A look at some projects to give you a flavour of the businesses I’ve worked with, the challenges we’ve tackled and the practical support I’ve provided.
Every project is different, but they all have one thing in common: helping people move forward with greater clarity and confidence.
Projects focused on improving operations, customer experience and the way businesses work.
Supporting businesses to plan, coordinate and deliver important projects.
Creating memorable events, bringing people together and delivering projects with a positive impact.
How do you showcase a new venue, bring local businesses together and raise money for charity, all in one evening without it feeling forced?
The original plan was simple: organise a business networking event at The Ripon Inn.
The Inn had recently installed its beautiful new tipi and wanted to showcase the space to local businesses. At the same time, we wanted to bring together the local business community in a relaxed setting.
As we talked through the plans, it felt like there was an opportunity to make the evening about more than networking… Why not create an event that not only introduced businesses to a fantastic venue but also gave something back to the local community?
That’s when the fundraising element was born.
One of the biggest challenges was making sure the fundraising complemented the networking rather than interrupted it.
Traditional fundraising activities often require everyone’s attention at a particular moment, which can stop conversations and change the atmosphere in the room. I wanted people to be able to enjoy meeting new people while still supporting a brilliant local cause.
My solution was to introduce a silent auction.
It was something a little different for Ripon, and many people hadn’t come across the idea before. I created guides explaining how it worked for both the organising team and attendees, making sure everyone felt confident before the evening arrived.
The silent auction allowed guests to browse, bid and donate throughout the event without taking away from what people had come for in the first place, building relationships.
Once the concept was agreed, my role was to bring all the moving parts together.
I developed the marketing materials and event communications, coordinated with The Ripon Inn, managed enquiries from attendees and businesses, organised the silent auction, and became the main point of contact throughout the planning process.
I also spent time visiting local businesses, inviting them to the event and asking whether they would like to donate prizes to the auction. The response from the local business community was incredibly generous and helped make the fundraising such a success.
Working alongside The Ripon Inn, we carefully planned the layout of the space so that networking, catering and the auction all flowed naturally throughout the evening and worked together as one seamless event.
As with every project, there were countless emails, conversations and small decisions happening behind the scenes. My role was to keep everything organised so everyone else could focus on enjoying the evening.
The event brought together over 40 people from local businesses, showcased everything The Ripon Inn could offer as an event venue and created an enjoyable evening that balanced networking with community fundraising.
By the end of the night, we’d raised over £600 for Ripon Walled Garden through the silent auction.
For me, though, the real success was seeing so many different objectives come together in one event.
The venue had the opportunity to showcase its new space. Local businesses made new connections. A local charity benefited from the generosity of the community. And guests simply enjoyed spending an evening together without feeling like they were being sold to or constantly interrupted.
That’s exactly what we’d hoped to achieve.
This project is a good example of how I like to work.
Whether you’re planning a fundraiser, customer event, networking evening, product launch or business celebration, I enjoy looking beyond the obvious and asking, “How can this achieve even more?”
Sometimes that’s finding a creative fundraising idea. Sometimes it’s improving the guest experience. Sometimes it’s simply making sure every moving part comes together without you having to worry about it.
If you’ve got an event you’d like to bring to life, I’d love to help you make it happen.