At the invitation of Sam Gyimah MP, on Friday 7th December a team of Google experts set up at the Soper Hall in Caterham to give free one-on-one advice sessions to businesses on how to get online and enhance their web presence.

The 40-minute sessions were fully booked up in advance, meaning that almost thirty businesses were able to attend, including a website designer, online shoe retailer, electrical outfitter and even a local school. Attendees came from Horley, Oxted and Caterham, as well as other nearby locations to discuss a wide variety of topics such as how to set up a website, effectively make use of social media, and even optimise web pages to improve search engine hits.

Commenting after the event, Sam Gyimah MP said: "I am delighted that we were able to put on this event. Having a strong online presence has never been more important for businesses, and I hope that these sessions were a real help to all businesses who were able to sign up.

With the ￡32.8 million contract announced in September between Surrey County Council and BT to rollout superfast broadband across the county, this is an exciting time for local businesses and a chance for our area to become one of the best-connected parts of the country.

My thanks to Google for putting on this event and to Chris Windridge, Chairman of A Better Caterham and founder of the Fast Fibre Hubs project, for all his tireless work to support this event and the future of Caterham as a digital hub for business."