Mr Waterson began by thanking the local Chamber of Commerce and the local branch of the Federation of Small Businesses for publicising the event amongst their members.
He also introduced the panel, consisting of Katy Thomas, the economic development manager for East Sussex County Council, Ray Mason, chief executive of EDEAL, and Peter Skilbeck, a partner in local accountancy firm Humphrey and Co.
Mr Waterson described the event as 'a serious attempt to examine help available for local businesses – especially smaller ones – to weather the deepening recession'.
"The FSB nationally have estimated 50 small businesses a day are going under. We are all in this together, and hopefully we will come through this together," he said.
The MP wanted to hear from businesses what they thought government and opposition could do to help.
The discussion focused on credit terms and charges imposed by banks, and whether interest rate cuts would be passed on to customers.
There was concern about larger companies tightening their payment terms for smaller ones. The MP pledged to help where there was evidence that public sector bodies were failing to pay on time.
There were also concerns expressed about the problems faced by small firms in tendering for public sector contracts and Mr Waterson pledged to do what he could to help on this.
There was support for David Cameron's proposals to cut payroll taxes, allow a VAT 'holiday' and to reduce the burden of red tape on small business.
Finally, it was agreed this had been a useful session, and one that should be repeated in due course.