More than 30 northeast businesses had a lot to smile about at the first of a new monthly networking event hosted by one of the region’s children’s charities.
The gathering of influential business people at Newcastle’s Grosvenor G Casino was the brainchild of Gosforth based charity Smile for Life and events company Your Event’s Maid. The aim of the event was to bring together like-minded businesses and raise awareness of the inspirational work of the charity.
Smile for Life provides support to help improve the lives of seriously ill, disabled and disadvantaged children In the North East and up to the Scottish Borders. In the last 12 months, they have helped make the lives of more than more than 200 children easier by supplying equipment, activities and experiences to help them achieve their dreams. The charity has recently celebrated its fifth birthday and has partnered with Sainsbury’s in Gosforth who have pledged to support them as their nominated charity of the year.
The networking event featured a speed networking session, spotlight talks by a number of local businesses and a presentation by entrepreneur and motivational speaker Pete Rea. The charismatic businessman and author shared with the attendees the story of his initial rise to business success in the cleaning industry and the sudden drop from favour that caused his business empire to collapse before he once again built it up to its former glory.
Smile for Life chief executive, Paula Gascoigne was delighted with the response from the northeast business community.
“The talk by Pete was inspirational and that’s the feeling and message we wanted to get across to everyone, the fact that anyone can do anything if they really put their mind to it.
“At Smile for Life we see this amazing attitude everyday with the children we work with. Many have huge difficulties to overcome and with our help and support we can make their lives easier and even help them to achieve their dreams. We felt that networking was an ideal way to introduce ourselves to the business world and raise awareness of the work that we do. The event was very positive and was hailed a great success by all who attended.
“As our charity prides itself on being accessible to any child with a genuine need, we want to make our monthly networking sessions equally accessible to the north east business community. That’s why we’ve chosen a lunchtime slot, a central location and on site parking .”
The next event will be on 28th February and tickets can be obtained by visiting www.smileforlife.org.uk.
