UEA

Globalisation @ A Crossroads

On 17th July 2009, Dr. Andy Wood, MD of Adnams; Jeannette Wheeler, Head of the Employment Team, Norwich, Birkettâs LLP and Chair of the Norwich Business Women's Network and Chris Starkie, Chief Executive of Shaping Norfolkâs Future spoke at a charity dinner, themed Global Financial Crisis: Globalisation at a Crossroads. The dinner was organised by a multi-national group of MBA students from Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia (UEA) alongside managers of Dragon Hall, Norfolk and Norwich Heritage Trust.

Simon Middleton, The Brand Strategy Guru, chaired the event at the centuries-old Dragon Hall on King Street in Norwich.

The evening featured in-depth analysis of the prospects for continued growth of the concept of globalisation against the back-drop of protectionist moves already made by governments of several leading world economies since the financial crisis broke out.  It also provided a good natured avenue for charting a plan for future development of the East of England.

The event featured a charity auction hosted by Mr. Mike Gamble of Irelands, UK and a sweepstake competition on the word globalisation.

Several top members of the East Anglian business and academic communities were in attendance and there was unanimous agreement by all participants on the high level of organisational efficiency displayed by the organising team.

Jeannette Wheeler hoped the team members will continue to promote Norfolk and global trading long after you leave (British) shores.

Gbenga Ibikunle, MBA student and team leader opined of the teams unique qualities: together we learned of the limitations of model-based forecasts and came out riding the crest of disappointments to expand our vision for a great event. We did this while applying ourselves to this cause with a fierceness that suggests we are no longer only doing this for coursework scores, we have come to own the ideals of this event and the ethos for which its recipient stands.

For the team, the challenge of planning the event provided a valuable experience in event planning and marketing strategy development, especially true when creating a unique selling point for the event.

Tickets for the dinner cost £50 and nearly £2,000 was raised at the event and subsequently donated to Dragon Hall.