Finalist in The BIBAs for 2nd Year in a row!

Well colour me magenta! I’m even more thrilled about being in the finals of the Be Inspired Business Awards this year than I was last year. Now I’ve been to the award ceremony and seen what goes on, I know what to expect and I’m really quite excited.
Last year was awesome! Marred slightly by my being full of cold, but with a bit of luck this year I’ll be healthy and able to enjoy the evening properly. It was fab’, and even though I didn’t win it was still a wonderful night. Very much like a holiday for me too because of how rarely I get out of Lancaster. Travelling all the way to Blackpool and staying in a hotel overnight was like a week in the Costa Del Sol for me!
So I’m a finalist for “Best Use of Creativity in A Business” and I’m pleased as punch. There are of course seven other businesses also vying for the same title who have their fingers crossed too but hey – either way I’m still going to get a lovely certificate and plenty of complimentary champagne along the way so I feel like I’ve already won to be honest with you. 🙂

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An Exciting Trip To Birmingham

Yey!! Happy days.

I’m pleased as punch. Last Thursday I was at a fantastic get together in Birmingham, it’s an annual networking meet up for all the winners of Theo Paphitis’ Small Business Sunday people. For anyone who doesn’t know about this I’ll quickly try and explain, basically it’s all on Twitter for a start, as a former member of the Dragons’ Den team Theo was often getting messages from people about their business ideas or ventures or whatever. He decided it would be a good idea to get people to focus all of these messages within an appointed time at an appointed day each week, so it’s between 5 and 7pm on a Sunday evening, you send him a message with the hashtag #SBS included about your business and then the following night at 8pm he retweets six of those messages to him enormous amount of followers, generating fame and interest in those six companies.

So, he got together with some business sponsors and they set up and organised this massive convention for all the winners to be able to get together, meet each other in person, receive award certificates and meet Theo. It was held at the ICC in Birmingham, a large and splendid place that does a lot of events. They really pushed the boat out in my humble opinion, they gave everyone a name badge on arrival and then started serving teas, coffees and biscuits. Then moments later, they got out the wine and beer too – which to be truthful, a lot of people just weren’t ready for at 11.30am. Then they brought out tray after tray of sandwiches, nibbles, quiches, cakes and gorgeous macaroons. We were blown away by the splendour. We did our best to network and mingle with the 900 other people in the room before taking our seats for the speakers. The sponsors had their moments to chat to us before finally the man himself was introduced onto the stage, Theo Paphitis. Everyone was very excited and pleased to see him, and he was a really nice guy too. Chatty, friendly, nothing was too much trouble. People were asking him all sorts of things during the question time and he was really going out of his way to be as accommodating as he could be.

He was very inspiration with his speeches, saying about how we should be getting out there and making a success out of our businesses, how he built a business from nothing during a recession and we can do anything we put our minds to – that kind of thing. It was really motivational for me and I hope I can bring it to bear on my business in some way and really move forwards and upwards.

The rest of the event was equally brill, I had my photo taken with Theo when I got my certificate, went to a couple of advisor sessions with some of the top people from Rymans and other big companies. It was brilliant, I collected many business cards, met scores of interesting people from a diverse range of businesses. I felt a little overwhelmed with the sheer volume of people, and I think I only managed to work up the nerve to talk to about 1% of those who were there, but I hope that quality and not quantity is what counts.

Apparently there’s going to be one every year, so I’m really keen to relive the experience that’s for sure, it was brill!

The Metamorpolitan Exhibition

Official Press Release
Saturday 1st June saw the opening of an exciting month long art exhibition in Lancaster City Library.  The “Metamorpolitan” exhibition by local artist Jack Knight was officially opened by Madam Mayor June Ashworth, accompanied by her daughter the Lady Mayoress, Alex Ashworth.  Over sixty guests arrived for a champagne reception at 7pm and had just a short time to peruse the artwork on display before Madam Mayor arrived to officially declare the event open by cutting a pink ribbon.

Vibrant pink and black was the main theme of the reception, and by a happy coincidence, the Lady Mayoress had chosen the same colour scheme for her outfit!  Madam Mayor said in her opening speech that she was delighted to see such a wonderful array of vibrant artwork, and that she was equally delighted that such an event was taking place in Lancaster.

Jack Knight the artist and organiser of Metamorpolitan thanked Madam Mayor for opening the exhibition and expressed his gratitude to his sponsors, family and friends for their help and support.  Jack also thanked the library staff for their invaluable assistance in setting up the event.

After the speeches, the champagne glasses were refilled, the canapés unveiled and the guests were able to leisurely examine the Metamorpolitan paintings in greater detail.  Within a short time, four paintings had been sold and a number of orders had been placed for prints.

Jack was delighted with the successful unveiling of Metamorpolitan.  The exhibition will be running at Lancaster City Library for the next three days, and there are still a handful of original artworks available for sale. Jack is focusing on his illustration business, Knight Time Creations, for the present but hasn’t ruled out the possibility of another exhibition next year.

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Prologue

A selection of delicious canapes

What an awesome exhibition it was! A fantastic launch party. Everything went to plan, which was jolly good because I’d spent long enough planning the thing. I had an itinerary and timings set out, everything was in place and everyone pulled together. I couldn’t have done it without all of the tireless help of the people that rallied round to give me a hand, I was really touched so many people cared so much about me and my exhibition. Over sixty guests turned up, including the Mayor and Mayoress, the wine flowed and the canapes were delicious.

I even got a bunch of bright pink helium balloons and inked my logo onto each one of them, they looked fab’. I put some nice relaxing music on the sound system and arranged the tables and chairs into cozy clusters for the guests to sit and chill out if they wanted to. It was a magical night, I was walking on air. And I sold a few paintings too, which was marvelous. I’d like to have another exhibition, maybe next year, I’ll have to wait and see.