Future eBulletin - March 2010

 Word from the Chair...

Hello and welcome to March’s e-bulletin.

Spring is officially here and with it comes longer days and the first green shoots in the garden. Let’s hope that this is symbolic of the economy having turned a positive corner, with redundancies in the West Midlands reportedly down by 17,000.

As you can see from the photo above, there was certainly a burst of colour at last month’s Ball. Thank you to all the members who attended, especially those who dressed up in traditional Indian costume – you looked wonderful! I am also delighted about the amount we raised for the Future Foundation – this money will go towards funding local education, employment and training related community projects.

Congratulations to all our members who have made the finals of BYPY and I shall look forward to seeing you on the judging day on 29 March. We now need your help to find both a worthy winner of the BYPY Inspiring Leader awards and also an exceptional graduate to take part in the Graduate Apprentice Scheme 2010. More details are below and please do get in touch if you can help with our search.

Photo: Amanda Porter, Chairman of Birmingham Future, Ed James (Heart FM) & guests.

Latest News

Nominations sought for Inspiring Leader

The Birmingham Young Professional of the Year (BYPY) committee has received record nominations for its 10th year of awards. The finalists have been selected and face a tough day of interviews with a panel of judges, chaired by Michelin starred chef Glynn Purnell, on 29 March.

The committee is now looking for nominations for this year’s Inspiring Leader award, which recognises the efforts of individuals who have made a lasting contribution to Birmingham’s business community. Last year Alan Chatham, director at Birmingham Development Company, won this significant accolade.

Darren Walker, chairman of the BYPY committee and an associate in the corporate team at Cobbetts, said:

“I would like to thank everyone who put themselves forward or who nominated someone else for BYPY 10. We have received record numbers of nominations for every category and I would like to wish all the finalists the best of luck for judging day.

We would now like your help with the BYPY 10 Inspiring Leader Award. During the past 10 years, Birmingham’s young professionals have gone on to become the City’s leaders, and for the last five years the BYPY committee has strived to recognise those individuals who are knowledgeable, supportive and truly inspirational with this award.

If you have had first hand experience of someone who displays these qualities then please consider nominating them so they can receive the recognition they deserve.

The Inspiring Leader Award is there to recognise Birmingham’s most influential business people so please give some thought to the people who have inspired you and nominate them.”

Tickets for BYPY are now on sale priced £850 + VAT per table (or £85 + VAT per person for single tickets). To reserve your place please contact Claire Hawkins at the Birmingham Future Office on 0121 632 2200 or via emailclaire@birminghamforward.co.uk.

London a suburb of Birmingham - the HS2 Report

As many members will know, the latest report on HS2 (the high speed rail network) was released on 11 March 2010.  Damien Byrne, chair of the city centre committee, gives his thoughts:

“The announcement that Birmingham will be involved so early in the HS2 project is certainly to the city’s advantage.  The new station at Curzon Street will put Birmingham just 45 minutes from London and there will also be much improved links to Manchester, Leeds and other city regions as well as Scotland when the scheme is extended in the future…”

For further comments from Damien Byrne please go to the Birmingham Future Blog.

Graduate Apprentice Scheme - the search continues

The search for Birmingham’s next Graduate Apprentice has been gathering momentum this month, with applications open and flowing in. The three employers for this year’s scheme, which will start in September, are Deloitte, Birmingham Development Company and Brewin Dolphin, each of whom will benefit from the chosen Graduate for 4 months. The scheme is entering its 5th year, and the pool of talent to choose from is looking better than ever.

For further information on the scheme, or if anyone you know could benefit from being The Graduate Apprentice 2010, please visitwww.thegraduateapprentice.co.uk.
 

Birmingham's young professionals dig deep

It took just three hours for 200 of Birmingham’s young professionals to dig deep at the Ball and raise over £900 for the Birmingham Future Foundation.  This charity supports employment, education and training community projects in Birmingham.

Hosted at the Botanical Gardens in Edgbaston, the Birmingham Future Annual Ball took on a distinctly Bollywood feel for 2010.  After a spicy curry, guests were encouraged to participate in the “black and white card game” and were then offered a second chance to win with a raffle. 

Birmingham Future Chair Amanda Porter, a senior solicitor at Mills & Reeve LLP, was joined on stage by Heart FM DJ Ed James and Ball sponsor  specialist city lettings agent Nicola Fleet-Milne, of FleetMilne Residential, to pick the winners.

Prizes were kindly donated by BHMG Marketing, the Ticket Factory and LG Arena, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Brewin Dolphin, the International Dance Festival Birmingham, the Amala Spa at the Hyatt and the Electric Cinema.

The lucky winners on the night were Michael Burgess of Barclays Wealth, Claire Greenwood at Birmingham Development Company, Emma Druckman of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mike Needham at Jones Lang Lasalle and Russell Porter of 3PB. 

Star prize winner Michael Burgess, Barclays Wealth, said: “It was quite a remarkable night on Friday.  Unfortunately I did not win the lottery on Saturday!”

Photo: Michael Burgess of Barclays Wealth with his lucky black and white cards

Getting involved

The sun is shining (almost...) time to dig out those running shoes!

For the third year running (forgive the pun!), a team of young professionals from Birmingham Future will be taking to the streets for the EDF Energy Birmingham Half Marathon on 24 October 2010 – and you could be one of them.

Last year, the eleven members of the Birmingham Future team raised over £1,500 for the Birmingham Future Foundation which supports employment, education and training community projects throughout the city.  This year, team co-ordinator Paul Fielding of Brewin Dolphin says they hope to smash that total and raise more than £2,000.

To find out more about how to get involved with the team and run on behalf of the Birmingham Future Foundation, please contact Paul at paul.fielding@brewin.co.uk

Photo: Members of the 2009 half-marathon team – Paul Fielding (Brewin Dolphin), Danielle Oscadiw-Brown (BHMG Marketing), Matt Taylor (Headline Communications)

 Forthcoming events

For details of all our forthcoming events please click here.

Tuesday 30 March - Breakfast Connections: Vij Randeniya, West Midlands Fire Service, Crowne Plaza.

Wednesday 31 March - How does the film industry work? - an introduction to Screen WM, The Studio.

Wednesday 14 April - Advised in Birmingham Directory Launch,  City Inn.

Tuesday 20 April - Speed Networking, Bluu.

Thursday 22 April -  Networking Lunch & Discussion: "The Trouble with Working Women" 
 

Recent Events

Meet and Mix Lunch with Steve Ball, Associate Director, The Birmingham REP, Tuesday 9 March

Culture, arts and diversity were the themes for the latest Birmingham Future Meet and Mix which was held at the exotic Thai Edge in Brindleyplace. Steve Ball Education Director for The REP discussed what the future holds for one of the city’s best loved theatres as well as his participation in ‘Shout’ – a gay culture festival. Food was a plenty and discussions were fruitful as a number of new members attended the Meet and Mix for the first time.

Helen Boyle from the diversity committee considers the business impacts of being “out” at work and the potential benefits Birmingham could gain from coming out of the closet and embracing the Equality Bill. 

For Helen’s comments go to the Birmingham Future Blog. 
 

Panel Discussion - Leadership in the City, Thursday 11 March

Members of Birmingham Future and Forward gathered at Bevan Britten on Thursday 11 March for the first panel discussion event of 2010 on Leadership in the city.

Chair Anthony McCourt (Birmingham Development Company) was joined by panellists Nick Venning (PwC), Karen Yeomans (AWM) and John Hemming (Lib Dem MP for Yardley).

For more information about the event go to the Birmingham Future Blog.
 

Exciting fundraising opportunity

If you would like to join a team of passionate, hard-working and dynamic individuals who co-ordinate fundraising on behalf of the Birmingham Future Foundation and signpost community engagement and volunteering opportunities within the city then you might be in luck...

Birmingham Future’s community development committee is now recruiting for two new members to join the successful team which is chaired by solicitor Claire-Elaine Arthurs of HBJ Gateley Wareing. 

Claire-Elaine is joined by 2009 BYPY winner Suzie Branch, BHMG Marketing; as well as Aimee Postle, Kinetic PR; Paul Fielding, Brewin Dolphin; Chloe Edwards, Bevan Brittan; Charlotte Torlo, THSH; and Danielle Oscadiw-Brown, BHMG Marketing.

To find out more about the committee and how you can become involved, please get in touch with Claire-Elaine atCArthurs@hbj-gw.com.  
 

Culture Club

Don’t forget our exciting discounts that can be redeemed across the city and beyond by using your Culture Club card! If you haven’t yet joined the Culture Club, please contact the Birmingham Future office on 0121 632 2200