IOE’s GALA Dinner for Queen’s Award winners

Last night a 20 strong party of TestPlant staff and guests enjoyed very fine dinner in celebration of our recent Queen's Award for Enterprise. Hosted by the Institute of Export the event took place in the magnificent Draper's Hall, one of the City of London's grandest guild halls.

Not only was TestPlant one of the companies recognised for it's achievements in international trade, but we also sponsored the event, supporting the IOE, a registered charity, in the work it does to assist UK exporters.

The evening opened with words of welcome from our CEO George Mackintosh. He noted that while the Draper's Company, in whose hall we were being entertained, was 575 years old, TestPlant had only recently notched up it's fifth birthday. And recalling his experiences in British manufacturing industry many years ago, he wondered whether TestPlant's achievements and that of many new technology businesses didn't herald the creation a new and refined British Industry.

At dinner in the grand hall, we heard from the IOE Director General Lesley Batchelor, President Jim Davis [who'd earlier spoken in fluent Japanese to our business partner from Japan, Hide Maeda] and Vice Presidents Sir Eric Peacock and Lord Emprey. All congratulated the Queen's Award winners and encouraged us to even greater activity and success in international trade.

And finally after fish, duck and the inevitable British "pudding" [and some rather good wines] we were entertained with tales of sporting excess by 6ft 10in former England rugby player Martin Bayfield. Our guests came from a leading research house, from leading IT services multinationals, from IBM, Cisco and Bloomberg, from the UK Trade & Investment department and our local Member of Parliament. They seemed to have a very good time! Thanks to all our customers and eggPlant users around the world who made it happen for us.