Just a quick note to everyone who attended all of the SME and Meet the Supplier events during February and March - THANK YOU!

The specific Catalyst SME events, over 200 people came along to find out more about ICT and e-business and for the Tourism workshops we ran, a further 72 people attended. A great turnout! We hope you found these events useful and informative and I know that many took advantage of the opportunity to network.

Another thank you goes to all of the speakers who gave their time and expertise to these events. Once again, without your help it would just have been me talking for 3 hours! So thanks to you also.

Last but not least, thank you to the suppliers who gave their time at the Meet the Supplier events in Newcastle and Darlington. I have gathered some very valuable lessons from these events - the first being that you all love bacon sandwiches! I think the Catalyst surgeries went very well and were a useful addition to the event format. Having spoken with a number of you, I think in the future we willlook to combine the SME and Meet the Supplier events if at all possible. This will same time for both SMEs and suppliers - and we will also look to feed everyone somehow!

Anyway, now that the events have come to a close, Liz and I are back in the office doing our day job. We had a great time out 'on the road' and enjoyed meeting you all. It's always nice to be able to put faces to the names behind the emails. We are now catching up on everything else we need to do to keep the Catalyst wheels turning! Keep peddaling Liz.......