Member Article

Celebrating our local businesses

Representatives of businesses across the Tees Valley joined together earlier today to recognise the outstanding achievements of the local business community.

The ‘Celebration of Success’ business lunch was hosted by Tilly Bailey & Irvine Solicitors at The Wynyard Rooms, at Wynyard Park. More than 50 local businesses were represented, of all different sizes. The theme of this year’s Celebration event was ‘The Business of Education’ with guest speakers Alastair Thomson, Dean of Teesside University Business School and Katy Parkinson, Founder Director of Sound Training for Reading.

Alastair Thomson spoke about his career and his view of business success, and shared his experience of how local businesses can be involved with the education sector. He said: ““As a region we don’t celebrate our successes nearly enough, so it was a great pleasure to see so many businesses with so much to celebrate gathered together in the same room. Teesside University is a successful organisation because we stick close to the business community in the Tees Valley and, through our research, student projects and skills development deliver real value to local businesses. With a well-trained, innovative and entrepreneurial workforce, Tees Valley can achieve tremendous successes in the years to come. As a university, we are proud of the role we can play, through our students and business partners, in making that happen.”

Katy Parkinson, Founder Director of Sound Training for Reading gave a passionate presentation about how her business is improving secondary school pupils’ literacy skills. She said: “It’s been a pleasure today to introduce other businesses to how we help pupils develop their literacy skills, which in turn prepares them for their working life after school. Our business has grown through word of mouth, but mainly with schools in the south. However, the need in the North East is just the same. It’s important for us to raise awareness in our own region about how we genuinely and quickly help students. After today’s event, more people know about our business, and can help spread the word in the Tees Valley.”

Martin Levinson, Partner with Tilly Bailey & Irvine Solicitors, who opened the event commented: “We’d like to thank everyone for joining us today, in particular our two speakers who made the event extremely interesting, giving us great confidence about how education is preparing our future workforce. Despite the challenges all business have faced in recent years, there were plenty of successful local businesses here today taking the opportunity to reflect on their achievements and successes.”

Tilly Bailey & Irvine Solicitors is the Tees Valley’s largest full service law firm with offices in Wynyard Park, Stockton on Tees, Hartlepool and Barnard Castle. It has a multi-disciplinary business law team, based at Wynyard Park, offering expertise in fields including commercial property, mergers acquisitions and disposals, intellectual property, employment and dispute resolution. For further advice, contact Tilly Bailey & Irvine Solicitors on 01740 646000.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tilly Bailey and Irvine Solictors .