Cardiff Business Club in 2023!

We’d like to take a moment to reflect on the events we have organised on behalf of Cardiff Business Club and the incredible collection of speakers that have featured this year, providing us with a series of thought-provoking events and an insight into their industries. 

Starting the year strong we heard from Dan Frumkin, CEO of Metrobank and heard about how the community is at the heart of their bank and is central to where Metrobank place their branches.

Moving into March we were lucky enough to have 2 events, one of which was celebrating International Women’s Day, In Conversation with Prof. Laura McAllister CBE and Felicity Evans, where they covered politics, equality, sport and of course we couldn’t let the night go by without hearing about Laura’s rainbow bucket hat.

Following this Gareth Williams from Thales Group addressed the Club, and talked all things Cyber, including Cyber threats. Roger Devlin, Chairman of Persimmon Homes featured at May’s event and shared insights into Persimmon’s position as the leading housebuilder in South Wales.

Over the summer Cardiff Business Club hosted Jeannette Linfoot, who talked about her journey of becoming an entrepreneur, and to round up the 2022-2023 Season, His Excellency Dr Róbert Ondrejcsák, Ambassador of Slovakia to the United Kingdom, reflected on the journey of Slovakia since becoming a sovereign state and encouraged businesses to Slovakia.

The 2023-24 Season began with a networking drinks reception event, kindly hosted by Ogi at their new offices in Hodge House where we heard from Ogi’s Chief Revenue Officer, Sally-Anne Skinner. With October brought another guest speaker, The Rt. Hon. Sir Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division and Chair of the Family Justice Council, who gave us a look into the wide scope of Family Law.

November brought us a look into the renewable energy sector, with guest speaker, Tom Glover, RWE’s UK Country Chair. The final event of Cardiff Business Club for 2023 saw a Festive Drinks Reception with Noel Mooney at Principality House.

Founded in 1912, Cardiff Business Club has always aimed to connect organisations and share inspiration via their members and world class speakers, and we’re sure you’ll agree that looking back at the line up of 2023 they’ve definitely achieved that. At Grapevine we are proud to be working with an organisation with such a rich history and we look forward to continuing working with Cardiff Business Club in the new year.

New Fintech Awards in 2023!

2023 saw the suite of Fintech Awards grow again with Fintech South West being the most recent addition! It’s fantastic seeing the Fintech hub's throughout the UK being celebrated.

Fintech Awards London – 21st June 2023 – The Underglobe, London

These awards took place on a hot summers’ day within Fintech Week London and welcomed over 200 guests. The black-tie affair took place alongside the thames river Under teh iconic Shakespeakers Globe. The event recognised companies such as Peel Hunt, Quantexa and Smart Pension and the outstanding contribution was awarded to Gerard Grech Founder of Tech Nation.

Fintech Awards South West – 6th July – Aerospace Bristol

The newest addition to the suite of awards resulted in us celebrating the South West region’s Fintech companies. The venue was new for the team in 2023, and what a venue it was.

Guests began the evening with a walk-through of the incredible Concorde!

 Fintech Awards Wales – 8th September 2023 – Tramshed Cardiff

One of the busiest events in our calendar. The event is always well received from guests for its more relaxed set up and somehow the weather is always fantastic… surprising for Wales!

The event takes place at Tramshed and is kicked off with street food and drinks in the courtyard, followed by a stand-up performance by Robin Morgan, one of Wales finest comedians. A great way to set the tone for awarding innovators and entrepreneurs within the fintech sector.

We cannot wait to celebrate the fintech hubs once again and looking forward to see what innovation takes place in 2024.

Achievements behind the scenes

This year we invested time in our development and growth as an organisation. Development of three different sectors provided a broad range of learnings. Throughout the year we gained; Cyber Essential certification, IOSH managing Safely and Gwen achieved ILM Level 2 – Team & Leadership Skills qualification.

Cyber Essentials is a foundation level certification and a government-backed and industry supported scheme designed to provide a statement of the basic controls’ organisations should have in place to mitigate the risk from common cyber threats.¹

Throughout the intense investigation into each element of our cyber network, we developed processes to mitigate risk of cyber-attacks and organisation wide policies were implemented. 
The second course successfully achieved was the IOSH – Managing Safely. The Managing Safely ® course aids in improving the safety awareness culture in an organisation, the course boasts following completion; productivity increase and enhanced reputation within the supply chain by embedding safety and health across the whole organisation.² The course provided the understanding of employees own responsibilities for health and safety, allowing for personal reflection of good practice and knowledge of conducting investigations if required. This course was a great base for more event specific health and safety management to be gained in the near future.  

The third course conducted in 2023 was the ILM Level 2 Team & leadership Skills and successfully achieved by our newly promoted Event Manager Gwen.

The course provided invaluable techniques to support the undertaking of the new role. As well as creating greater team collaboration and introducing ways of working more efficiently as a team leader.

Ensuring the development opportunities available were capitalised on has allowed us to gain enhanced understanding and confidence for situations which may arise. All three accreditations have provided further knowledge and increased skills set to the organisation. Continued learning has only benefitted Grapevine with new objectives set and clear goals for the future in place.

2023 saw the Grapevine team grow with the addition of Dan Eedy our Events Assistant

There was no waiting to be involved with events once I started at Grapevine, and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. The Fintech Wales Awards took place in September, on a very warm evening, something that’s hard to imagine now it’s December! This was my first event and the first time properly working with and meeting the Grapevine team. This was an instant indicator of how an awards evening is successfully managed. Some amazing businesses were shortlisted in what is evidently a very important sector for Wales.

Two weeks later and the next awards evening was upon us, the Vale of Glamorgan Business Awards. Another successful event celebrating the diverse businesses that are based in the Vale. In between these two awards evenings I had time to settle into the office and see the work that goes into planning future events, attend a Christmas showcase event at the Ivy, and be a part of assisting the Industry Wales showcase event at Hensol Castle, with a tour of the impressive gin distillery. It had only been two weeks since starting at Grapevine and I could already see that meeting and speaking to people who are doing great things in business was a regular occurrence.

In October Grapevine managed the Wales STEM Awards and November saw a packed house for the ninth Cardiff Business Awards, both taking place at the Mercure Hotel. As well as the black-tie events, Grapevine manages networking events for two organisations; Cardiff Business Club and Team Wales, which I have had the opportunity to work at.  

Fast forward to December, and just under three months has flown by, which is of course a very good sign, it has been a pleasure to be a part of a very welcoming team and work on such an array of exciting events in different venues.

As we come to the end of the 2023 calendar of events, I am looking forward to an exciting and busy 2024, and a chance to recharge the batteries over the Christmas break! 

-Dan

New client in 2023 and excited to see the business club grow in 2024 and beyond!

This year Team Wales have come on board as a new exciting client for Grapevine Event Management with the introduction of the Team Wales Business Club. The Business Club is a unique opportunity to celebrate the talent and pride of Team Wales athletes in the Commonwealth Games. Team Wales have an aim to create a strong network of businesses in Wales who share a passion across multiple sports across the country. The team at Grapevine were eager to get these events started, with the first being in September!

The Business Club is touring all of Wales with each event having a unique theme. Two successful events have already taken place this year, being held at The Royal Mint and Cardiff Metropolitan University. It has been evident that these events not only offer attendees a chance to hear some inspiring stories from the panellists, but are also a superb opportunity to network. Being able to organise these events at some renowned Welsh venues has been a pleasure for the Grapevine team.

The December event took place at The Parkgate Hotel in Cardiff where guests enjoyed a fabulous 2-course meal. The theme for the panel discussion was ‘The importance of family in Business and Sport’, a topic we know a lot of people will relate to throughout their careers in both the business and sporting worlds. 

The calendar of events for the Team Wales Business Club is a great example of the different services Grapevine can offer clients, from Delegate Management to Venue Sourcing. The team have loved working with Team Wales and are excited to see the business club grow in 2024 and beyond!

Take a look here on the Team Wales website to read more about the Business Club.

Making a difference

As 2023 draws to a close, we’re thrilled to reflect on a year filled with exceptional events and forging new connections. If you’ve been to a Grapevine event before you’ll know that we’re no stranger to a black-tie awards ceremony, we love celebrating the great work people are doing, whether they’re concocting the most delicious food and drink products, bridging the STEM diversity gap or coming up with the most innovative new tech.  There’s nothing quite like shining a light on deserving businesses and individuals.

As an organisation Grapevine Event Management likes to give back. Over the span of 2023, we’ve supported a number of charitable organisations at our events. This year we have raised money for; Ty Hafan, The Trussell Trust, St David’s Hospice, The Cancer Platform and Tenovus Cancer Care, during our events from kind donations of our guests.

We also, as a team, got the miles in for Doddie Aid, the movement dedicated to tackling Motor Neurone Disease, joining Team Wales earlier this year.

Gwen, Liz and Rhiannon, on one of the team walks for Doddie Aid!

We’re extremely proud to have been able to raise money for these well deserving causes and also the chance to give back to the communities we hold events in. As we head into the new year, we remain committed to making a difference and with the continued support of those who attend and contribute to our events we look forward to sharing our charitable endeavours of 2024 with you and create a lasting impact.

Thornbush Hill - 2023 Scent Sponsors

What started out as an application to the inaugural Vale of Glamorgan Business Awards in 2022 by Thornbush Hill, blossomed into a fantastic partnership between our brands.  Following their Retail Business of the year win at the awards, the husband-and-wife team Adam and Kirsty proposed the idea to Grapevine of a collaboration. This gave Grapevine and Thornbush Hill the opportunity to enhance event experiences and the collaboration was a perfect match!

We pride ourselves on offering high quality experiences, and the hand-crafted warm and inviting scent provided the perfect sensory experience for our guests. The candles have been scenting our three regional business awards throughout the year, and we hope our attendees of these awards will agree, it can’t be described as anything other than the scent of success.

We rarely experience with one sense alone, therefore adding a warming scent provided the perfect inviting atmosphere for guests at our awards ceremonies. The luxury soy candles made a great addition to the event spaces, creating not only a visual transformation but a multi-sensory overhaul.  

As a full circle moment, the candles were scenting the Vale of Glamorgan Business Awards 2023 and the Thornbush Hill team joined the judging panel and the awards evening. Our awards may be One Small Moment in time and as scents can reignite memories, we would hope the Coconut, Vanilla and Almond scent invites joyful and celebratory memories from awards night for all our attendees.

A big hello to Dan

Hello I’m Dan and I have recently joined Grapevine as an Events Assistant.

I’m a graduate in Business Management and a masters graduate in International Tourism Management from Swansea University. I have worked in roles as an Event Steward at the Principality Stadium, and as an Event Manager during a placement at ICC Wales - both in which involved a variety of events. I love the buzz that surrounds events and enjoy being a part of making them happen, whether that be large or smaller scale.  

In my downtime you’ll find me playing or watching football, by the coast, and making plans to see my friends.

I look forward to meeting and getting to know you at upcoming events.