Wokingham Borough Connect
Still time to enter our Christmas window competition
In our last Business Matters newsletter, we invited businesses in Wokingham, Woodley and Twyford to enter our Best Dressed Window Competition and bring some festive cheer to the local community.
This is your last chance to enter so make sure you don’t miss out! You need to be based in one of the three town or village centres to be eligible. To enter, please fill out this short form by Tuesday 21 November.
Whatever your business, we’re encouraging everyone to join in the fun and create an attractive design to delight spectators. As the festive season is fast approaching, the theme is simple: Christmas!
Members of the public will vote for their favourite designs from Friday 1 December, so make sure that you have yours ready by then.
Voting will close on Monday 11 December and three winners will be announced - one in Wokingham, Woodley and Twyford. Each will be presented with a certificate on Thursday 14 December.
For any queries, please send us a quick email. Best of luck!
 Don't forget to come along to drop-in session
We’re holding a drop-in session on Wednesday, 29 November to offer free advice and support to all businesses in Wokingham Borough.
Representatives from the Berkshire Growth Hub and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) will be there to explain how they can give ongoing help and one-to-one guidance for your business.
Whether you’re a local business owner, or you’re thinking of starting one, we’re encouraging everyone to come along and benefit from free and tailored advice.
The session will be held at Salty Olive, 5 Elms Field, Wokingham, RG40 2FE from 12.00 to 2.00pm. No booking is required – please email us with any queries.
We're running this event in support of Small Business Saturday, a national campaign that champions small businesses.
Promote your festive offers on social media
For the first time, we're opening up our official Facebook page for local businesses to promote Christmas events, products and offers. This is part of our effort to support our business community this festive season.
By promoting your festive offerings on our Facebook page, you can increase your brand awareness and reach thousands of local customers. We have over 18,000 followers and mostly use Facebook to share updates about our work.
How will it work?
- At 9am on 1 December, we will put out a dedicated post on our Facebook page and pin it to the top.
- You can then leave comments with information about your Christmas promotions. A few things to note:
- All comments should be posted from your company’s official Facebook account, instead of any personal account.
- Posts are limited to Christmas events, products and offers, rather than regular, ongoing offers.
- You can add more than one offer - put each offer in an individual comment thread.
- Relevant images and website addresses can be included.
- You must include contact details for customer enquiries.
- Comments will close at 5pm on the same day (1 December).
- All comments will be monitored. Any information that is considered political, inappropriate, irrelevant, duplicate and negative, as well as that posted from any personal Facebook accounts will be removed.
We encourage all traders, especially retail shops and eateries including pubs, cafés and restaurants, to make the most of this festive opportunity.
Email us if you have any questions.
 Free parking and bus travel this festive season
Free town centre parking has been made available for visitors to Wokingham and Woodley for their festive events, thanks to an economic development grant.
You can park for free in our Wokingham town centre car parks for the Wokingham Winter Carnival on Sunday 26 November, and in all our Woodley town centre car parks for the Woodley Christmas Extravaganza on Sunday 3 December.
Bus travel is also free on the six Saturdays leading up to Christmas for journeys starting in the borough, from 18 November to 23 December inclusive. There'll be free travel on specific routes for those travelling to and from the Wokingham Winter Carnival and Woodley Christmas Extravaganza.
We know these fantastic community events are hugely popular, bringing thousands of people into our towns, and we're pleased to be helping visitors get there as well as helping people who run the stalls.
We published this special extra edition of Business Matters to bring you some important news in the run-up to the festive season. Your next regular edition will be out in early December as usual.
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