The power of the invitation to generate opportunities

I had the pleasure of attending the ICAEW South West region dinner on 16th May at The Grand Hotel in Bristol following my invitation from Sam Talby of FRP Advisory.

The event attracted over 300 people from organisations including Alexander Daniels, Avon Rubber plc, BADCASS, Bishop Fleming, BPP, Bristol/Bath/Swindon Business News, Business Insider, Corrigan Associates, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, First Intuition, Geoff Gollop & Co, Grant Thornton UK LLP, Hazlewoods, ICAEW Visiting Presidents, Kaplan Financial, KPMG, Lloyds Bank, Mazars, Michael Page, Milsted Langdon LLP, Old Mill Accountants, PwC, robert Half International, RSM Tenon, Smith & Williamson, The Bristol Port Company, The Prince’s Trust, Thrings LLP, UH Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, Veale Wasbrough Vizards and Verco Global.

The event was hosted by Peaches Golding OBE – one of the South West region’s leading ethical business experts and included Mark Spofforth ICAEW President speaking, the presentation of awards and a lovely 3 course dinner.

The FRP Advisory table had a mixture of businesses – Holly French from Credit Insure, Tony Foster and Nastasha Bliss from Metcalfes Solicitors, Nicola Brastock from Thrings LLP, Peter Bailey from Bailey Associates along with Sam Talby, Gareth Morris and Susan Evans from FRP Advisory’s Bristol office.

The conversation included sailing on tall ships, skiing in France, the Scott Gibbs try against England, networking, the sale of assets along with dairy products, vegetarianism.  What was great was the way in which relationships were being developed – some new and many being strengthened as the conversation flowed.

The Guest speaker was Nick Hewer who spoke entertainingly about how he had met Lord Sugar, the various business ventures that he worked with Lord Sugar on including the highs and lows – how, with the bad news that the hard drives from an early Amstrad PC were faulty( after only 7,000 units had been sold) causing the bottom to fall out of the business quickly followed by the opportunity of manufacturing dishes for Rupert Murdoch’s Sky business.  The talk included the way in which the Apprentice came to our screens – the candidates, the filming schedule, the board room and what is happening to the Apprentice in the future…….. All in all a fantastic insight that was funny, serious and enlightening throughout.  If you get the opportunity to listen to Nick Hewer speak take it!

Photo’s below taken by Blackberry, by an amateur – me!