Lamone Woods said he was "on Cloud 10" after a whirlwind two days of meetings in London that may create some lasting benefits for his business and for television broadcasting in Bermuda.

The co-owner of Bermuda Sports Network (BSN), the website and cable TV channel 82 which provides video footage of local sporting events, met with two senior managers at the British Broadcasting Corporation.

And he also established a relationship with a production company that will lead to syndication opportunities.

Mr. Woods was one of six Bermudian winners of the Face-2-Face competition, sponsored by British Airways and supported by the Bermuda Small Business Development Corporation.

All six entrepreneurs won a flight to London during last week's Global Entrepreneurship Week and two nights' accommodation, courtesy of the Hilton London Metropole.

The winners were selected by a panel of judges after submitting essays on how the trip would help their businesses and Bermuda.

Mr. Woods first visited the BBC Academy, where young broadcast journalists and technicians are trained in studio settings. He met the business development manager Andy Carmichael and saw possibilities for young Bermudians.

"We discussed that Bermudians may have access to subsidised training at the academy because we are British citizens," Mr. Woods said. "The BBC sells training to other countries.

"Media companies can develop people with the kind of skill sets they're looking for. This is an opportunity to raise the standard of broadcasting in Bermuda."

Mr. Woods then had a tour of the BBC studios, where he spoke with the Corporation's director of sport Barbara Slater.

He followed that up with a meeting with the heads of a production company that produces niche sports programmes for the likes of ESPN and Sky Sports.

He hopes to provide coverage of major Bermuda sporting events to the company - for example Bermuda national team football matches. Also he hopes to acquire the rights to show events that would have particular interest to Bermuda, for example sailing regattas.

"I could not have established these relationships without meeting these people face to face, having a coffee with them and a few jokes, so we could really relax," Mr. Woods, who runs BSN with business partner Kevin Mayes. "This experience has certainly met all my expectations and I'm on Cloud 10."

Another of the winners, Alexandra Mosher, who makes fine jewellery, some of which features Bermuda sand set in resin, had hoped to meet with a principal of Astley Clarke, which did not prove possible.

However, she was able to set up another meeting with Semhal Zemikael, co-owner of La Diosa, a jewellery retailer based in the Hatton Garden area of London.

The contact was provided to her by Richard Strudwick, of Enterprise UK, who had dinner with the Face-2-Face winners and set up several useful meetings for them.

Before her meeting at La Diosa, Ms Mosher, said she had been inspired by the distinctive stores in the Covent Garden area, where she would love to see her jewellery on sale.

"I was really inspired by that area," Ms Mosher said. "In Bermuda, I feel like I'm more of an artist, but here the opportunities for sales are retail.

"I think I had tunnel vision, thinking that it was all about Astley Clarke, but now I know there are other opportunities. The key lesson is to be resilient."

The support from BSBDC's Erica Smith, who travelled with the winners and helped them in their efforts to gain useful links from the trip, as well as BA's regional manager in Bermuda, Marianne Wilcox, had been heartening for Ms Mosher.

"It's amazing to see how much they are pushing us to succeed," Ms Mosher said. "It's very humbling and I feel honoured."

Another winner who enjoyed a productive trip was Terry Smith, owner of the Clara Bows apparel store.

His key visit was to meet with a senior manager of Dorthy Perkins to learn more about the latest trends in the fashion industry.

Ahead of that meeting, Mr. Smith went on something of a shopping spree, returning to the hotel last Thursday evening with five large dustbin bags full of clothes.

He said he looked forward to giving his customers a taste of London chic, after finding some distinctive winter clothing, office wear, hats and party gear, which should sell well during the festive season.

He also met with some London characters. "I spoke with an Asian guy who said he'd been in the business for 42 years," Mr. Smith said.

"When he went into business by himself, he started out by paying for a space on the market for eight pounds a week in 1972. He said that was a lot of money then.

"Now he's got a huge store in London. It was fun to meet him.

"This was the first time I've gone buying in London and I found everyone very friendly. It was very much like buying in New York, but it was great to see the different styles."

Farmer Tom Wadson used his trip to venture far from the British capital. First he went to view Prince Charles' estate at Highgrove in Gloucestershire, where he discussed organic farming techniques with the managers. It was a contact Mr. Wadson managed to set up through Governor Sir Richard Gozney.

The following day, he went to Haygrove in Hertfordshire, a horticultural company that specialises in the making of tunnels that can protect crops from storms.

One of the highlights for the entrepreneurs was attending a reception at the House of Commons, hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Markets Group, an event connected with Global Entrepreneurship Week.

This was the first staging of the Face-2-Face competition, which was also staged in Brazil and the US, from where BA sent several plane loads of entrepreneurs from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, over to the UK.