e-bulletin April 2006

Please send us your ideas on how we could improve this e-bulletin or topics you would like to see covered, by emailing the editor Ruth Marshall on ruth.marshall@schmakk.com

News & Events

Chairman's Message

I hope you all had a good Easter. From a Future perspective, we had some great news just before the Easter break - our 500th member joined (or more accurately re-joined) the organisation. Welcome back to Craig Edmondson who was previously a member whilst at Pannell Kerr Foster. Craig is now at the General Teaching Council for England. A press release to this effect, will be going out shortly. It speaks volumes for the future of our sector in Birmingham that so many young professionals see the benefit of networking with each other at this stage of their careers. Thank you all for your continued support of the organisation. I hope that as you read the updates below, you'll see just how much is going on.

Since the last E-bulletin, I've also been privileged to be part of the judging panel for this year's Birmingham Young Professional of the Year awards to be held on 17 May 2006. This year, we had a record number of entries and the quality of the candidates was extremely high. With Sir Digby Jones lined up to present the awards, this promises to be a fantastic evening. Sadly, no more tickets for the awards themselves are available, but responding to demand, we are hosting an event after party at Zinc (see below for more details). I look forward to seeing you there!

The Search has started to find the first ever Graduate Apprentice!

Birmingham Future’s innovative and exciting initiative to find the country’s first ever graduate apprentice is well underway. Birmingham Future, in partnership with Advantage West Midlands and Graduate Advantage, launched the Graduate Apprentice initiative in March, with finalists being picked from universities in the West Midlands. The eventual winners the Graduate Apprentice competition will embark on a unique and truly innovative work placement programme that will see them gain work experience in three diverse environments. They will work for three months in the Birmingham office of Deloitte, experience life in a small business working closely with Birmingham’s Young Professional of the Year 2005, Stefan Lewandowski at his creative agency 3form,and will also sample life in the public sector working with NHS Finance.

Baz Chapman, chair of Birmingham Future’s Graduate Retention Committee, said; “This is really exciting. Birmingham Future is leading a really innovative scheme that genuinely offers a formalised work experience programme to a graduate that we believe isn’t available anywhere else. Based on the excellent response we have had from graduates and from the business community to this idea we will consider rolling out the scheme to other graduates in the near future.”

In the next bulletin we will reveal the first ever Birmingham Future Graduate Apprentice as they prepare to embark on their twelve-month programme. Birmingham Future members will also be able to follow the progress of the apprentices through a monthly diary entry that will be published in E-Bulletin.

Click here for further information on the Graduate Apprentice initiative.

BYPY after party

The final preparations for the Birmingham Young Professional of the Year awards ceremony are in full swing. The event will take place on 17th May 2006 at the ICC and all tickets have now been sold. For those that are going and want to revel on into the early hours of the morning, there is an exclusive after party at Zinc (just off Broad Street) which will be on until 4am (not recommended or those that have work the next day!). For more information please click here.

Face to face with Birmingham Future

On 3rd May we will be holding a new event to provide an introduction to the demographic makeup of Birmingham. To enable Birmingham Future members to hear from and speak to some bright young people from a number of our BME communities in order to get a better understanding of what life is like for them and the issues they face.

The event is free of charge. For more information or to book your place on-line – please click here

Calling all mentors!

We are holding a mentoring event just for mentors - on 15th May 2006, to uncover the secrets to mentoring and how you can be involved in Birmingham Future’s award winning scheme.

The hour long session will take place at Core Marketing’s offices in Brindleyplace in a round table discussion, facilitated by Andy Bass of BassClusker. A light lunch will be provided.

There is no upper or lower age limit to be a mentor and we are actively looking for Future members with between five to ten years industry experience to mentor younger members.

If you’ve already signed up to the scheme, but haven’t received a mentor or mentee, your details are on our files and we are waiting to be able to allocate you a suitable match – we’ll be in touch as soon as poss.
Attendance for this event is Free of Charge. Please click here to reserve your place.

Opinion Polls

Next month, Birmingham Future will be launching its first member's poll. The poll will be carried out on a monthly basis and will address topical issues. Typical subjects will include city living, transport, graduate retention and employment, plus any other issues that are relevant to our members.

To take part in the poll, you will receive an email which will include a link to the poll, where you will be able to give your answer. As members fill in the poll, the results will be automatically updated on the homepage of the website. Please take the time to take part as your opinion is important to us.

Raising funds for Cancer Research

The girls from the Birmingham Forward office will be entering the Race for Life event in Sutton Coldfield Park for the second year running.

Last year they raised over £1,000 for the charity and, with your help, the fifteen strong team this year are aiming to beat that total this year.

We would like to thank our current t-shirts sponsors; West Bromwich Building Society, Index Fund Advisors, PCL Colour Studio and Leisure Security Training Organisation for their support.
If you are interested in sponsoring the last available space please contact Parmi Gill on 0121 632 2205 or by e-mail. Alternatively, if you’d like to make a donation, please send your cheque, payable to ‘Race for Life’, to Birmingham Forward, One Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BD.

Make a Wish Foundation Charity Ball

Every year, members of Birmingham’s finance community organise a Charity Ball held at the Botanical Gardens raising money for the Make a Wish Foundation. The event is attended by 300 local members of the midlands finance community including Corporate Financiers, Corporate Lawyers, Stockbrokers, Private Equity/Venture Capitalists and Bankers. This year’s event takes place on 10th June.

For more details or to book your tickets please contact Helen Morley at HBJ Gateley Wareing on 0121 234 0082 or email hmorley@hbj-gw.com

Birmingham Future, One Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BD
Telephone: +44 (0)121 632 2200 Fax: +44 (0)121 632 2201