DREARY networking events

Darren Blackstock set up Pedal Talk in January to offer businesses the chance to network from the saddle.

Darren, who is based in Chisledon, told the Adver where the idea came from. “There’s loads of these networking companies around and they’re all exactly the same," he said.

“You rock up at a hotel conference room and you get to tell everyone about what you do and then you go back to your office, and they’ve been like that for years and years.

“It works but it’s just old school and kind of stale environment.”

“But we doing as an informal approach to create a more relaxed environment by incorporating a decent bike ride.

“Quite often the talk is bike-based before they get into the nitty-gritty of the work stuff.”

“I think a lot of business owners like the idea of network groups but are not confident enough to talk about who they are or what they do. But cycling takes that pressure off because they’ve already got that pressure off.

“When you’re in those stale meeting room environments people are still distracted by their phones doing their emails. When you’re on a bike you’re not doing taking calls and genuinely have time to talk to other people and you all have a common interest.”

Darren has also started inviting expert speakers to give talks on both business and biking, calling them Ped Talks.

One of the expert speakers at a Ped talk was Jason Streather, an ex-international track cyclist and mountain bike coach.

The group currently has around 35 members, mostly made up of small and medium business owners, and puts on around four rides a month around Swindon and Wiltshire. The rides are between 20 and 25 miles from beginners to intermediate.

Darren hopes to spread the group across Wiltshire and once enough members join the network to introduce a monthly subscription fee.