This Tuesday, I joined Andrew Macdonald and Tim Bailey to help out at an Appointments Commission event held at The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in London. 
The event was a great opportunity for me to get some hands on experience at event planning and management for my portfolio, as well as getting a chance to see other areas of Wolfstar’s services. Also, I would never pass up a chance at getting to visit London, which just feels so full of buzz and 
excitement to a Northern city girl! I had a little time to myself before the event to turn into the ‘typical London tourist’ and take pictures of some of London’s beautiful sights, before it was back to work!
The event was held for the many Appointments Commission ‘Talent Pool’ members. These already high flying business men and women had signed up to get the chance of public appointments, such as at the NHS or government departments. The roles, usually non-executive directors for a board or members of an advisory committee, give the public organisations many advantages. These include ‘to provide leadership, strategic direction, 
independent scrutiny and, in some cases, specialist expertise in important areas of public life. Input from a non-executive board or committee member is always more strategic than hands on; key responsibilities may include agreeing strategy, overseeing performance targets, ensuring the finances of the organisation are managed properly and ensuring the organisation works in the public interest.’
The business men and women who are interested 
in doing this are in effect giving back and sharing their success with the public sector. The event provided a great opportunity for these individuals to network with each other and hear from speakers from the Appointment Commission and guest speakers like Sahar Hashemi, who co-founded Coffee Republic and Skinny Candy and wrote the bestselling novel ‘Anyone Can Do It’.
My role was to help out both before the event, setting up outside and organising the ‘meet and greet’ tables and meeting the other staff members, and during the event where I printed out name badges, greeted the talent pool and Appointments Commission members and helped make sure everything was running smoothly. When I got chance, I also took a few pictures for Wolfstar so they could see how things 
looked! The room the event took place in was incredibly beautiful, with intricate stone carvings and an amazing painting on the ceiling.
Once the event was in full swing, I was even given the chance to listen in and caught the end of Sahar speech. It was very inspirational to hear a fellow female doing incredibly well in business. Her motto for like was ‘If you don’t succeed the first 19 times, you will on the 20th’, a hail to the days where she was trying to set up Coffee 
Republic and the first 19 banks refused to give her a loan as England was a nation of tea addicts. However, the 20th banker agreed and the rest I guess is history!
I really enjoyed the experience and even though I didn’t get back to Harrogate until 12.30am, the day was really worth while! I really hope to get involved in more events in the future and thank Wolfstar for giving me such a great experience! I learn new things every week at my placement and it makes me look forward to my year out on placement even more!
