Business owners are increasingly waking up to a new truth: traditional networking just isn’t cutting it anymore. We’re craving something more meaningful, something that supports real growth, not just shallow connections.
At Broxbourne Enterprise Centres, we’re not just offering office space. We’re cultivating the kind of community where innovation thrives, partnerships form, and ideas go further, together, and in June we are taking this to a whole new level with an opportunity to hook our 70+ customers with some of the UKs most innovative companies.
There’s a quiet revolution happening in how we connect as business owners, creatives, and changemakers.
It’s no longer enough to trade business cards, show up to a networking event, or scroll through a LinkedIn feed hoping for magic. Something deeper is calling, a hunger for genuine connection, trusted collaboration, and communities that not only talk about innovation but actually create it.
This shift is especially powerful for SMEs. We’re nimble, driven by purpose, and often closer to our customers than the corporate giants. But we also face unique challenges: isolation, limited access to knowledge, and the time-suck of traditional networking that rarely moves the needle.
That’s where a new kind of community steps in.
The Limits of Traditional Networking
For too long, networking has been a checkbox exercise. Meet. Greet. Swap cards. Move on. How often do those kind of interactions actually help grow your business? And how often does networking feel like just another thing you have to remember to do…just in case?
With the rise of co-working facilities often community is sited as a reason to sign up, but this has to go beyond the usual “network with people just like you” promise. We know that Beer & Pizza get people out of their offices, but community is much more than being in the same place at the same time.
At Broxbourne Enterprise Centres we put community at the heart and centre of what we do.
With 70+ companies from a range of sectors, and everything from a one person band, right up to global companies you’d wonder if there would be any room for collaboration or knowledge share, as they are all so different…I mean what could a TikToker who resells designer gear possibly have in common with an engineering company who retro fit gas pipe systems?
This is ACTUALLY where the fun stuff happens.
Why Community Sparks Innovation
When we move beyond surface-level interactions, something powerful happens. Real community becomes a live lab: a space for testing ideas, sharing early wins (and failures), and building relationships that evolve into partnerships, referrals, or game-changing co-creations.
At Broxbourne Enterprise Centres, this is happening every day. In coffee breaks that turn into collaborations. In workshops that spark momentum. In nods of recognition from people who know the rollercoaster of running a small business because they’re on it too.
Here’s what we see…
- Innovation through Cross-Pollination
When a sustainability founder chats with a tech startup over a shared challenge, new approaches emerge. Different sectors bring fresh thinking. - Faster Problem Solving
Got stuck on a funding hurdle or team issue? Chances are, someone in our centre has faced it before. - Momentum through Accountability
Ongoing interaction turns passive dreams into active progress. A good community nudges you forward. - Visibility with Integrity
Instead of shouting into the void, you grow your influence inside a space designed for value exchange, not self-promotion. - Referrals and Shout Outs
Our customers happily talk about each other’s businesses outside of our centres, building trust and growing brand presence across their own networks and communities.
We are taking this one step further with The Wire
Broxbourne Enterprise are at the forefront of piloting a ground breaking digital community called The Wire, a new kind of community designed specifically for SMEs within the Oxford Innovation Space network who are ready to do things differently.
This platform will link our companies up with over 1000 from around the UK & Ireland.
The Wire is more than a platform. It’s a connective tissue for real-world conversations and digital collaboration. It lives where life happens: online for flexibility, in-person for depth, and in-between for serendipity.
Inside, you’ll find:
- Curated knowledge-sharing spaces tailored to small business realities
- Collaboration rooms where ideas become prototypes, and conversations become partnerships
- A powerful referral culture built on trust, not transaction
- Events, roundtables, and curated experiences that merge thinking with action
But most of all, you’ll find people who get it. Who care about impact and innovation. Who show up not to sell, but to build something bigger together.
Available only to Oxford Innovation Companies…this becomes an exclusive, value added opportunity to reach your potential.
So Where Do You Begin?
The great thing about stepping into community is that it doesn’t require a big launch or a pitch-perfect plan. It just takes a willingness to show up, not just as a business owner, but as a person with something to offer and something to learn.
Our in house Innovation Director, who has 3 decades worth of experience building community is running a FREE workshop on Thursday 19th June on how to use community in your own business.
Whether you’re just getting started, growing fast, or pivoting into something new Broxbourne Enterprise Centres , The Wire and the wider business ecosystem in Hertfordshire are designed with you in mind.
Book a tour this month and see for yourself
Flexible enough to meet you where you are. Strong enough to lift you where you’re going.
Visit us. Become a Customer. Jump into The Wire.
Because real innovation doesn’t happen in isolation.
It happens in community.
PS. If you are already a member of the Broxbourne Enterprise Centres Community, ask your centre team about how to get on The Wire in June as an early adopter.
