Tuesday 30 November 2010

Centrepoint Sleep Out

Thursday 11th November at the Old Spitalfields market.

Handmade colourful jewellery, tasty cakes and pastries, carefully crafted tops and bags, amongst many other items are being carefully wrapped up to boxes and packed away. The mixed aromas of moulded wine, rum cake and freshly made cappuccino also begin to fade. The traders has just finished their day at work, some of them are already on their way back home – their warm cosy home.

Whilst the Spitalfields traders are on their way back home, at the place of their stalls, a fence is being erected and there is a whole army of people wearing white T-shirts with orange circle at the back: Centrepoint, giving young homeless people a brighter future.

Fences, sleeping bags, loads of cardboard, badges, stage, volunteers and sleepers and even space for a Double-Decker bus in between. That is the set up for Centrepoint’s annual fund-raising event – Sleep Out (http://sleep-out.org.uk)

During one night, over 400 sponsored volunteers gave up their comfortable beds to sleep rough in the cold of night. The aim? To raise money and awareness to help a growing community of homeless young people achieve a roof over their head and create stable future.

DUCC member Mac Million took an active part providing video production support throughout the evening, night and morning. A team of volunteers were assembled using a mixture of young people from Centrepoint and students to film and edit the event. Most of the crew involved were first time camera operators and presenters, who with very little training threw themselves at the task.

To compliment the Mac Million team other sponsors stepped in to offer their generous help: Charles Gervais of Both Hemispheres provided still photography, Mike Smith from Alias Smith & Singh provided the video cameras, Nicholas Troen and Frank Yeung of Poncho No. 8 provided seated area and power for the editing suites and Geof Jones from Vueinti installed a Digital Signage system build around cardboard boxes.

After a long nights work the team managed to document entire event, capture performances and interview celebrities such including Lisa Maxwell of ITV’s Loose Women, Sara Cox, Ivan Gazidis the CEO of Arsenal Football Club and goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, Craig from Big Brother 1 and singers Dan Gillespie from The Feeling and Patrick Monahan the lead singer from Train, as well as Tres B.

The result of everybody’s joint efforts on the evening exceeded expectations and Centrepoint has so far raised over £150,000 to help Young Homeless People!
 
All the videos from the evening can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/user/CentrepointUK and you can also show your support here: http://www.facebook.com/centrepoint.charity

Thursday 11 November 2010

Re: Danish UK Chamber of Commerce

Please find my leader below for the November 2010 Newsletter for the Danish UK Chamber of Commerce:

Dear Members,

What an interesting month October was for anyone based in the UK. No-one could escape the over 81 Billion Pound budget saving measures by Chancellor George Osborne, by cutting costs, cutting Quangos and even cutting the iconic Harrier jets. Some doom-sayers would certainly claim that another recession is imminent, whilst others refer back to the time when government budgets were cut by Thatcher, it eventually led to Back Wednesday. Whether right or wrong, whilst businesses in the UK will be facing challenging times it will also offer entrepreneurial possibilities for those who are willing to make that extra effort. As much as the economy might need a respite from people wanting to go to school, be ill or have a pension, this will not change – same goes for the need for a roof over ones head, food, electricity, transport and other necessities. So yes, there will continue to be business opportunities.

And just one of those opportunities was witnessed in the beginning of October when our friends at Scan Magazine opened the doors to The Scandinavia Show 2010 (http://www.scandinaviashow.co.uk). It was an amazing feast of the best that Scandinavia has to offer in design, food, drinks, holidays, technology and drinks. And not least because DUCC was present too with a stand inspired by the wonderful place of Skagen, the most Northern place on the Danish peninsula (Jutland), it was manned by DUCC chairman Mr. Per Troen, office driver Manpreet, myself and the brave people from Team Denmark FC. The end result was that we connected with people that we would otherwise not have met and we even managed to sign up new members to the chamber. For those interested we brought a video production crew (Joanna) from Mac Million, who with Per went around interviewing and documenting the show. You can see the results on the DUCC web video channel (http://www.youtube.com/duccchannel).

As much as we are faced with tough choices in the current economic climate, we must not forget to step up to the challenge of helping others. Not being ashamed of plugging for charity myself, can I please use this opportunity to highlight Centrepoint’s Sleep-Out (http://sleep-out.org.uk) on Thursday the 11th of November in aid of giving homeless young people a future.  There will be a mix of celebrities, chief executives, city folks and others roughing it out for the night at the Old Spital Fields market. I will be there too with a crew with cameras and editing suites documenting events, surprise entertainment and interviewing people to be shown during the night on FaceBook and Youtube. Please get onboard, London’s homeless young people needs you now!  http://bit.ly/agArXb

Thank You
Mads

MD of Mac Million & Ducc Council Member