04 Dec #MORETHANJUSTNETWORKING – IT’S BEEN A BUSY ONE!
November for us was another productive month as we continued to work with and support our members, celebrate with the local community at more Awards and welcome new members to the NNBN community.
The month kicked off with the Northamptonshire Food & Drink Awards at the Royal & Derngate which looked stunning. We would like to congratulate our member Rachel Mallows and her team on a fantastic event which celebrated the food and drink sector across Northamptonshire and it was great to see our members involved in the event with Lincoln Noel, the Maestro, entertaining us all as always with his mesmerising performance on the piano, media partners for the event NLive Radio and All Things Business and sponsors Tresham College and Delapre Abbey sponsoring the event in various capacities.
The evening itself was a wonderful celebration of the food and drink sector across Northamptonshire and we were delighted to see the best of the best recognised within the County at the evening’s Awards. We would like to congratulate everyone on their success in this year’s Awards.
NEW MEMBERS JOINING NNBN!
We’re delighted to welcome a number of new members to the NNBN Member Community and are looking forward to working with them.
We welcome HCR Hewitsons, a top legal firm in the UK based in Northampton, Northampton Saints Foundation, Winners of the Charity of the Year at this year’s NNBN Awards, Innovate Business Consulting who specialise in manufacturing consulting services and Go Beyond Challenge, organisers of this year’s Amazing Northampton Run and there will be more to come in December!
SUPPORTING THE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE HEALTH CHARITY
Simon returned once again as the Quiz Master for the Northamptonshire Health Charity’s quiz held at The Raj in Kettering. It was great to see a room full of people all supporting the charity and helping to raise over £1,700 towards the Twinkling Stars Appeal at Kettering General Hospital. We look forward to continuing this going into 2024 to help support our member and raise awareness and money towards their target to raise funds to support the new bereavement suite at Kettering General Hospital.
NNBN WORKSHOP PROVES A SUCCESS FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES
We were delighted to work with Sara Penrose Ltd and both Sara and John Henderson with their “Boost Performance Through Better Operational Efficiency” workshop at Vulcan Works. A fully attended workshop provided members with some great content and knowledge to help boost performance within our businesses and work place and we would like to thank Sara and John on the delivery of their workshop.
NNBN SUPPORTING NORTHAMPTONSHIRE EDUCATION AWARDS
This year, NNBN supported the Northamptonshire Education Awards which recognised the top performers in the County’s education sector. Simon represented NNBN in presenting the first award of the evening to Woodley’s Farm Day Nursery in the Nursery of the Year category in front of 400+ people across the sector. Well done to everyone at Woodley’s Farm Day Nursery once again. We would also like to congratulate Ian Pryce CBE from The Bedford College Group who was presented with the Contribution to Northamptonshire Award. Under Ian’s leadership, Bedford College and Tresham College merged to create the largest education provider in the South East Midlands and also recognised Ian’s dedication to education during his career of over 30 years.
NNBN ANNOUNCED AS ROYAL & DERNGATE’S LATEST BUSINESS CLUB MEMBERS
Following our announcement that the Royal & Derngate had joined NNBN, we were delighted to join their Business Club as the latest member and Simon and Marie popped in to meet with Business Development Manager Chris Smith for a quick photograph and to be officially welcomed to the club. We are delighted to be joining the Business Club and it’s great to join our fellow members REES Media & Marketing, The Mallows Company and Northampton Town Centre Hotel as members and to have our logo proudly on display at the Theatre. We look forward to working with them in 2024.
NNBN SUPPORTING YOUNG ENTERPRISE
For the last ten years, Simon has supported the Young Enterprise Company Programme as a volunteer mentor and business advisor to students in local schools and colleges and having worked with Southfields School for Girls, Latimer Arts College and Weavers Academy in the past, Simon is supporting the team at the Wellingborough campus of Tresham College this year. If you aren’t familiar with the programme, there are a number of learning outcomes including gaining first-hand experience of the world of work and working as part of a team, explore self-employment and entrepreneurship as possible future options and be able to provide evidence of valuable experience and skills development for future applications to education, training providers and employers.
NETWORK MEETINGS CONTINUE TO CREATE OPPORTUNITIES
We were delighted to run another two great network meetings for local businesses, charities and organisations to engage within our member community. The first at Kettering Park Hotel & Spa saw a very entertaining quiz from Mark Jones from Repair Not Replace as we saw very competitive groups of people all focussed on winning prizes as part of Mark’s quiz around mobile phones and repairing not replacing them!
The second meeting was held at Delapre Abbey and we welcomed John Henderson from Sara Penrose to continue educating members and visitors about how they add value to their clients and tackle business objectives directly within businesses. We were also delighted to welcome new members to our network meeting and help them engage within the NNBN member community.
SIMON HIT A MILESTONE BIRTHDAY!
Simon reached level 50 in his life journey….. ok move on!!!
NNBN SUPPORTED NNCLIMATE23
For the second consecutive year, we supported the annual climate conference organised by North Northamptonshire Council around the climate and it was another great conference highlighting the work being done locally in North Northamptonshire as we work towards a greener future. It was also great to see our members involved with Tresham College and Brightwayz presenting at the online event. If you missed out on the conference, do not worry as you can catch up on line here
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE BUSINESS AWARDS
We were delighted to attend the Northamptonshire Business Awards held at the Northampton Town Centre Hotel and to support the Northamptonshire Chamber of Commerce. We were delighted to see our members, Ena HR & Training, Beccy Hurrell Voice & Arts, Commsave Credit Union and the Northamptonshire Community Foundation recognised as winners within the Northamptonshire Business Awards this year and many congratulations to everyone who was announced as a winner on the night. Marie was a proud sponsor on the evening through her business, Poppy Design Studio and sponsored the North Northamptonshire Sustainability Award presenting the Award to FMH Conveyors International Ltd.
NNBN SUPPORT THE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION AWARDS
This year, both Marie and Simon supported the Northamptonshire Community Foundation Awards held at the Royal & Derngate in an evening recognising those hard at work within the Northamptonshire. Many congratulations to everyone recognised on the night, so much hard work goes on within the County and it was a really humbling evening celebrating the real heroes and heroines in Northamptonshire on their hard work. We were delighted to see a number of our members at the evening and, of course, many congratulations to both our members Northampton Saints Foundation and Homestart Kettering on their well deserved recognition on the evening. Keep up the good work!
NNBN SUPPORTING TRESHAM COLLEGE’S VISION 2050 ACTION
Earlier this year, we committed to working with our members Tresham College at the Vision 2050 Conference held at Kettering Park Hotel in helping to close gaps and engage further with the future of tomorrow. Simon attended a productive meeting led by Principal Robin Webber-Jones as we looked to work closer with the college. There will be more to follow on this going into 2024 so watch this space!
SEVEN STEPS TO SPARKLING TESTIMONIALS
Do you ever wonder how you could get more exciting testimonials for your business and, in particular, ones that sparkle ? Simon attended the workshop organised by NNBN Member Shehnaaz Latif from T.O.O.T. Services (Tell Others Out There) held at Vulcan Works as Shehnaaz shared some great information to help the attendees learn more about testimonial gathering. We would recommend this workshop as there was certainly some beneficial information which we look forward to putting into action.
WHAT A WAY TO END THE MONTH!
The month ended with a game of football! Yes, a friendly kick around on the fantastic astroturf facilities at the Kettering campus of Tresham College as Simon organised a football match for Teamwork Trust members.
Having agreed with Helen Burdett-Wright that we would organise the game, we were delighted that Oliver Healey from the charity brought a number of their members to the college for a gentle kick around and for Simon to pull his football boots on once again!
It was certainly an enjoyable afternoon and we were delighted to spend time with the members out in the air as we look to give Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham a run for their money next year!
A must do again event in 2024!!!
NNBN PODCAST IS LAUNCHED!
We rebranded and relaunched our NNBN Podcast to help our members, and those we work with, get their message out there further and it’s been a very successful relaunch! Thank you to everyone who has taken part so far and there is more to come as we help local people get their message heard locally in Northamptonshire. Guests so far have seen NNBN Award Winners Tamara Holland from Dot & Stripe, Milly Fyfe from No Fuss Meals For Busy Parents CIC talk about this year’s NNBN Awards and a re-run of interviews from NNSTARTUP DAY in June with Angela Turton from Action Coach Oakham & Kettering and Mark Ferguson from More Fire PR joining Andy Donnachie from the CPD Group to let listeners know what they do and how they add value to their customers. There will be more to come with the podcast with some interesting and exciting guests lined up for 2024! If you would like to be a guest on the podcast, contact us by email.
OTHER EVENTS
There were other events that we engaged with throughout the month including attending the Business Buzz meeting in Northampton, making new connections and catching up with our members as well as fully enjoying the Lord Lieutenant’s Forum held at the University of Northampton and hearing from the Good Business Charter – an organisation we are proud members of.
We also celebrated our anniversary of committing to the Prompt Payment Code and continue to encourage local businesses, charities and organisations to sign the code themselves, we’ve supported the fight against cyber crime and online fraud by working with NNBN Members East Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre and we’ve worked with a number of local small businesses for the Small Business Saturday campaign, but more of that next month!