Archive for Articles, quotes and publications
The Professional Pensions Show 2008, ExCel, London.
19-20th November 2008
By the number of Snoopy and zebra heads I saw popping out of delegate’s bags pensions parents will have plenty of stocking fillers this year! The show was worth visiting for all the different freebies, let alone the increased amount of stands offering free champagne this year as compared to last year. To everyone who walked up to us and said ‘hello’ and gave us well wishes for Abenefit2u, thank you and we look forward to following up on those conversations…
To catch Kathryn with fizz in hand & Dianne succumbing to a weakness click here.
The Pensions Scheme of the Year Awards 2008
By Dianne Beer
The main highlight for Kathryn and I this month, and I am sure for many who work within the occupational pensions industry, has to be attending the Pensions Scheme of the Year Awards 2008, at the London Hilton, on Thursday 11th September.
The moment I arrived I headed for the table plan, to find out who was attending and to my delight there were endless names I recognised and knew from having spent half my working life specialising within in-house pension recruitment. Throughout the evening I was to bump into many old faces (figuratively speaking), and it was lovely to be able to chat in a social environment and hear all the latest inside pensions news and catch up on personal gossip to.
My host for the evening was Bill Furmedge, Publisher for Professional Pensions, who had organised a super table of people to enjoy dinner with, including Michael Portillo, who was guest speaker at the event.
The evening sped by with the awards in two halves before and after dinner. I am not allowed to say who I was ‘routing’ for, but there were of course people and companies I have known for many years and know just how much winning an award would mean to them, so I was holding my breath and crossing fingers on both hands for most of the awards throughout the evening.
After the awards Kathryn and I enjoyed the games area. I learned a valuable lesson, ‘never try to play golf in an evening dress and after a lot of wine’. I most definitely won’t be giving up being a professional recruitment consultant to become a professional golfer!
As Kathryn and I caught our carriages home we saw the ‘hardcore’ contingent of pensions partiers heading out of the Hilton and off to a bar just around the corner. There were going to be some sore heads in the morning, but thankfully on this occasion not for Kathryn or I.
Our very warm gratitude and thanks again to Professional Pensions and Bill Furmedge for inviting us to this event, looking after us so admirably and making it such a memorable evening.
If you would like to see some more pictures from this event, please click here.
Dianne and Kathryn.
Sir Alan: You’re fired! ‘Soundbites’ Contribution by Dianne Beer in 25th June 2008 issue of Recruiter Magazine.
By: Dianne Beer
As an avid reader of all pensions and recruitment publications, I am also on the volunteer list for a large number of these to offer my opinion from a recruitment professionals perspective on topical issues.
This month the Recruiter magazine approached me to see if I would like to be a contributor to ‘Soundbites’ in their next issue. I had already said yes, but when I read the question I was required to comment on, how could I have ever said no! What a super topic, on the tip of everyone’s tongue at the moment, and already greatly debated by Abenefit2u staff…
If you would like to read other previous Soundbites please visit the Recruiter Magazine on-line at www.recruiter.co.uk and use the word search ‘Soundbites’. To read further recruitment consultants comments about the most recent series of The Apprentice and Lee McQueen enter ‘Letters…’. I noted with approval how the ethical recruiters gave their name and company when commenting, the unethical did not! But why not, if they were to get fired, Sir Alan Sugar would always employ them!
Until the next series of The Apprentice…
