St Basil’s Cotswold Challenge

Suzie Branch, 2009 BYPY winner, community development committee member and founder/client services director at BHMG Marketing, is launching the call for Birmingham Future members to grab their walking boots for the annual St Basil’s Cotswold Challenge.

The event, which takes place on Saturday 5 June, offers a mammoth 28 mile walk as well as a 14 mile challenge for the less adventurous.

Suzie says: “At just £125 for a team of up to six people to enter, this is a fantastic way to raise money for a good cause while having some fun and pushing yourself along the way. And, you get to network in some of the UK’s prettiest countryside.”

To find out more about the walk, please contact Suzie at suzie@bhmgmarketing.co.uk.

BYPY WINNER CHALLENGES BIRMINGHAM’S NEW RECRUITS TO SLEEP ON THE STREETS

Suzie Branch, 2009 BYPY Winner, has challenged Birmingham’s new recruits to sleep out for a night to help raise money for the West Midlands homeless charity St Basils.
At the annual Birmingham Future “Welcome to Birmingham” event, Suzie urged the audience of new graduate employees and trainees to get involved with the city by supporting local charities.
She highlighted the forthcoming St Basils Corporate Sleep Out as a great opportunity to start getting to know more about Birmingham and the wider community.
“This is the second year that the team at BHMG Marketing and I will be taking place in the St Basils Corporate Sleep Out,” she said.
“I remember last year’s event so well – the dawning realisation a couple of days beforehand of what we had signed up for, quickly followed by a rising fear of whether we would actually be able to complete the challenge of sleeping outside with nothing more than a cardboard box,
“It underlined just how tough life is on the streets but it also proved to be a very positive experience for everyone in the team, so positive that they have committed to do it again.”
The St Basils Corporate Sleep Out is an annual fundraising event when Birmingham’s business community are encouraged to work together for one night to raise sponsorship for the charity by sleeping out.
“The entry fee is just £30. Thirty pounds allows each young person arriving at St Basils to work with a professional key-worker to assess their needs and create an action plan – in short it helps them plan their future, which is why I am encouraging our future business community to be sign up and get involved,” said Suzie.
This year’s event is being held on Friday 13th November on the St Basils car park in Digbeth and further information can be found on www. www.stbasils.org.uk. To register for this event please contact the SleepOut Team at fundraising@stbasils.org.uk

Are you up for the challenge?

Could you handle a night under the stars in the middle of November? A number of Birmingham Future members are already signed up to take part in the ultimate networking event, the St Basil’s Corporate Sleepout.  Following the huge success of last year’s event, which raised around £22,000, Birmingham’s professional community are again invited to sleep rough for one night, and help to raise even more for one of the city’s most worthwhile causes.  This year, the aim is 100 people, and we know that the Birmingham Future membership can help beat that target.

BYPY needs YOU!

The Birmingham Young Professional of the Year (BYPY) committee, the team behind Birmingham Future’s flagship awards ceremony, is looking for new recruits to help it deliver its most spectacular event to date in honour of BYPY’s 10th anniversary.

The committee needs three new members, who will ideally have PR, design, or website experience.

If you are interested in joining this dynamic, fun team then please contact the Birmingham Future office for more information.

This year the BYPY committee made the bold decision to take the biggest hall at the ICC, bringing together 650 professionals for the most impressive celebration of individual talent and success on Birmingham’s business calendar.

The evening saw Suzie Branch of BHMG crowned BYPY winner, with Graham Nicoll of Barclays Wealth, Claire-Elaine Arthurs of HBJ Gateley Wareing, Ollie Purdom of Pitch Consultants, Chris Hill of Mace Group and Damien Deighan of Altruist Medical, winning the Financial, Legal, Recruitment and Training, Property and Construction and Entrepreneurial categories respectively.

For 2010 the BYPY committee are planning to go one better, and if you are interested in volunteering your time, skills and diplomacy, you could help create Birmingham’s most extravagant event of the decade.

If you are interested in joining this dynamic, fun team then please contact the Birmingham Future office for more information.

To find out more about BYPY, please visit our website: www.birminghamyoungprofessional.co.uk

Getting to know – Suzie Branch – BYPY Winner 2009

Getting to know – Suzie Branch – BYPY winner 2009 and Director of BHMG Marketing.

In June 2009 Suzie Branch was crowned Birmingham Future’s BYPY winner for 2009, beating off stiff competition from the other 17 finalists on the night. We caught up with Suzie and asked her some questions in the hope to get to know our BYPY a little better… below are her answers and we’ve also asked Suzie to give us a monthly blog update, so watch this space…

1. As the overall winner of BYPY 2009, what do you hope to achieve over the next twelve months. To continue to promote the numerous opportunities Birmingham offers to young people and hopefully to work with them to understand these opportunities and provide support and advice where I can.

2. Why is BYPY such an important thing for the city and as recognition for young professionals? I think it’s its originality of BYPY as a concept. In many other business capitals the achievements of young professionals across various industries are rarely, if ever, recognised and as the 18 finalists this year proved there are many talented young people within our professional community. But I have learnt in the past month that its more than that it’s also what it can offer to the next generations – I have always worked closely within education environments and urge pupils and young students to understand that there are no barriers to what they want to achieve – the concept of BYPY reinforces that.

3. For those who aspire to become the next BYPY winner, what words of wisdom / advice would you give. Go for it and be yourself! You never know you may just completely surprise / shock yourself – I know I did!

4. Birmingham is a city that has changed dramatically over the past decade, what type of city do you think Birmingham will be in 10 years time. I know it will still be an energetic, determined and fun environment to work within as that is what is at the core of the Birmingham professional community. I hope it will also have seen transformations in terms of public transport – I love the fact that we have vibrant and cosmopolitan city centre complimented by some more bohemian areas such as Moseley but in 10 years time it would be great to see a public transport system linking everything together more.

5. How important is Birmingham Future’s role in helping to lead and shape the future of the city. Incredibly important. The members of Future by its foundation are some of tomorrow’s business leaders and spokespeople. I very much enjoy networking and meeting members of Birmingham Future and sharing views of various topics. What’s even better though is when members of Birmingham Future start working together within their professional environments and doing business together – I believe this is critical to the future of the local business community for us all to continue to support each other as local businesses.

6. Given the current economic conditions, what impact has this had on marketing in Birmingham and further afield. There’s no doubt that these are tough and difficult times for all industries. Marketing budgets have been cut considerably and competition for limited budgets is tough but there are still many opportunities which encourage agencies to work closely with businesses and organisations to look at how they can deliver the best value added campaigns within tighter budgets.

7. Who is your role model or role models? All of the members of our armed forces. The unbelievable courage, dedication, and loyalty of the members of all our forces are something that will never stop to amaze and humble me beyond belief.

8. What’s been your greatest achievement to date? Being honoured with the title of BYPY 2009. And growing BHMG marketing with an unbelievably talented and committed team of staff. It never fails to amaze me how the team pull together to work as one on any project or task and how much fun they are to work with – every day no matter what the day may bring.

9. Why do you think young professionals / graduates should choose Birmingham as a working destination above other cities such as Manchester, London etc? Opportunity and lifestyle. I have always said that I love working within Birmingham as you can “put your arms” around it. The size and close networking of the city allows you as a young professional to open doors to all manners of opportunities.

Birmingham and the West Midlands region also offers such a diverse lifestyle. There is just so much to see and do all within a short travel distance – from dining in a Michelin star restaurants, to visiting areas of outstanding beauty such as the Malvern Hills or enjoying the adventure and excitement of the many attractions large and small. All this on our door step!

10. Villa/City You can’t beat a break away in a holiday villa overseas for some sun and relaxing time. Oh sorry you mean the football teams! I’m a bit lost when it comes to football but being a rugby fan I do enjoy watching the likes of Worcester Warriors or Pertemps Bees!