Dear All,

The Worshipful Company No. 112!

What a month! As I hope you all now know, we started strong with the Court of Aldermen constituting us as a Livery Company. Many people have worked hard to help us reach this goal and I have given a bit more background in this video on our YouTube channel.  The congratulations have been flooding in and we are being made very welcome!

Here is a photo of me with all the Wardens (including our Senior Warden the Lord Mayor), our Immediate Past Master and our foundation and current Clerks. This was taken immediately after the Court of Aldermen had met.

Freeman Tony Matharu has very generously sponsored a celebration which we hope you can all make the evening on Monday 24^th at the Skyline with its fabulous views over The Tower of London. Register here - the proceeds will go equally to the Company of Entrepreneurs Trust and Integrity International Trust. Please do come along, it will be a fun and relaxed evening!

As I said, it has been a very busy month. The next night, we had the EASI Showcase which was an inspiring evening catching up with EASI finalists to see how they are progressing. It was inspiring and a great example of how your mentoring can make a big difference. Big thanks to Past Mast Judy Hadden and her team and the great support of Drapers, and a huge welcome to the Worshipful Company of Needlemakers which has partnered with us to deliver its own innovation prize!

We then had a sold-out Court Supper at the Coopers Hall where we had our first three new Freemen to be admitted to the Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs. Please do welcome Jacqueline O'Donovan, Gillian Palmer and Harold Shaw into our fold. They are very worthy additions.

Our last event was The Raleigh Lecture. Some 140 students and Livery Companies came to hear talks on the theme of Catastrophe! Using Data from Space to Predict Catastrophic Events: How does this help business and society? Another very informative and interesting event MC’d by Past Master Hewitt with some insightful speakers on subjects are diverse as generating solar energy in space, predicting earthquakes and intelligence gathering in Space. Prof Paul Davies, Chief Meteorologist at the UK Met Office gave an impassioned talk with the title "Using Meteorological Data to Predict Extreme Weather: How this can Help to Avert Catastrophic Events". The questions and panel were expertly managed by Court Assistant Veronica Heaven. Thank you to all those who facilitated on the day.

We are a busy Livery Company – and it’s only getting businer! March starts with Make an Impact on Monday, another free event (thank-you sponsors!) showcasing some of the projects we get involved in. There are still some spare tickets and it is a great place to introduce entrepreneurs. It is an opportunity to get involved with projects and the Outreach and Education Committees. Do come – we need more volunteers to do even more good works!

Other events in March include the Spring Lunch (25^th) with the Lady Mayoress at the Reform Club. As this is after the first Livery Clothing Ceremony tickets are going fast. At the end of the month there are also a very few tickets for the United Guild Service and lunch at Carpenter’s Hall afterwards. Look on the website for the details of these and other events such as the Second Wednesday Drinks. There is the Big Curry Lunch, new members breakfast and a day at the Races to name a few.  I hope you are also finding the Almanac helpful.  

Whilst mentioning the website, a big thank you to Freeman Jon Spree and his team who not only got the new logo up in double quick time but also relaunched it in a new format. Do go and have a look.

Looking forward, Helen, my consort, and I did our final reconnaissance of Bristol for the 16-18^th May weekend. The full details with booking form will be out with you in the next couple of days. There will be ships and bridges, wine tasing and black-tie dinner with Concord and University startups too. These are fun and always good opportunities to get to know other members and their partners.

The last thing I want to mention is The Master’s Quarterly Zoom meeting on 7^th April. This is an opportunity for you to ask questions and find out what is going on within the Company – let me know! Here we will be talking, amongst other things, about what Livery is and the Election Court Banquet when we will be receiving our Letters Patent, a very historic occasion at Mansion House. Put 15^th July in your diary now!

I look forward to seeing you at all the events you can make.

James Talbot
Master
jt@jamestalbot.net
07733 538887

The Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs
Dare, Create, Succeed