Thurrock Business Forum Celebration Lunch – 15 June 2006

The Celebration Lunch was voted a great success by the 140 members and guests who attended and a great success at every level – socially, business input, entertainment and networking.

Nigel Staves, our Chair, welcomed everybody and highlighted just some of the successes of the Forum since its formation 5 years ago during which short time it had become the largest and most active business association in Thurrock.  Some of our successes had received praised nationally and regionally, for example, our innovative Virtual Tours.  The Forum operates both strategically and at a local support level working with Thurrock’s schools, colleges and wider community.

Niall Lindsay, Chief Executive of Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation (TTGDC) provided the pre-lunch speech with a comprehensive summary of the Corporation’s progress to date and plans for the future.   Niall was quite clear about the importance of engagement with the business sector and welcomed the opportunity to speak directly with so many representatives of the business community in Thurrock.

A very enjoyable lunch was followed by an entertaining talk from John Sergeant delivered with his usual wit and take on politics and life.

The final accolade was the wish by everyone to “do it again next year”.

A collection at the end raised £162.51 for St Luke’s Hospice, who wish to pass on their sincere thanks to all who made the donation possible.

A vote of thanks to our Steering Group for organising the event and to our sponsors, Procter & Gamble, RWEnpower, Uniserve, Thurrock Learning Partners, TTGDC, TDAI and, not forgetting the Forum itself, which significantly subsidised the event.

Some photographs from the event

(1) Nigel Staves, RWEnpower, and John Sergeant
(2) Staff and guests of Uniserve
(3) Matthew Essex and Nicola Milne, TTGDC
(4) Lunch in the Marquee
(5) Grahame Thomas, Paul Weiss and Dennis Wakeling
(6) Ann Lewin, Thurrock Council, and Naya Naqvi, Thurrock CVS