Pete Lauder.com

A drink, a few meetings, a catch up, and a scam.

I was in a real hurry, but I really wanted to catch up with some people at Lee’s workshop in Manchester, so I booked the hotel for 1 night.

The Palace hotel was a fascinating place, with great Victorian ceramic tiled walls, and 5ft wide doors, that must have been 9ft tall, at least. I took my wife with me, on this trip, and a couple of business partners, she loved the hotel.

After arriving late, around 7.30pm, I quickly registered the rooms, and made my way up to change into some evening clothes, nice room, it even had its own staircase in it, but the 20ft high curtains were a challenge to use!

OK, it’s around 8pm, I’m ready to network, but the bar is empty, well no familiar faces anyway, thats where forward planning kicks in. I realised that the Palace hotel was smack in the middle the Manchester nightlife scene, and those marketers would not miss an opportunity like this.

What copuld I do? I phoned a freind. Matt Garret answered his phone, in a very noisy bar, stating that he didn’t know who I was, and he told me the name of the bar, off we went to find the alpha pack.

We had caught up with the gang, just as they were ordering food, what great timing. Matt apologised for not hearing me, and he had completely forgotten, that I said I would be meeting him, anyhow, we soon got settled in, and greeted old friends, and new.

Alex Jefferys was in great spirit, as usual, and I was pleased to see him, although he might have got fed up with me saying, “have you brought us in here” when we all changed bars to a loud music venue, I didn’t let on, but I loved the place, lol.

Another friend that’s had a difficult year was Tahir Shah, it was good to have Tahir back to his marketing self. Chris Breville was there for a meet up, he did his business, then went on his way, with a few hours of driving ahead of him, Chris did well to stay around until around 11pm.

Someone that I had never met before, was John Thornhill, and he’s a nice guy.  Now I’d seen the face before, but never put 2 and 2 together.

I met Lee McIntyre, who I had not met before, wished him well, but apologised for not being able to attend the workshop, sometimes it just works out that way.

I was impressed by Lee’s enthusiasm, and transparency, he gave me a report to absob, and you can download it here.

Randy Smith was in full flow, with his girl, Rachel, and I was glad to hear that Randy is on the up, with his wizard autoresponder becoming a major success story, well done Randy.

The beer flowed, and we made our way to the noisy place next door, the Varsity, where I was legally scammed!

You see, owners have devised a method of making some entrants pay twice, very cunning, but also very underhand, so I’m voting with my feet, and never going back there again.

This may catch on, so be warned.

We arrived, from next door, and paid a small entrance fee, around £5, I’ve no problem with that, so I paid my guests, and myself in, then went to the bar, and ordered some drinks. After around an hour, my addiction started to kick in.

I am amongst the small group of people that still smoke, and, due to the smoking ban in public places, I have to nip outside for a smoke, here’s the kicker.

As I wandered towards the exit door, one of the 4 or 5 doormen asked where I was going, my reply, cigarette in mouth, was “outside for a smoke.” “You need to go over there and see that guy” they replied, so over I wander, and find a man, sat at a tall table, near the door with a cash register, and a fist full of armbands.

“50 pence pal” he remarked, as he held out an armband, when I asked what for, he replied that you must pay a premium to be allowed out for a smoke, WHAT!!!

I found that very amusing, then went back to my table, to tell my party the scam, but sooner, or later, my addiction got the better of me, and I paid the money, got the armband, and went out for my smoke.

The final indignity was, that the grumpy doormen, (they always are, unless you are a 21 year old model in a mini skirt) moved us across the road, stating that we were not allowed to stand outside the bar, they own the pavement now do they? To compound things, when I woke the morning after, there was the wristband, still intact, and guess what it had on it?

An ad for manchestervarsity.com

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