PAUL and Nicola Kilroe of Alderley Edge have extended the services of their Manchester networking organisation, The Boardroom, to include a unique Concierge Service for restaurant and hotel bookings.

Due to the couple’s work with the EatDrinkSleep Awards, which celebrates Manchester’s hospitality industry, members of The Boardroom would often ask them at short notice if they could help secure a table in a restaurant that was fully booked, a rate in a particular hotel or a reserved table in a certain nightclub.

They would happily oblige, but the more regular it got they recognised there was a requirement for this type of service.

Members now have a dedicated phone number which is manned seven days a week, where a team of operators manage reservations on behalf of Boardroom members.

The Boardroom began in 2014 as a networking organisation for company directors.

Members attend events which are included as part of their membership and are chosen via a mobile App.

For example, events could be a lunch at Manchester House, dinner at The French or a golf day at Mottram Hall.

With the Boardroom having more than 150 members in Greater Manchester, and growing, the restaurants are happy to collaborate as they know they are getting a certain type of customer and the opportunity to showcase their venue.

Ninety-five per cent of Boardroom members are the actual business owners.

This is very rare for any networking group which are often dominated by company’s sales representatives.

Paul joked: “People who have ever attended a traditional networking event such as BNI or the Chamber of Commerce fall into two camps – those who love it and those who run from it like they are running from a burning building!

“The Boardroom is as far removed from BNI as can be imagined.”

Following its success in Manchester, The Boardroom is now expanding to Liverpool and Leeds with a ‘member of one, member of all’ policy.