On Friday 25th July, Lincoln Business Club gathered once more at the YMCA Showroom on Tritton Road for another lively summer breakfast.
The room was full, the coffee and chat was flowing, and the atmosphere was lively!
Round-the-room intros, two rounds of table networking, and a lot of laughs from the audience.
This month we heard from a video redaction expert with a compelling origin story, and got a briefing on how local SMEs can tap into University of Lincoln talent for free.
This month’s two-minute slot went to Will Stokes, who took his moment to introduce himself and his work to the room.
This month was a little different though, he decided to share his why.
Why he left a stable career in the RAF to start my own financial advice business. How it was his father’s experience with a financial advisor that helped.
And why his mission is “making financial advice accessible to all.”
A brief window, but as our regulars know, it’s often the spark for conversations that carry on through the morning and coming weeks.
Check out Will here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-stokesdippfs/
The sponsor presentation came from Dave Thorne of Demux Video Services Ltd, and it was one of the more memorable slots we’ve had, opening with the immortal worry: “I hope he can’t recover my deleted browser history?”
Dave took the room back to where it all began, 21st March 2001, and a moment on a police investigation when a Senior Investigating Officer said something he never forgot. That set him on a path of asking a simple question: “Is there a better way?” Anyone who has ever sat through the tedium of manual video redaction knew exactly what he meant when he described how it makes you feel (there were sound effects involved).
The heart of Dave’s message was that the need to protect sensitive information isn’t limited to police investigations. It’s a challenge for all sorts of organisations, and the difficulty isn’t knowing that redaction needs doing, it’s finding a better, faster way to do it. Demux has built exactly that, going beyond redaction into a wider toolkit, and Dave brought it to life with a live demo. A genuinely engaging session from someone who clearly loves solving the problem.
Check out Dave here on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/demuxdavethorne/
The Dragon Boat Festival 2026 results were in. Congratulations to the champions, with second place going to Brook and Mayo’s “Shock n Oars”, third to Siemens Energy’s Team Purple, and a special mention for “Pirates of the Cardboardian” as best themed team. The most fundraised team pulled in a brilliant £2,278.75. For the diary: next year’s Dragon Boat Festival is on Saturday 17th July 2027.
The wider Mission Possible campaign continues too, working towards a second helicopter that would reach hundreds more patients across the region each year. To support check out: ambucopter.org.uk/missionpossible
The Lincoln Business Club Annual Golf Day, in support of LNAA, is on Thursday 10th September 2026.
Teams of four are £210, covering a breakfast sandwich with tea or coffee, a full round with competition, and an evening buffet supper. Sponsorship opportunities run from £35 for a tee box up to £125 for longest drive or nearest the pin.
There is also a cycling option – speak to Chris Owen for more details.
Or if you’d prefer the Summer Social ticket is £15, including buffet supper and a raffle entry. Event partners this year are Nicholsons Chartered Accountants, Cowens Group and Pro 5 Networking. Tickets here.
This month’s keynote came from Harpaul Singh Dhindsa, Head of Careers and Employability at the University of Lincoln, with a briefing built specifically for the room: how Lincoln SMEs can use free and funded University talent to grow, at no cost and low risk.
The headline point landed hard. More than half of UK private-sector employment sits in SMEs, yet smaller businesses get the least access to graduate talent. Big recruiters have graduate schemes; most SMEs don’t have the time or HR capacity to run one. So the University built routes designed for smaller teams: a way to get fresh thinking on a defined project, marketing, research, a website, a process review, without committing to a permanent hire.
Harpaul walked through six ways in, most of them free and the rest funded, from advertising roles on CareerLinc and booking a free stand at a careers fair, through to part-funded internships, Lincoln Connect mentoring, industry projects and joining an Industry Advisory Board to shape what’s actually taught. He backed it with numbers: 22 internships completed in 2025/26 with 9 brand-new business hosts this year, 135 employers across five fairs (up from 95), and independently verified government data showing 91.1% of Lincoln graduates in sustained employment or further study five years on, second of nine East Midlands institutions.
The takeaway for anyone running a smaller business: a Lincoln graduate isn’t a gamble, and the door is genuinely open. Getting started is as simple as an email to employers@lincoln.ac.uk.
A huge thank you to Dave and Harpaul for two brilliant, very different sessions this month. Thank you also to Will for his two minutes, to our table sponsors, and to the committee for everything they do behind the scenes.
And thank you, as always, to the Lincoln Business Club community, the people who fill the room with energy and good spirits every month. See you at the end of August.
Next meeting: Friday 28th August – details on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/lincoln-business-club-3159402180
The Showroom
Tritton Road
Lincoln
LN6 7QY
The Showroom, Tritton Road,
Lincoln, LN6 7QY
