News & Events
Chairman’s Message
Perhaps it’s just me, but there does seem to be a wind of change in the city as Spring has sprung. The visioning document prepared by Professor Michael Parkinson for the forthcoming masterplan has very much set the tone for this (available from www.birmingham.gov.uk), with many ideas on how the city can respond to the challenges it faces in the future.
As the voice of the young professionals, Birmingham Future has been helping to set the agenda for the debate, and is planning events for the coming months to disseminate some of the ideas which have been mooted. But if you have any burning questions raised by the visioning document which you’d like answered, please drop me an email at sarah.gee@dixonraines.com and we’ll feed it in to our discussions with the plan’s architects. Thanks.
Finally, one of the brightest and quirkiest stars in the city’s arts scene - Fierce! - has come up with an illuminating idea: the chance to see your, or someone else’s, name in lights. Even if you don’t enter the competition, the chance to see a mock-up of your name will surely be too much to resist. See below for more details – enjoy!
120 graduates meet more than thirty professional service companies at Future-pro
The Graduates into Employment Committee (GiE) staged its final two graduate/employer events in February. Future-pro took place at Aston University on February 7th and at Coventry University on February 22nd.
At Future-pro in Birmingham, 60 under graduates from all three city universities networked with 20 Birmingham Forward member firms. 67% of the employers attending had graduate jobs to fill and more than 66% of the students were hopeful of getting interviews as a result of participating at Future-pro.
Baz Chapman, Chair of the GiE Committee, said: “After two years of staging Graduate Fairs, the committee was anxious to identify a new and different approach to graduate retention. It was important that we still brought graduates and employers together but in a different atmosphere and with added value.
Lord Hunt tells Future: “Work/life balance essential!”
Minister of State at the Department of Health, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, spoke at the recent Birmingham Future Political Breakfast held in the Edwardian Tea Rooms at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Lord Hunt, a former Work and Pensions Minister, spoke passionately about the need for employers and employees to get work/life balance right. Citing a range of Government statistics on how work related stress illnesses had cost business and the NHS in recent years, Lord Hunt said he was pleased to see bigger firms were able to support staff with stress problems through improved Occupational Health policies and that many employees could be helped at an earlier stage.
Lord Hunt acknowledged that SME’s faced greater difficulties mainly because of resource issues, however, pledged that Government would continue to look at innovative ways for GP’s to tackle the problem.
Lord Hunt revealed that 35 million days were lost each year because of work related stress at a cost of £12 billion so effective work/life balance wasn’t just morally right but made significant economic sense too.
E-Polls - keep letting us know what you think!
Thank you to all our members who voted in our e-poll in March on whether Birmingham should stage a referendum on the issue of an elected mayor for the city More than 40% of you took part in the poll that resulted in a narrow majority for a referendum. 52% voted yes, 43% against with 5% undecided.
The Birmingham Mail published the vote as part of their sustained campaign to force Birmingham City Council into holding a referendum on the issue.
BYPY tickets on sale now!
Tickets for Birmingham Future’s flagship event, Birmingham Young Professional of the Year, are now on sale. If you would like to join us on this spectacular evening, we recommend you book your tickets very soon. After being on sale for just two weeks only a few of the 450 tickets remain.
The event takes place at the ICC on 24 May.
For those that want to continue partying into the early hours of the morning a private after party for guests is being held at The Living Room.
To read the latest BYPY news or book a ticket/table for the event, please click here
Birmingham Forward appoints new Deputy Chair
We are pleased to announce that Birmingham Forward, has appointed Richard Edwards as its new deputy chairman. Richard, Midlands practice senior partner at Deloitte, takes up the role with immediate effect and will work with current chairman Diane Benussi before taking up the Chairman's position in 2008.
Have you ever dreamed of seeing your name in lights?
‘Name in Lights’ is a competition to find a name that will be created in giant illuminated letters to be installed on Birmingham Central Library. Participants can enter themselves or someone else, alive or dead and provide 150 words as to why that name should be in lights.
Name in Lights is a Fierce! Festival 10th anniversary commission to artist Joshua Sofaer, who devised the concept for the competition and installation. Visit www.notcelebrity.co.uk to enter
Welcome to new members
The Membership Committee would like to extend a warm welcome to all our new members from the following companies:
Davis Langdon Crosher & James, HBJ Gateley Wareing and Shoosmiths.
We are pleased to offer a membership benefits pack to all our Birmingham Future members. Details of the participating companies in the scheme are available on the website. The membership cards will be posted out very soon so look out for those when they arrive on your desks!
Dates for your diary
New city park - Click here to reserve your space to view the Exciting proposed designs for the redeveleopment of the New City Park - Eastside. Don’t miss this opportunity to come down to Millennium Point on Thursday 3rd May to get a panoramic view of where the new City Park will be and learn more about how it will help to regenerate Eastside.
Successful Development - Next in the series of successful Development workshops will see you improve your networking 'Know how' and show you how to work your influence and persuasion skills. Click here to book your place now for this event to be held on Tuesday 15th May.
Awards & Achievements
Congratulations to members Tirebuck Career Solutions who recently announced the aquisition of Allocate Recruitment Partnership. This is expected to take Tirebuck's turnover beyond £2 million in 2008.
Tirebuck was started by Karen Tirebuck in 2000. Since then, the business has grown to a team of 20 permenent employees.
e-poll
This month's poll is on the subject of the May local elections and we want to know whether the city's young professionals i.e our members are planning to vote. It only takes a couple of minutes to do, so please take part in the e-poll if you haven't already by clicking here.
Birmingham Future, One Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BD
Telephone: +44 (0)121 632 2200 Fax: +44 (0)121 632 2201
_1.jpg "The Cube")
