So, who is The Brew?
The Brew is a wholly owned subsidiary of Growdon Pty Ltd (acn: 007 421 310).
And the directors of Growdon are Greg Rowell and Bambi Gordon. Greg and Bambi have a combined 25 years in small business, and over 50 years experience in media marketing. Remarkable for such young folk! (And Bambi in particular would like it known that she started work while still at primary school).
And how did they get to be brewing business?
The journey started in the village of Malmsbury in Central Victoria in 1990 when Forsythe Hill Event Management was established by Greg Rowell.
Forsythe Hill Event Management came to be after Greg left Radio 3MP as Marketing and Promotions Director back in the late eighties.
As with all small businesses the first five years provided a challenging time, with the company providing its services to a varied clientele, which included providing event management services for festivals, fundraising dinners, conferences and bridal extravaganzas.
The big break came for the company when it was successful in winning the tender for the inaugural Bendigo Business Expo in December 1996. The company was given a 13 week timeline to produce an event that would provide to the local small and medium business community and opportunity to find out about the latest information on product and services that would assist their business to grow (...recognising a trend here folks?).
The first Bendigo Business Expo was held in March 1997. Forsythe Hill Event Management then went on to provide event management services to six Bendigo Business Expos, three Ballarat Business Growth Expos and the Gippsland Business Expo. Business Expos became Forsythe Hill Event Management’s core business.
In April 2002, Greg had a dream to expand the reach of Forsythe Hill Event Management and deliver to small and medium sizes businesses through regional Australia an event that would educate, motivate and facilitate networking, region by region.
He contacted a past colleague Bambi Gordon. They had originally met and worked together in 1984 (and as fate would have it one of the roles Bambi has had in a past life was the same role that Greg had held at 3MP - at a different time of course, and she was heaps better at it!). Bambi was based in Sydney with her own company, Marketing Et Cetera. Prior to the consultancy, Bambi had enjoyed roles as National Program Marketing Manager for the Ten Network, Marketing Manager of FOX FM Melbourne, and Group Marketing Director for the BRW Group of Publications.
When Bambi couldn't pronounce Forsythe (...and let's face it - what did that name mean?) they changed the business name to Regional Events Australia. REA has been the promoter of many regionally based Business Expos, responsible for all aspects of event organisation and presentation, including funding, since late 2002.
And then Web 2 came along. And customers wanted to connect with each other at times other than the two days of their local business expo, and with other methods. And the rest....is The Brew.
Greg and Bambi have recently changed the umbrella company name to Growdon Pty Ltd - so that they know how to answer the 'phones.
Growdon operates The Brew. Growdon also owns Regional Events Australia. And Greg and Bambi also provides marketing project management to select clients and some specialised marketing training to small business.
Though Greg and Bambi have over 50 years marketing experience between them - the majority of those years in metropolitan markets for major corporations - the biggest learning curve for both of them was leaving the safety of the salaried position and becoming small business operators (and soloists at that).
They understand the challenges facing small businesses on a day to day basis and from that understanding comes their passion for building their business to actively assist small businesses and connect business decision makers.
