hospitality because they are being priced out of the market by large franchises.
And it means we lose our independence.
T-S not C-E.
trying to just get people to have conversations is kind of why our network exists.
(12:06):
If you can have those collaborative conversations that start from the point of how can wehelp each other, then you'll find that your business can thrive because you're sharing
things.
And I've seen some, for example, the hospitality side, like you said, it's tough.
I know that some of them, for example, I know it's zero degrees, they have those nightsearlier in the week where they can have community groups in.
(12:26):
So it's free for the community groups, it's got somewhere to host their events, but at thesame time, people are there buying drinks, so it's a time, you know, opportunity for them
to bring in some income when they wouldn't have normal income.
So yeah, I think those little win-win situations really work.
So it's a space for people to meet, because obviously finding a space is tough.
but also they can get some income in at the same time.
(12:46):
I like that you mentioned it, I Archie who used to do some work with us at Hock when heworked there that was one of his little baby projects and I'm so glad it's still
continuing because it does have such a positive impact both on the charities that are ableto host and on the business because it gets people through the door and being like oh
isn't this a nice space and oh look at the wonderful drinks selection.
Yeah, think outside the box and because they've already been in there, they're more likelyto go in there for something else going forwards because they've broken that initial
(13:10):
barrier.
Speaking about success, how do you measure success for connect ready?
Do you have any impact goals?
Yes, have kind of like OKRs that I've got from my board of trustees.
But for me, it's about making sure that the stories that we hear about the positive impactthat we've had, that we can also extrapolate that.
love a dashboard.
I'm a bit of a sucker.
(13:31):
So we have a CRM, we use Mundo.com because it's free.
And so every time we make a connection between different organizations within our network,we map it out and then we sort of follow up like, you know, did you buy their services or
did you support that charity or?
thing you were giving away, did you actually give it away?
So through the resource exchange we map that out, then through our sort of bespokeconnections between organizations we say well did you kind of follow up on taking on a
(13:56):
contract and we try and ask when people are willing to tell us how much they then you knowthey don't have to give us an exact figure but in the ballpark of it was it 30k was it a
million?
So as an example of that so since April 2023 I checked on the figures this morning
We've connected over £1.8 million worth of space, stuff, skills, sponsorship andemployment contracts into Reading.
(14:16):
Wow, that's an impressive figure.
And like you said, just having that figure shows what a difference it can make and what adifference you're making at Connect Reading as well to actually connect people to make
those connections to bring in money for the commercial side of things.
Yeah, and some people love numbers.
I personally love numbers as long as they're color coded in a spreadsheet or a dashboard.
Love that.
But the thing that generally gets people is stories.
(14:38):
And one of the things we've just not really had that much capacity to do because we'vejust been doing the stuff, as you said, for business owners who've just been, you do your
thing and then you're like, yes, we're supposed to tell people that we're doing the thing.
Telling people that we've been doing the thing has been our like Achilles heel, I think,for having such a small team in such little capacity.
And so we're really keen to hear from people who might want to volunteer their marketingskills or their storytelling skills to help us get our case studies out into the world
(15:05):
because they come in thick and fast.
But then that means then you've got to, you know, write a thing and put together somethingon Canva.
you know, that's much as I enjoy playing on Canva at night with a of wine.
It's not really part of my day to day job.
So trying to help us tell stories is one of the big things, because those are the onesthat people remember.
How does Connect Reading actually help local businesses then?
(15:27):
You're a local business, you think, great, you convinced me, I need to makecollaborations.
How can Connect Reading help with that?
So because we're membership network, I'll talk about that right at the end, but that'skind of how we work is through the network.
But we also act as a kind of like point of contact for people who want to get in touch andsay, I need to know about XYZ.
So that local connection thing of connecting people, like I said, we are quite compulsiveabout it.
(15:50):
If we see an opportunity for two like-minded people or two organizations or businessesthat operate in a similar space where they might be able to put on a joint event about
their particular products or services, or they might be able to offer some of their
services to a charity or a sort of like-minded SME locally for a slightly reduced rate ishow can we help connect them?
That's kind what we do every day.
The second aspect of that is the local presence and promotion.
(16:12):
So we don't do much to promote ourselves very much, which is thanks for having me on hereto help me do it.
But we do a lot of through our newsletters and through our socials, we try and promote ourmembers because a lot of the time, if you're a small business or a small charity, you
don't have the capacity or the resource.
to do a massive ad campaign, like you don't have somebody doing that for you.
We don't have that much, but what we do have is quite a wide reach.
(16:35):
We have quite a significant presence in the Reading area and a bit more regionally now aswell.
So when we can use that platform to help our members tell their story or sell theirproducts or talk about their events or their needs, that's what we do.
So that's the kind of second part.
And then the third part is a bit more kind of under the radar, but for anyone who's everdone...
a tender or bid process in the public sector space and they like now since 2016 have hadto demonstrate their social value.
(17:02):
The social value actually was a lovely idea in 2012 but it wasn't really doing much.
Now it's about public sector services asking businesses to demonstrate what good are youdoing?
What is the change in well-being that your services or additional activities have on thelocal community, local environment and local economy?
And so we work with some of the businesses to
(17:23):
build a social value offer, which is basically saying, what do you do that ticks the boxthat you're being asked for, for this particular public service that wants your services?
And how can we help you design it in a way that has real impact?
Because a lot of the time those metrics are somewhere up in the cloud, but they don'talways have an impact on local people.
(17:43):
So anytime there's anything in the Reading area, we're like, well, if your business isbased in Reading, what can your volunteering do that's slightly more impactful than
badly holding a paintbrush and sort of doing something tokenistic, how can we make realsocial impact?
And I think it's hard for people to wrap their head around for small businesses that justby people knowing you, automatically you will get business.
(18:07):
It's something I think they've just got to start doing and it will give them dividends,but you can't give them a time or place or when that's actually going to happen.
going back to Connect Reading, you're a small team.
So what you've just said and how you're able to help people, I think is phenomenal.
I don't know how as a small team you're able to do that.
So how many members of the team are there again?
three of us.
(18:28):
How do you finance everything that you do?
You've got three part-time members, you've still got to pay their wages, but you've stillgot to keep, like you said, if you've got software up and running, or you still got to
have time to go out and meet people, how would you actually finance the operation ofConnect Reading?
So we are a membership based organisation, so our members pay monthly or annual, dependingon what suits them, subscription fee, and that helps to go towards our costs.
(18:53):
It doesn't cover everything.
So then when we look at our campaigns, we look to apply for funding from otherorganisations like trust funds, etc.
Unfortunately, we are not frontline and we don't want to be because that's what we'rethere to do is support frontline businesses and charities.
But it means that we aren't a very attractive prospect for lot of funders, so we aren'toften successful.
(19:13):
Growing the network is the way that we will be able to do more.
We have over 135 members at the moment from different sectors and everyone pays a slidingfee.
So it's all completely transparent.
It's all on our website.
People can see how much we do it for it's all according to turnover and divided by sectorby business, charity, education and public sector service.
(19:34):
What we're really keen to do is also look at some of those bespoke projects.
So if you're a multi-occupancy space and you want to do something to do with our campaignslike the Giving Trial, the Summer Giving Appeal,
then maybe you could sponsor an event that will help towards buying more gifts, but alsocover the cost for us to run the event.
So when we did cyclathons a few years ago, for example.
The other side of it is we have done things like the resource exchange.
(19:56):
We've applied for funding for like the back office costs of running things through ourCRM.
The time it takes to match people up.
The time it takes to sometimes deliver the hundreds of hand soaps to different peopleduring the pandemic.
That's often our own time.
And we really need to...
find a new way to make sure that the three people who are doing their paid hours are notalways doing unpaid hours.
(20:18):
So in terms of the sort of long-term way of us funding it, if we can grow the network webecome more sustainable.
and what you do is so good and there's so much potential.
I think people just need to appreciate and realize the benefits of collaborating.
That leads nicely into what I wanted to ask about, which is the future mission for ConnectReading, because you've already done so much so far.
(20:39):
What are your plans for the future?
So the quality standard I mentioned before, we'd love to be able to launch that.
We've been kind of waiting on some key partners in the local area to be able to do that inpartnership rather than on our own because we're committed to connecting.
Once they are on board, then it means we can roll that out across Reading.
So people signing up to that and seeing the value, if you like, of showing off how goodthey are at various things, specifically around, you know, positively impact local
(21:04):
environment, local community, and local economy.
So there's that side of it that will help undergird some of our costs.
one of the extra reasons for doing it as well as kind of rubber stamping the stuff we doand helping others do the same by being accountable.
The second side of it is we were asked a lot during the pandemic.
I think it was eight different localities across the UK.
mean, everything from like Southport through to like Wiltshire and Winchester andColchester, as well as neighbouring areas.
(21:35):
We're like, can we have a connect in set town name?
And I'm like,
Yes, but I'm also like drowning trying to juggle things during the pandemic in Reading.
I think the model of this cross sector network really works because it helps people sharebeyond their sector boundaries.
So if we could see one of those in any town or every town, that would be amazing becauseit would help charities network without having to pay an insane fee for certain kind of
(22:00):
business networking formats.
And secondly, it means that a lot of the smaller businesses are able to make those organicconnections that
help them show off the good that they already do.
Most of time SMEs are already doing incredible stuff, so how can we help that happen?
So those are the two things I think that I would like to see.
I would just love to see how we grow Connect Reading to make more positive impact.
(22:22):
you're doing all the right things so let's just watch the space as it were.
Is there anything you would like to leave our listeners with?
I mean, I'd like to ask them to buy me coffee, but that's about it really.
That's essentially the route into having a good conversation about joining the network.
If you are from a local business, consider this your invitation to come to one of our openevents.
(22:43):
You can find all the details on connectreading.org.uk.
And just reach out if you've got a question, even if you can't afford to join the network,you're like, I want to know about this.
We're fairly responsive, we're a quick pace team, we turn things around quickly and we'reall open to collaboration.
So if you've got a crazy idea that is a project that will help Reading, reach out andlet's see what we can do.
(23:04):
And like I said, you're all very passionate about what you do.
So that really comes across.
Lorraine, thank you so much for your time.
I thoroughly enjoyed talking to you.
And yes, onwards and upwards for Connector again.
Thank you, thanks for your time.
Hello everyone and welcome to the My Local Marketer podcast.
I'm Maria and I'm speaking today with Lorraine Briffitt, CEO of Connect Reading.
Lorraine, hello, thank you so much for coming on.
How are you?
I'm okay, thanks for having me on this beautifully sunny day.
It is, it's so hot for recording this in April and it's boiling.
Yes, yeah, I shouldn't complain though.
Sunshine is good for the soul.
(00:21):
It is good for the soul.
Yeah.
Good for the skin too.
Well, not too much.
In measured amounts.
Now, obviously you're here today from Connect Reading, which I'm sure many people wouldhave heard of, but for those who aren't familiar with Connect Reading, could you just give
a bit about what Connect Reading is and its mission?
Yeah, no problem.
So we've been around for about 20 years.
(00:42):
Our first iteration was as Reading Business Community Partnership, but we're all about notjust businesses and charities, which is kind of our previous incarnations, we are about
connecting sectors for mutual benefit.
So we run campaigns, events, have services that we try and give to our member network.
It's actually anything that will help Reading become a better place for everyone, not justthe sort of privileged few, then we're pretty much up for it.
(01:05):
Good local community, good local economy and good local environment.
I love this collaborative side.
There's so much in Reading and people are doing things by themselves and it's so muchharder.
If you collaborate, then you just get a wider reach and you can find people and it's justmuch more engaging and happy.
You're just doing something with someone.
They're sort of motivating you as you go along.
So I really love the mission for what you do.
(01:27):
So how did you become involved in Connect Reading?
So I mean I first experienced Connect Reading in about 2012, 2013 when I was leading adifferent organisation and went to a couple of their events.
They used to have quarterly forums and I met some really interesting people and just lovedthat opportunity to meet people from other sectors.
I joined Connect Reading in 2020, what a wonderful time to lead a networking organisationin the January and I guess I've been in the Reading area for more than 20 years.
(01:56):
I just found this concept of connecting across sectors
for this mutual benefit and kind of mutual benefit of the town and beyond yourself, beyondyour own organisation, that that really resonated with me.
to have the sort of job you do.
This isn't just a job, this is something that you need to keep really motivated on,inspiring.
So what's your personal mission when you talk over a CEO of Connect Ready?
(02:18):
I think the title, I mean, our name connects Reading.
I would say it's, some people say calling, probably my husband might call it compulsion,that I can't help but want to make connections between people.
And I think the organization itself as a charity, my commitment in this job is aboutloving Reading and its people, its diversity, its communities, the incredible way that it
(02:43):
can just evolve, I think, over time and having been here for 27 years.
It has changed as a town hugely and there are so many opportunities and I'm like, okay,well, if we can connect the dots on these, then the opportunities for Connect Reading to
be a more resilient and vibrant town and to have all of its residents feel like they haveskin in the game, then I'm like, well, that's what makes a good community.
(03:07):
That's what makes a thriving town.
You say that it's changed a lot over the last 20 years.
How has it changed?
Do mean there are just more opportunities for business now to get involved in?
I think not only the sort of physical appearance of the town has changed.
I mean, we're sitting in one of the buildings that didn't exist, you know, like five yearsago.
There are a lot of developments.
There's been a lot of change in the different sectors that have been present.
(03:31):
Cine Valley in terms of the studios, but also in terms of the tech.
For charities, I think there's just been a lot of need, certainly in the last five years.
And so a lot of the existing charities have had to evolve or form new partnerships.
And so
The changes in Reading, I guess, have been physical in what we can see around us, butthey've also been in the way that different communities interact with each other.
(03:53):
There have been some really devastating and tough things that have happened in this townover the last kind of two decades, but there's also been some incredible responses.
And I think that makes a town stronger.
And then it's like, well, what can other organizations or infrastructure or public sectorservices do to harness some of that incredible community response and resilience to help
(04:14):
again?
like make the town a better place.
Before CEO of Connect Ready, you've obviously been in other leadership positions before.
What sort of lessons have you picked up?
Because with your uh compulsion, if you use your husband's word, to network, you must havelearned so much and gained so many skills over the years.
What have you learned?
What lessons can you share?
I mean, I'd like to think I'd learn something, but I think I'm still constantly learningand relearning as well, because you can know something theoretically, that kind of
(04:42):
difference between knowing it ontically and no ethically is just like knowing it becauseyou've learned it in a book versus knowing it your body because you've lived it when you
didn't do it quite as you should have.
So I guess the main thing is that one person can't do it all.
Even when you have a sense of calling or purpose, no matter whether it is a one personbusiness or organisation or a couple of hundred people is
(05:04):
one person can't do it alone and you know we talk about being agile and being able to takethings on in terms of an autonomy in your role and those things are really valid but they
need to be within the infrastructure or ecosystem of either your own organization orbusiness and others because without that then firstly you don't have anyone buying your
stuff or doing things with you and secondly it's really lonely and people experienceburnout whether they're running a business, running a charity, working in public sector
(05:30):
service or in education.
I really love that point.
And as you said, the point of being in business is you've got to have something which issustainable and grafted and going hard, that is, for the short term, if you need to get
through a short term, but not for the long term.
you're collaborating, it takes pressure off you and I think it gives you uh some sort ofaccountability to someone else and makes you want to do it even more.
(05:51):
I wouldn't say it's all rose-tinted spectacles either, because, you know, everything wouldbe really easy if it wasn't for people, as they say.
However, I think there's something about that continual learning for yourself, of seeingwhat other people do and how they do it, and that much as we might all think our way is
right, that obviously isn't always true, because we need to make space to learn, andwithout others you can't learn in a more reflective way, unless you just sit down and read
(06:14):
a book, and that doesn't change your behaviour.
Can you share some of the Connect Reading projects that you've been working on?
Some examples for how people can collaborate and what people can do together.
Sure, so I mean, when I took over, Connect Reading was just working with businesses andcharities and making connections between those.
And I made it my kind of first year's mission, whilst interrupted by the pandemic, toinclude the education sector and work more intentionally around public sector connections
(06:41):
because the town is made up of lots of different weird and wonderful organisations frommany sectors made up of many local people.
And so some of the things that we've done either with our campaigns or our projects, theyhave really, really focused on.
how to make sure we engage across all of those.
So for the summer, as we're looking outside to the sunshine, the Summer Giving Appeallaunches in May, and that is about connecting vouchers from Aldi to, or Aldi, I always get
(07:07):
told I say that word, to local families in need over the school holidays, because puttingfood on the table or a sort of special buy toy in their hand for your own sanity during
the summer holidays can be really tough.
And so that's one of things we're working on at the moment.
And also over the last couple of years, we've been working on developing like a qualitystandard
that we're supposed to be specifically for businesses, but we really wanted to broadenthat out to other sectors.
(07:30):
So a lot of the time, if you're a business and you want to do business well, and you wantto show that you've done that well, you are measured by a certain set of metrics.
As a charity, you might be like, we want to show off that we treat our staff really well.
You're measured by a slightly different set of metrics.
Same for schools, whether you're rated by Ofsted or whatever.
For public sector services, they like to win various awards.
(07:51):
The funny thing is, is when you really boil it down,
It's the same set of metrics really, isn't it?
You're looking at do people treat their staff well?
Do they play nicely with others in whatever context that might be?
Are they looking at their carbon footprint and having a positive impact on the localenvironment?
What are they doing to work with others within their sector or across sector boundaries tobuy local or support local?
(08:14):
All of these things are things that any organization, any business charity, whatever, theyneed to be thinking about these things because that's how we make a more resilient
economy.
And so we've been developing how to help measure that so that local organizations in theReading area can be like, I do this.
And then we can kind of help map it out and then sort of rate them a kind of gold, silver,bronze way so they can show off the great stuff they do and encourage others through that
(08:40):
wonderful thing of positive peer pressure.
Oh, I like that approach.
Now, for businesses, think one of the difficulties that they come across, one of thechallenges is, like I said, thinking about the long-term when you're so in the moment,
you've got so much to do, you just want to get through today and this week.
Never mind think about six months, one year down the line.
(09:00):
What sort of challenges have you seen local businesses face?
I mean, on a facetious note, no one's invented time travel yet, which would really helpfor those of us who have an overstretched diary.
I think the biggest challenges that we've seen have been costs and recruitment.
So last week I was at a Bank of England citizens forum and they talked a little bit aboutwhat the challenges in terms of cost of living, what other things around inflation or
(09:24):
interest rates that are kind of up and down and the joys of the international economy andcertain leaders of different organizations or countries making rash decisions.
that have huge impacts across the globe.
How has this impacted local businesses?
So with the small, medium enterprises, SMEs, we've seen that the rising costs aroundutilities and of course the massive challenge of increased national insurance, that has
(09:48):
been tough.
Not only has it impacted the bottom line and turnover on a regular basis, but it also hasan impact on staff morale because they know that for the nth year running, a pay rise is
really hard and it's certainly not going to be in line with whatever the inflation is atthe moment.
Another aspect that we've really seen in terms of a specific part of a sector ishospitality.
They have been so hit by this issue of cost of living.
(10:11):
So people's disposable income has been massively impacted.
And so going out for a nice meal is not always something that you can do anymore.
And then beyond purely the private sector, it's important to remember that charities alsohave to run as a business.
They have to pay their staff, they have to have their running costs.
And for them, they have all these challenges too, plus
these rising costs and reduced statutory funding plus the demand on their serviceincreasing.
(10:35):
And that has massively created a squeeze on the donors that might have supported thembecause their personal purse has shrunk.
And then it's reduced the donations that they receive.
they've kind of got increased demand, increased costs.
And so that kind of the scales of balancing those two things out has been really tough.
It's tough out there.
mean, I'm not expecting you to give an answer to solve everyone's problems with a wand.
(10:57):
uh Do you have any suggestions for how people can approach or start to minimize the impactof these things?
I think collaboration.
I think there are people out there who have sort of simple solutions.
So if you're in the charity sector, we've put a resource page on our website that helpssignpost people to free resources, whether that's streamlining some of your processes, a
(11:19):
lot of software and stuff is available to the third sector for free or a hugely reducedrate.
Secondly, is making connections into other sectors.
So if you're a business, think about, well, can you do a bit of kind of gifting kind orreduced rate in kind?
for another business whose services you could do a bit of a swap on, whether it's IT,whether it's financial support and accounting, whether it is cleaning services, who can
(11:43):
you recommend by creating a kind of almost like a group buying thing?
We're in conversation with a couple of people in the hospitality sector to try and seewhether this is something that could work for town centre businesses who work in
hospitality because they are being priced out of the market by large franchises.
And it means we lose our independence.
T-S not C-E.
trying to just get people to have conversations is kind of why our network exists.
(12:06):
If you can have those collaborative conversations that start from the point of how can wehelp each other, then you'll find that your business can thrive because you're sharing
things.
And I've seen some, for example, the hospitality side, like you said, it's tough.
I know that some of them, for example, I know it's zero degrees, they have those nightsearlier in the week where they can have community groups in.
(12:26):
So it's free for the community groups, it's got somewhere to host their events, but at thesame time, people are there buying drinks, so it's a time, you know, opportunity for them
to bring in some income when they wouldn't have normal income.
So yeah, I think those little win-win situations really work.
So it's a space for people to meet, because obviously finding a space is tough.
but also they can get some income in at the same time.
(12:46):
I like that you mentioned it, I Archie who used to do some work with us at Hock when heworked there that was one of his little baby projects and I'm so glad it's still
continuing because it does have such a positive impact both on the charities that are ableto host and on the business because it gets people through the door and being like oh
isn't this a nice space and oh look at the wonderful drinks selection.
Yeah, think outside the box and because they've already been in there, they're more likelyto go in there for something else going forwards because they've broken that initial
(13:10):
barrier.
Speaking about success, how do you measure success for connect ready?
Do you have any impact goals?
Yes, have kind of like OKRs that I've got from my board of trustees.
But for me, it's about making sure that the stories that we hear about the positive impactthat we've had, that we can also extrapolate that.
love a dashboard.
I'm a bit of a sucker.
(13:31):
So we have a CRM, we use Mundo.com because it's free.
And so every time we make a connection between different organizations within our network,we map it out and then we sort of follow up like, you know, did you buy their services or
did you support that charity or?
thing you were giving away, did you actually give it away?
So through the resource exchange we map that out, then through our sort of bespokeconnections between organizations we say well did you kind of follow up on taking on a
(13:56):
contract and we try and ask when people are willing to tell us how much they then you knowthey don't have to give us an exact figure but in the ballpark of it was it 30k was it a
million?
So as an example of that so since April 2023 I checked on the figures this morning
We've connected over £1.8 million worth of space, stuff, skills, sponsorship andemployment contracts into Reading.
(14:16):
Wow, that's an impressive figure.
And like you said, just having that figure shows what a difference it can make and what adifference you're making at Connect Reading as well to actually connect people to make
those connections to bring in money for the commercial side of things.
Yeah, and some people love numbers.
I personally love numbers as long as they're color coded in a spreadsheet or a dashboard.
Love that.
But the thing that generally gets people is stories.
(14:38):
And one of the things we've just not really had that much capacity to do because we'vejust been doing the stuff, as you said, for business owners who've just been, you do your
thing and then you're like, yes, we're supposed to tell people that we're doing the thing.
Telling people that we've been doing the thing has been our like Achilles heel, I think,for having such a small team in such little capacity.
And so we're really keen to hear from people who might want to volunteer their marketingskills or their storytelling skills to help us get our case studies out into the world
(15:05):
because they come in thick and fast.
But then that means then you've got to, you know, write a thing and put together somethingon Canva.
you know, that's much as I enjoy playing on Canva at night with a of wine.
It's not really part of my day to day job.
So trying to help us tell stories is one of the big things, because those are the onesthat people remember.
How does Connect Reading actually help local businesses then?
(15:27):
You're a local business, you think, great, you convinced me, I need to makecollaborations.
How can Connect Reading help with that?
So because we're membership network, I'll talk about that right at the end, but that'skind of how we work is through the network.
But we also act as a kind of like point of contact for people who want to get in touch andsay, I need to know about XYZ.
So that local connection thing of connecting people, like I said, we are quite compulsiveabout it.
(15:50):
If we see an opportunity for two like-minded people or two organizations or businessesthat operate in a similar space where they might be able to put on a joint event about
their particular products or services, or they might be able to offer some of their
services to a charity or a sort of like-minded SME locally for a slightly reduced rate ishow can we help connect them?
That's kind what we do every day.
The second aspect of that is the local presence and promotion.
(16:12):
So we don't do much to promote ourselves very much, which is thanks for having me on hereto help me do it.
But we do a lot of through our newsletters and through our socials, we try and promote ourmembers because a lot of the time, if you're a small business or a small charity, you
don't have the capacity or the resource.
to do a massive ad campaign, like you don't have somebody doing that for you.
We don't have that much, but what we do have is quite a wide reach.
(16:35):
We have quite a significant presence in the Reading area and a bit more regionally now aswell.
So when we can use that platform to help our members tell their story or sell theirproducts or talk about their events or their needs, that's what we do.
So that's the kind of second part.
And then the third part is a bit more kind of under the radar, but for anyone who's everdone...
a tender or bid process in the public sector space and they like now since 2016 have hadto demonstrate their social value.
(17:02):
The social value actually was a lovely idea in 2012 but it wasn't really doing much.
Now it's about public sector services asking businesses to demonstrate what good are youdoing?
What is the change in well-being that your services or additional activities have on thelocal community, local environment and local economy?
And so we work with some of the businesses to
(17:23):
build a social value offer, which is basically saying, what do you do that ticks the boxthat you're being asked for, for this particular public service that wants your services?
And how can we help you design it in a way that has real impact?
Because a lot of the time those metrics are somewhere up in the cloud, but they don'talways have an impact on local people.
(17:43):
So anytime there's anything in the Reading area, we're like, well, if your business isbased in Reading, what can your volunteering do that's slightly more impactful than
badly holding a paintbrush and sort of doing something tokenistic, how can we make realsocial impact?
And I think it's hard for people to wrap their head around for small businesses that justby people knowing you, automatically you will get business.
(18:07):
It's something I think they've just got to start doing and it will give them dividends,but you can't give them a time or place or when that's actually going to happen.
going back to Connect Reading, you're a small team.
So what you've just said and how you're able to help people, I think is phenomenal.
I don't know how as a small team you're able to do that.
So how many members of the team are there again?
three of us.
(18:28):
How do you finance everything that you do?
You've got three part-time members, you've still got to pay their wages, but you've stillgot to keep, like you said, if you've got software up and running, or you still got to
have time to go out and meet people, how would you actually finance the operation ofConnect Reading?
So we are a membership based organisation, so our members pay monthly or annual, dependingon what suits them, subscription fee, and that helps to go towards our costs.
(18:53):
It doesn't cover everything.
So then when we look at our campaigns, we look to apply for funding from otherorganisations like trust funds, etc.
Unfortunately, we are not frontline and we don't want to be because that's what we'rethere to do is support frontline businesses and charities.
But it means that we aren't a very attractive prospect for lot of funders, so we aren'toften successful.
(19:13):
Growing the network is the way that we will be able to do more.
We have over 135 members at the moment from different sectors and everyone pays a slidingfee.
So it's all completely transparent.
It's all on our website.
People can see how much we do it for it's all according to turnover and divided by sectorby business, charity, education and public sector service.
(19:34):
What we're really keen to do is also look at some of those bespoke projects.
So if you're a multi-occupancy space and you want to do something to do with our campaignslike the Giving Trial, the Summer Giving Appeal,
then maybe you could sponsor an event that will help towards buying more gifts, but alsocover the cost for us to run the event.
So when we did cyclathons a few years ago, for example.
The other side of it is we have done things like the resource exchange.
(19:56):
We've applied for funding for like the back office costs of running things through ourCRM.
The time it takes to match people up.
The time it takes to sometimes deliver the hundreds of hand soaps to different peopleduring the pandemic.
That's often our own time.
And we really need to...
find a new way to make sure that the three people who are doing their paid hours are notalways doing unpaid hours.
(20:18):
So in terms of the sort of long-term way of us funding it, if we can grow the network webecome more sustainable.
and what you do is so good and there's so much potential.
I think people just need to appreciate and realize the benefits of collaborating.
That leads nicely into what I wanted to ask about, which is the future mission for ConnectReading, because you've already done so much so far.
(20:39):
What are your plans for the future?
So the quality standard I mentioned before, we'd love to be able to launch that.
We've been kind of waiting on some key partners in the local area to be able to do that inpartnership rather than on our own because we're committed to connecting.
Once they are on board, then it means we can roll that out across Reading.
So people signing up to that and seeing the value, if you like, of showing off how goodthey are at various things, specifically around, you know, positively impact local
(21:04):
environment, local community, and local economy.
So there's that side of it that will help undergird some of our costs.
one of the extra reasons for doing it as well as kind of rubber stamping the stuff we doand helping others do the same by being accountable.
The second side of it is we were asked a lot during the pandemic.
I think it was eight different localities across the UK.
mean, everything from like Southport through to like Wiltshire and Winchester andColchester, as well as neighbouring areas.
(21:35):
We're like, can we have a connect in set town name?
And I'm like,
Yes, but I'm also like drowning trying to juggle things during the pandemic in Reading.
I think the model of this cross sector network really works because it helps people sharebeyond their sector boundaries.
So if we could see one of those in any town or every town, that would be amazing becauseit would help charities network without having to pay an insane fee for certain kind of
(22:00):
business networking formats.
And secondly, it means that a lot of the smaller businesses are able to make those organicconnections that
help them show off the good that they already do.
Most of time SMEs are already doing incredible stuff, so how can we help that happen?
So those are the two things I think that I would like to see.
I would just love to see how we grow Connect Reading to make more positive impact.
(22:22):
you're doing all the right things so let's just watch the space as it were.
Is there anything you would like to leave our listeners with?
I mean, I'd like to ask them to buy me coffee, but that's about it really.
That's essentially the route into having a good conversation about joining the network.
If you are from a local business, consider this your invitation to come to one of our openevents.
(22:43):
You can find all the details on connectreading.org.uk.
And just reach out if you've got a question, even if you can't afford to join the network,you're like, I want to know about this.
We're fairly responsive, we're a quick pace team, we turn things around quickly and we'reall open to collaboration.
So if you've got a crazy idea that is a project that will help Reading, reach out andlet's see what we can do.
(23:04):
And like I said, you're all very passionate about what you do.
So that really comes across.
Lorraine, thank you so much for your time.
I thoroughly enjoyed talking to you.
And yes, onwards and upwards for Connector again.
Thank you, thanks for your time.
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