On Thursday 3rd October, Inspired Youth were asked to attend Social Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber’s 7th annual awards ceremony. Inspired Youth had been shortlisted for a Social Impact award, an award that we have been nominated for twice.
This year’s ceremony was in the form of a gala dinner, a much more preferred style than the conference from last year, which I attended with IY Ambassador Adele, as well as Kev and CJ. This year however I attended the ceremony with Young Carers Revolution member Seb.
The ceremony was held in Victoria Hall, Keighley, West Yorkshire, a place that neither Seb or I had ever been before, the fact that we kept saying the name wrong can attest to that, apparently its pronounced Keith-ley, who knew? Thankfully there was a nice old lady on the train who was listening to our conversation and corrected us.
Despite the awful weather and terrible traffic, the event was attended by just over 100 guests all involved in social enterprise. The evening kicked off with networking and people adamant to get to the bar, from there the conversation continued into the main hall where the event was taking place.
The event was catered by Confianza, an award winning social enterprise. They served the guests with a beautiful 3 course meal which was well received. After the meal it was down to business, we were up against some stiff competition, with everyone raising the bar. We all held our breath as we waited rather impatiently for the announcer to struggle his way through tearing open the envelope that announced the winner. Unfortunately we didn’t win the award, but we were happy to be shortlisted amongst great social enterprises.
The evening was concluded with a speech from special Guest Speaker Peter McGurn the Chief Executive of one of the largest and longest established regional Social Enterprises, The Goodwin Trust. I found his speech to be very inspiring and encouraging and enjoyed listening to him.
Overall the evening was a success.