Watford's best new networking group grows from 18 to 30 businesses, and from Silver to Gold sponsorship of the FREdome Visionary Trust.

The best known, Central Watford business networking group - BNI Junction - is holding a Visitors' Day at 6:45 am on Friday 13th June at the Best Western White House Hotel in Upton Road to celebrate its First Birthday success and invite other businesses to share in this.

Since its official launch this time last year, Junction has grown steadily from 18 to around 30 businesses. In that time it has passed nearly 1800 fruitful business referrals between members amounting to £180,879, more than double the average volume of referrals passed by a BNI Chapter.

At the Visitors' Day, Elected Mayor, Dorothy Thornhill, will present a Gold Certificate to the Chapter for achieving the next level of sponsorship of the FREdome Visionary Trust.

FREdome launches the initiatives that the community as a whole identifies as the most beneficial and promotes the companies that support them. FREdome's top local-to-global project, "C-Green Solutions", in partnership with St Michael's Catholic High School, has been shortlisted by the Big Green Challenge, run by NESTA. The project is starting by growing high-yield, highly nutritious food for the local youth, homeless and destitute, at the same time piloting a single solution to climate change, the energy crisis, starvation and disease. If the project is the outright winner of the competition, it will receive an award of £1 million.

The business sponsorship will be used to provide two local prizes to begin to develop the next two projects, one voted as the best by local schools and the other by the local community.

Twenty areas across the UK have recently elected to run FREdome community programmes of their own.

If you might like to become part of all this, please contact BNI's Junction Chapter, Barry Dutnall (0845 450 5868) or the founder and chair of the FREdome Visionary Trust, Greg Peachey (0845 225 3005).