Wow! I actually had a great time at a fundraising event last night. And it was one of those 200+ people gigs I blogged about earlier. Why was it good? Because Tim, Mike, Joe and the entire crew at the Lighthouse Group understood that sitting for 3 hours while a programme crawls forward through endless speeches and dull awards is not the way to entertain or engage. Instead, the drinks reception was the right length (1 hour, not the silly 30-40 minutes without sufficient staff) and the tables were not overly done up like some kind of wedding on steroids. Nope. When you got to your seat at your NAMED table (no factory floor numbers here!) you were presented with a discrete package of notecards welcoming you and explaining the evening. Add in a roving magician (who was impressive), short – powerful awards, and a killer band SuperFly! The band even played low volume jazz while you were eating so you could actually talk to the lovely people at your table. Obviously, the great work they do was reflected in the professionalism and friendliness of the event.
AND…not of a religious nature myself, I was pleasantly surprised: no mention of God, Jesus, or anything of the sort. Confident in their actions, they understand that their faith supports their work, but that the world is a big place and it will take all kinds of people to make their mission a success.
Well done. Here’s hoping the organisation continues to draw support and generate surpluses so that they can support the expanding numbers of educationally and socially disadvantaged youths around the UK.
(Note: I provided 3 days support to TLG in 2006 through an ERDF sponsored course for social enterprises. We were not paid by the organisations getting support.)
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