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May 26 Business Events
Guests with room for improvement WE'VE all had house guests we would rather not see again.
Lord and Lady Gerald Fitzalan Howard welcome hundreds of strangers into their house every weekend. Their home, Carlton Towers, is a popular wedding venue.
Last weekend, they invited more than 200 impeccably-behaved members of the local business community inside Carlton Towers, near Selby, which has undergone extensive renovation.
Apart from marking the official opening of 11 bedrooms, the couple used the event to highlight Carlton Towers's potential as a conference venue.
Most guests have treated the house with respect. Sadly, there are always a few who behave dishonourably.
Lady Gerald said: "We want people to respect that this is not a place where you go upstairs and just slosh the old vino around. We have had people who have literally bought fish and chips in and have smeared all the grease over the bedspreads. One person has actually peed in the corner. I have put my heart and soul into those upstairs bedrooms.
"This is a really lovely family home. We want it to be a really successful business. It's really weird for people to bring their fish and chips inside when you know you are going to have a three-course dinner."
Unsung heroes
WILLERBY Caravans, which underwent a 120m management buyout in 2004, is doing very well at the moment, according to those in the know. The Hull-based firm's performance is "very strong on the back of domestic holiday trends and demise of two of three of its major competitors", said a well-placed source.
Good news, it seems. But when we contacted the company to find out more information to write a story, a spokesman said: "We would rather you didn't."
Don't hide your light under a bushel! We like to share success stories here...
Rugby supporter
ANDREW Haigh, the chief executive of Engage Mutual Assurance, had a confession for Business Diary last week.
Until his firm became sponsor of Rugby Super League, he had not been to a single game.
Mr Haigh said: "I cannot claim to have been to Super League, but I have got involved through the sponsorship. It is a fantastic spectator sport.
"If you go, it's a great atmosphere, a great family atmosphere; there's always the entire range from
small children through to grandparents. It really does suit us very well."
The Harrogate-based financial services company reported strong growth in its customer base and premium incomes last year.
Countdown to Cleese
WE eagerly await John Cleese's performance at the Yorkshire International Business Convention, particularly after reading his preview: "My approach to the relationship between business management
and psychology will blow your audience away." Says the programme: "Expect a lot of humour to illustrate some serious business lessons."
Hope in slump
ANYBODY who believes in the force of "creative destruction" should have listened to Dr James Bellini, the "historian of the future" who was the keynote speaker at an event hosted by accountants and business advisers BDO Stoy Hayward at Aspire in Leeds.
As Dr Bellini highlighted, some of the most innovative, and durable, businesses have been established during a recession. The first steps to create Silicon Valley were made during the slump of the mid 1970s.
So fledgling entrepreneurs of today should take heart – and prepare for the long haul.
Hitting targets
IT'S not often you receive a piece of research entitled: "Four in Ten People In Yorkshire Want To Beat Up Work Colleagues."
Apparently it's true: Yorkshire office workers have the most violent tendencies in the country with four out of 10 in the region admitting they have wanted to hit a colleague in the last year.
A Comres poll of 1,000 office workers for National Office Week 2009 revealed that Yorkshire employees are more than twice as likely to lash out at a colleague than the South West where just 16 per cent say they have wanted to hit a co-worker.
The poll also discovered that when employees in Yorkshire are not thinking about beating up a colleague, they are pre-occupied with flirting with them. A quarter of those surveyed said that they flirt with colleagues "to make the day go quicker".
It's a thin line between love and hate.
Treasure islands
TALKING of emails, we receive all sorts here.
Last week, our inbox lit up with the news that the Cook Islands government has announced that the nation has officially decided not to take part in the worldwide recession.
This apparently makes the South Pacific islands the world's first "recession-free oasis". The country's Minister of Tourism, Wilkie Rasmussen, announced the Government's endorsement in Rarotonga.
"As industries around the world feel the weight of the current economic global recession and the international effects of slowing economies and cautious consumers, the Cook Islands is seeing local businesses grow, new businesses open and offshore investment increase," he said.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
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