Two hosts who'd rather introduce you than sell to you.

Neil Giller

The Real Neil · Business coach & public speaker

Neil has spent thirty years in business and more than a decade coaching other people through it. He grew up in the family mailing business, running marketing campaigns for some very large companies, and before that he made jewellery in Hatton Garden. He has run his own marketing service, and spent years as a BNI Managing Area Director — which is to say he has sat in more networking rooms than most people will in a lifetime, and has firm views on what separates a good one from a waste of a morning.

Today he coaches business owners one to one and speaks at events across the country. He is direct, funny, and completely allergic to waffle — which is roughly what you want in the person running the room.

You have a choice in life. You can be a radiator or a drain. Neil's line, and he means it

His other motto — inspire before you expire — is a fair summary of why he says yes to things like this.

Vignas “Vig” Gunasegaran

Redbridge Financial · Chartered Financial Planner, CFA Charterholder, FPFS

Let's be honest — if you want basic financial advice, most advisers will do. Vig is a Chartered Financial Planner and a CFA Charterholder, and what he offers is something more holistic: wealth planning, inheritance tax, retirement options and protection, using tools that show people their financial future clearly rather than leaving them to guess at it.

Away from work he is married to Sheryll, has two children, and is happiest with squash, good food and a biography. His usual opening question is the one worth stealing at any networking event: what drives you?

Padel & Pizza is his. He started it because most networking events feel the same — hotel breakfast, name badges, small talk, and a pile of business cards nobody looks at again — and because the alternative didn't exist locally, so somebody had to make it.

You learn more about a person in a ten minute padel round than in an hour of coffee and business cards. That is the honest reason the padel goes first and the pizza goes second. Vig, on why the format is the way it is

He is a regular on the local networking circuit and knows a good monthly fixture when he sees one — of Business Buzz he says, “Buzz is brilliant — monthly meetings in a lovely location mean you get to know people.” Padel & Pizza came out of the same instinct: a standing date, a venue people enjoy turning up to, and enough time in the room to get past the business card.