Friday 23 January saw our first lunch of 2015 take place at Trent Bridge. Kindly sponsored by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) it was quite literally a full house with over 100 people in attendance.
Michael Downey, Chief Executive of the LTA had travelled up from London to address the audience, with plans thereafter to enjoy a weekend of sightseeing in and around Nottingham, including a trip to Sherwood Forest. His enthusiasm for Nottingham and commitment to ensure that tennis at the highest level continues to be played here was great to hear.
The lunch had a skills focus with Alison Michalska from Nottingham City Council, Allen Graham from Rushcliffe Borough Council and Nigel Gell from New College Nottingham, presenting in turn on what the ‘skills gap’ actually means in practice and plans to address it.
Initiatives including the Nottingham Jobs Plegde, YouNG and NCN’s learning models and partnerships were outlined. With the ‘skills gap’ very much a national problem, the message received loud and clear was that it’s up to us at the regional level to bridge the gap between education and business for mutual benefit.
It was good to have Martin Rigley, Chairman of the N2 Skills and Employment Board in attendance – he is also as a new member of Nottingham Means Business through his company, Lindhurst Engineering.
Proceedings finished with a chance to see the flagship video for Nottingham Means Business produced by Skeleton Productions, which now features prominently on the website.
A big thank you to our sponsor, host, speakers, members and guests for making the lunch such an informative and enjoyable event.
Since our last lunch in November 2014, we’ve had 16 new members join, many of whom were in attendance at the lunch and are pictured above with Simon Gray.
L-R: Michael Downey, Alison Michalska, Simon Gray, Paul Southby, Allen Graham and Nigel Gell.
A full house at Trent Bridge, applaud the presentations.
To see all of the photos from the lunch, please visit Neil Hoyle’s website, click on the CLIENT AREA, Job 230115-1 and enter the password RANDALL.
For a list of forthcoming events and to book your place, please click here.