The Giraffe Network costs a simple £40 per month for as long as you want to participate.

We encourage interested people to join us for 1 or 2 meetings to find out if the group feels right for them. We also like people to join us as guests with no pressure to join. We are very interested in hearing what other businesses are up to.

Currently, our meetings are every Thursday morning from 7 am start to the formalities. Most weeks we aim to finish at approximately 8:15am. People actually start arriving around 6:30am for informal chats.

Up to two and a quarter hours including the informal session at the start.

We are currently hosted by the Kingmoor Community and Business Centre https://www.kingmoorcbc.co.uk/ on the Kingmoor Junior School site LIddle Close, Carlisle, CA3 0DU.

Simply contact one of the businesses in the membership list and ask that member to book you in for a meeting. There is very little formality.

No formal dress code as our members are usually straight out “into the fray” as soon as a meeting finishes. Whether your business sees you under a leaky car engine, or holding high power financial meetings with prominent business leaders you will be welcomed as you are.

We do believe in a formal structure for these meetings.

We encourage people to arrive early for breakfast and informal discussions. People do start arriving around 6:30am some mornings.

7:00 – 7:25am   Meeting start with members’ 1-minute reviews of their week, their problems, successes, or anything notable that has occurred in the week.

7:30 - 7:45          Member of the Week: your opportunity to educate us about your business, give business advice or air a problem you need insight for.

7:45 – 7:50         Shout outs: An opportunity to thank members for leads, referrals, work well done or to “big someone up”!

7:50 – 8:00         Knowledge base/ Visitor talk: In this 10-minute slot, A member will go deeper into educating the members about an aspect of business – theirs or business in general. If we have a visitor, this is the opportunity to help us get to know you and give us a flavour of what your business is about.

8:00 – 8:10         Admin & treasury/ Any other business.

8:15                    Meeting closes.

There is no expectation of a formally prepared presentation. However even in a small group like this, a little thought put into what you will tell the group in your 1 minute and what kind of business connection you seek is guaranteed to make the networking commitment more fruitful.

Once you decide to join us payment is taken monthly by direct debit from your business account.

The Giraffe network is about helping your colleagues to reach the higher fruits in business. We do this in a relaxed but purposeful way. The group encourages everyone to stand tall.

No. But referrals are always welcomed and help to keep the group fresh and motivated.

We aim to try and have one from each line of business as members but we aren’t explicitly exclusive.

Our members are a complete mix of solopreneurs, SME owners, staff from within a business and professionals from a wide variety of companies and enterprises around Carlisle.