The Reading Finance & Accounting Lunch - Sage x Metro x Penfold

The Reading Finance & Accounting Lunch is coming to Zerodegrees Microbrewery Restaurant on Wednesday 17 March, from 12:00 to 14:00. It's a networking lunch hosted by Metro Bank, Sage and Penfold Pensions, and it's put together for finance professionals in Reading and the surrounding areas, with local entrepreneurs and startup founders invited along too.

The format is stripped back by design: drinks and nibbles, pizza and conversation in a relaxed setting. There's an explicit promise of no sales pitches, no presentations and no PowerPoint, so it's more of a proper lunch than a formal business event. The idea is to get people from across the local finance and business community in one room without the usual corporate formalities getting in the way.

Zerodegrees is at 9 Bridge Street, RG1 2LR, right in the town centre. It's a microbrewery and restaurant, so you're in a spot that's used to a lunchtime crowd. The lunch runs for two hours, from midday until 2:00, which is plenty of time to work your way through the room and have a few proper conversations without it taking up your whole day.

Entry is free, but you do need to register in advance to get a place. It's a mid-week slot, so it's one of those things you can slot into a working day rather than having to clear your evening for it.