This dinner is a great opportunity to Network, Reward and Celebrate with colleagues and clients.
RTPI South West Annual Dinner 2023
We are pleased to announce that we will be holding our Annual Dinner the Marriott City Hotel in Bristol on Thursday 8 June 2023. Find out more
RTPI South West Annual Dinner 2022
On the 10 June, we held the 63rd RTPI South West Annual Dinner at Wills Memorial Building in Bristol. The evening was a celebration of the last three years and was hosted by myself, as the 2022 chair, Anghard Williams, the 2021 Chair and Dawn de Vries the 2020 chair.
Thank you to our sponsors Arup, Barton Willmore now Stantec, Burges Salmon LLP, Landmark Chambers, Peter Evans Partnership, Rappor, Tetra Tech Planning and Womble Bond Dickinson, without your support, we would lose one of the main networking events in the RTPI South West calendar.
The evening started with a welcome drinks receptionbefore heading into the Great Hall for the dinner. Judge the Poet, a spontaneous poet opened the event by providing spontaneous poetry about oranges, onomatopoeia and being boring! Following the dinner, we were treated to a rather comical tale involving looking for buried spitfires in Burma and a 100 year old python, delivered by Martin Brown (Tetra Tech Archaeologist).
T
hroughout the evening guests were left impressed by silhouette Artist Michael Herbert who presented many guests with a hand cut (within minutes) silhouette portrait of themselves. We closed the evening with the popular charity raffle for the Chair’s choice of charity my charity of 2022, Fareshare SW, Angharads charity of 2021, the Alzemiers Charity and Dawns charity of 2020, Somerset Mind. The raffle raised an impressive £1685. Thank you to everyone who donated a prize or made a donation.
Overall, the dinner and entertainment was a success with great feedback which was all down to the hard work and organisational skills of Charlotte Daborn our Regional Coordinator. Charlotte had to re-organise the dinner after the original venue of We the Curious had a fire with less than six weeks to go. Thank you ever so much Charlotte for all you hard work, without you we would have no event.
Written by Julie O'Rourke, RTPI South West Chair 2022
RTPI South West Annual Dinner 2019
The RTPI SW Annual Dinner saw a return visit to We the Curious Science Centre at Bristol Harbourside, following the successes of the 2018 dinner. This year, the event attracted 212 planners and their guests from across the south west with fantastic support via sponsorship from Mott Macdonald, Burges Salmon, No5 Chambers, Arup, Hydrock, Cotswold Transport Planning and Ridge.
The evening started with a welcome drinks reception and opportunity to explore the exhibits at We the Curious. Heading upstairs to the dinner, Sue Manns, Vice President of the RTPI opened the evening with some powerful and thought provoking statistics on diversity within the planning industry and important ambitions for the future of the profession.
Following a three course meal, the After Dinner Speaker Iain Stewart wowed us all with a video of him jumping into a rock pool on the very edge of Victoria Falls (enough to induce vertigo from simply watching!). Iain, a Professor of Geoscience Communication at Plymouth University, got us all thinking about how we effectively communicate difficult narratives and complex ideas to the public and how our approach can result in very different outcomes. It was fantastic to see how his geology work can resonate with issues planners face every day.
Throughout the evening guests were left impressed by Magician Kerry Scorah with her bag full of tricks and no sleeves to hide those slight of hand cards! Artist Michael Herbert also presented many guests with a hand cut (within minutes) silhouette portrait of themselves.
The West of England Young Planners had each dinner table racking their brains over another great quiz, which required knowledge of Bristolian colloquialisms and the number of national parks in Wales.
This was followed by a successful raffle, with lots of fantastic prizes won and £1,348 raised for South West Lakes Trust and We Care We Repair Bristol.
The night was rounded off with casino tables and a surprise in the form of a Food Scientist serving up blue cheesecake flavoured merignues poached in nitrogen, which made for some very interesting photographs and some very cold teeth!
Overall, the dinner and entertainment was a success with great feedback on the speakers and their insightful presentations. Nevertheless, the RTPI SW team are always looking for ways to continue to improve this event and welcome any comments and feedback from those who attended to make 2020 an even greater success.
Find more photos from the evening click here
RTPI South West Annual Dinner 2018
The RTPI SW Annual Dinner broke new ground this year by holding the event at We the Curious Science Centre at Bristol Harbourside. The event attracted some 190 planners and their guests (see the Dinner Brochure for the guest list) and was well supported by sponsorship from Arup, Burges Salmon, Cotswold Transport Planning, Curtins, Hydrock, JBP, Mott MacDonald, No 5 Chambers and Peter Brett Associates. This allowed us to welcome a table of Young Planners who showed their organisational capacity by producing a table quiz for which you needed to know your Walkers Crisps!.
Following the drinks reception which was held amongst We the Curious' hands-on exhibits guests received a thoughtful pre-dinner contribution from Ian Tant, Vice President of the RTPI who commended the Region on the range and depth of its activities. The highlight of the evening however was Claire Lomas' after-dinner talk. Claire suffered a catastrophic spinal injury while horse riding leaving her paralysed from the chest down. She shared her incredible story of anguish and achievement overcoming seemingly impossible odds to complete the London Marathon in a specially designed suit, becoming the mother of two daughters and now taking on the challenge of high speed motor bike racing. She has committed herself to charity fund raising for people facing similar challenges, however her greatest contribution must be the inspiration she provides not just for people with disabilities but for anyone facing tough times.
Fund raising was the purpose of the raffle which benefited from a many generous prises donated by supporters and resulted in £1,748 being raised for mental health charity MIND. This was a record perhaps reflecting the power of Claire Lomas' talk or maybe the threat of Suzanne D'Arcy who compered the event and threatened to lock the doors and not let anyone leave unless we set a new record!
Overall the dinner was a great success with very positive feedback on the new venue and the choice of after dinner speaker. However we continue look at ways of broadening its appeal and offering alternative locations so any comments and suggestions would be gratefully received.
Take a look at the photos here
Thank you to the continued support from our sponsors Mott MacDonald, Burges Salmon, Curtins, No 5 Chambers, ARUP, Peter Brett Associates, Hydrock, Cotswold Transport Planning and JBP