2009 BII Annual Lunch

Almost 1,000 people attended this year's BII Annual Lunch on Tuesday 12 May. With representatives coming from all areas within and connected to the licensed retail sector, it was a true celebration of the industry.

This key event in the licensed retail calendar gave guests a fantastic opportunity to network with friends, colleagues and key industry influencers; but also a very enjoyable day out.

BII CEO, Neil Robertson thanked the industry for the warm welcome he had been given since joining BII earlier in the year and inspired the audience with his comments about the many strengths of the sector. Neil re-emphasised BII's commitment to supporting its members through the recession stating that membership numbers are holding up, proving that professionalism really does make the difference in difficult times. He went on to state that BII will do more to help on all aspects of training, saying that BII is working to help get more government funding for qualifications such as the BIIAB Profitable Business Portfolio (or PBP as it’s well known), which is a fantastic programme. 

Click here to view Neil's full speech.

Guests donned special glasses to view Sky's 3D TV previews as well as being entertained by our guest speaker Nick Hewer, star of the BBC's The Apprentice.

Nick amused the audience with anecdotes from his experiences on The Apprentice and shared the ups and downs of his one-man trek in his trusty old Renault 4 to Mongolia. Nick also answered questions from guests. He commented "Tough times require determination" and "Qualifications are absolutely vital ...you must strive to get the best qualifications you can."

BII was also delighted that guests donated over £10,000 to the Licensed Trade Charity in its raffle at the Lunch, which will support the tremendous work the LTC does.