Doing business at 7am may not be everybody’s cup of tea but a growing number of people in Oxfordshire are opting to join burgeoning breakfast clubs and indulge in early morning networking over bacon, eggs and coffee.

The business breakfast clubs of Banbury, Bicester, Chipping Norton and Witney not only meet monthly, they also get together four times a year for a combined ‘super event’ to boost networking even further.

These bigger breakfast events have the added attraction of securing high-profile speakers, keen to monopolise the combined audiences of up to 100 delegates, as demonstrated by the Witney Bigger Breakfast, where David Cameron spoke and the forthcoming event next month when Hugh Phillimore of the Cornbury Festival will take the stage.

Preferring not to use the term member, these clubs have hundreds of names on their databases who are sent regular e-mails.

These are local businesses from all walks of life that are prepared to get up at the crack of dawn, meet in a chosen venue and, rather like speed dating, exploit the opportunity of being in a room full of people they could, in theory, do business with.

The most established of the quartet is the Banbury Breakfast Club — known locally as the BBC.

The BBC pushed the boat out for its February meeting with guest speaker former England rugby union international Martin Corry. The meetings also attract a good cross section of the sexes, with the first few rows of seats on this occasion dominated by the female members of the audience.

Now in its 15th year, BBC was set up and is still run by Shaun Jardine, a solicitor with Brethertons, because Banbury did not have a regular networking event.

Mr Jardine says the club’s objectives are “to enable guests to meet in a suitably relaxed atmosphere, exchange views, ideas, thoughts, information, proposals, counter-proposals, business orientated ideas and updates on Banbury and surrounding areas.”

He added: “It’s about relationships and helping others and those people will look to help you.”

Likewise, Mike Leggett, who founded and then found himself at the helm of the Witney Big(ger) Breakfast Club, agrees that networking is all about trust.

Mr Leggett, who runs his own accountancy practice The Southhill Patnership, said: “There are two types of business networking — the referral club, usually a franchise where each trade and profession only has one member and they are encouraged into giving each other business leads.

“Or there is our type — where the idea is to create a business community that is comfortable with each other, encourages deals to be done between trusted participants, but also serves to help, support, educate and encourage business.”

The Witney group features several accountants and he welcomes the healthy competition and respect that comes as a result.

He added: “In some ways there is also the idea of creating a local market place — people are often amazed at the range of services they can get from us and the local business community.”

The Bicester Group, run by BBK Media’s president Ben Jackson, has proved so successful, it has even been able to launch a weekly group called the Wednesday Business Club. Mr Jackson says future plans of the weekly group include extended or additional meetings to allow members to train each other and the formation of spin-out niche groups.

The young pretender is the 729 club run by Ken Norman and Tim Lyon, founders of New Tricks Training in Chipping Norton.

The pair set the Chipping Norton group up because they said there was no voice for business in the town.

Mr Norman said his most memorable meeting was where they raised £360 in three minutes for guest speakers Sue and Tony Melia, who used it to refurbish a classroom in Malawi and secured more than 35,000 meals for its villagers.

Interesting speakers like the Melias make for successful events, as do interesting venues, such as the Wychwood Brewery.

A presentation from former brewery managing director Rupert Thompson led to him virtually clearing the room with his invitation to join him for a free beer at 9am.

Likewise, Mr Jardine recounts the day Lord Digby Jones addressed the BBC, co-incidentally on the day he was invited to join Gordon Brown’s cabinet.

In the modern world of networking, it is no longer a matter of knowing the right people to be accepted. All you need do is pay for your breakfast and the rest is up to you.

o Contacts: www.witneybbc.co.uk www.bicesterbusiness.org/breakfast www.banbury-cross.co.uk/breakfastclub www.729club.co.uk