Social Business Network – a successful first event!

A message from Clint in our LinkedIn group:

Dear SBN Members et al,

I wanted to write a note before the week is up to share a few thoughts and thank yous….

A BIG thank you to all that came along to support us on our 1st event on Wednesday evening 20th March. In my view it was a great success from a networking and fund raising point of view.

We collectively managed to raise a very respectful £3065.00 for our nominated charities (CLIC Sargent and Dementia UK), which is fantastic so well done to everyone who contributed, you are truly big hearted generous folk indeed!

I’d like to thank Panduit Unite LLP and ARC:MC for their sponsorship and generosity – your contribution was truly appreciated

I’d like to thank Alistair Barrie for being our MC for the night, he gave us his time for free to help us run the evening. If you want to find out more about Alistair his website is http://www.alistairbarrie.com and you can follow him on Twitter @AlistairBarrie

Special thanks to Alvin Martin (ex West Ham, England and Talk Sport pundit and commentator) for his attendance and for pulling the raffle draw. Again Alvin gave up his time for free to support us in our event. Cheers Steve Surridge for organising!

A thank you to all the companies who provided prizes for the night, they were some great offerings there, superb! Special thanks then to:

1) Mike Summers of ARUP – Sailing for two
2) Amy Daniel of Kirby Group – Normandy Cottage for 6
3) Emily Spink of ARC:MC – Dubrovnik apartment for 6
4) Steve Surridge of Eclipse Sports Promotions – Frank Stapleton signed photo, Alvin Martin signed West Ham 1980’s Football Shirt, Mark Ramprikash signed mini cricket bat, Ossie Ardiles/Micky Hazard signed photo
5) Robin Koffler of Riello UPS – 2 x weekend passes with Ducati hospitality to attend the Moto GP at Silverstone this summer
6) plus all the others including The Random House Group, the Comedy Store plus Tim Spink.

Congratulations and thanks to all the winners of the raffle and silent auction prizes, I hope you will enjoy them! Winners in the auction were:

1) Phil Todd
2) R.Barker c/o Mike Dearman
3) Julie Allen
4) Simon Terry
5) Giles Korner
6) Derek Kilpatrick
7) Martin Hyde
8) Mike Summers
9) Emily Spink
10) Colin Dean

The Virgin Money website page is still open if anyone wants to donate. All funds are split automatically between the two charities. The link is:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserPage.action?userUrl=SBN&isTeam=true

– to see photos of the evening kindly taken by Emily and Venessa, the link is:

https://plus.google.com/photos/109546703673256317143/albums/5857936264908761361

That’s it but before I go I’d to say a massive thank you to my two co-managers Emily Spink and Venessa Moffat who’s organisational skills and determination were fabulous. Without them this event would not be the same.

Cheerio for now and please continue to invite your friends and colleagues into the group to ensure it’s survival and always remember the group is nothing without the people!

Have good weekends all.

My Best

Clint
Group Owner

P.S. we’re considering a late September event, let us know your thoughts – I may do a straw poll to make a judgement call on that!