A September of Festivals at the Chambers.

It’s been a superb September at the Chambers as we bought two of our biggest events to the Essex business community. The hard work from all the team certainly paid off and as the end of year approaches, we have much more to look forward to in the coming months, but before then let’s take a look back at what we’ve been up to.

The Festival of Business: A resounding success for a second year in a row!

The Festival of Business triumphantly returned to the stunning Hylands Estate on Tuesday 5th September. The event was a great success and right from the start there was a fantastic buzz throughout the house and grounds of the Hylands Estate with much for our visitors to engage with.

Featuring keynote speakers, a Business Expo with over 75 businesses exhibiting and a range of activities, the Festival proved to be a brilliant networking opportunity to connect the businesses in Essex and further afield.

The theme for this years Festival was ‘A Changing World’ and with the many difficulties currently facing businesses, it was not only an opportunity to hear expert top tips on how to survive but also a fantastic platform for the Essex business community to showcase how they adapt and thrive in the face of adversity. From Hydrogen generators powering the food trucks, to methane tractors and electric cars, there were many examples of the pioneering work in the County.

The Essex Chambers were joined by headline partners, DP World , and their UK Chief Financial Officer Alan Shaoul who opened the Festival with me. Throughout the day visitors enjoyed our speaker programme featuring our headline speaker, the charismatic Apprentice & Countdown star Nick Hewer, keynote speaker Jasmine Birtles - The Money Magpie, and Brian Smith, Group Sales & Marketing Director at Ground Control .

Visitors and exhibitors also had the chance to get a free professional headshot from our official photographers, Carmel Jane Films , learn how they can support our nominated charity – the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) , enjoy lunch & networking, and had a chance to try axe throwing and archery curtesy of the historical re-enactment company, Aeons & Eras.

With so many attendees this year, we hit higher attendance numbers then our inaugural event in 2022, the Festival proved to be a brilliant networking opportunity to connect the businesses in Essex and further afield.

The Festival of Business symbolises what’s great about Essex with a brilliant atmosphere and ambience in a fantastic setting. Businesses need a voice but they also need to come together to realise that now more than ever there is a greater emphasis on community spirit and I think Essex is very much a big community. It was fantastic to be joined by so many businesses, educators, entrepreneurs and visionaries at the Festival, people who love Essex. We all love Essex and that’s why it’s important to celebrate it at events like the Festival of Business.

Myself and all at the Chambers would like to thank everyone who worked with us, sponsored, exhibited, visited and enjoyed the day with us.

Due to the phenomenal success of this year’s event, we are thrilled to announce we will be back in 2024! Register your interest now to get involved in next year’s event.

Never Can Say Goodbye to Whitebait

It was an honour to bring back our traditional and delightfully eccentric Whitebait Festival to the Essex business community. Held at the picturesque Cliffs Pavilion, we had the perfect backdrop of the Thames Estuary to echo the nautical event theme as our guests enjoyed fantastic networking opportunities and a delicious three course lunch. Starting of course with Whitebait.

The star of the show wasn’t just the Whitebait. We were thrilled to be joined by the wonderful Rev Richard Coles who performed the ‘blessing of the catch’ service, where we give thanks to the fruits of the sea and to those who risk their lives providing it. He also entertained guests with an excellent after dinner speech, enthralling everyone with his naturally warm and humorous nature as he detailed his journey from popstar to priest.

We are also joined by our event sponsor ACL Essex . Their Principal Lisa Jarentowski spoke to attendees about the great work that ACL do across the County helping to upskill and educate. ACL also had their younger learners create fantastic artwork for the event to represent the fish used for the blessing. The room was adorned with sea creatures of all shapes and sizes created from reclaimed and recycled materials.

It was a great day, thank you to all who attended.

Head to our website to check out what’s coming up next for the Chambers. As Christmas approaches, we have some fantastic festive events taking place including our popular Tiptree Festive Networking and Christmas Networking at Down Hall, where we’ll be joined by cricketing legend Graham Gooch!

I hope to see you there.