ELA Grand Summer Ball 2012 – Eastern Landlords Association

I’ve just booked a table for Property118.com for the ELA Grand Summer Ball & ELA Excellence Awards taking place at De Vere Dunston Hall, Norwich on 15th June 2012.

The event looks to be a great networking opportunity and fun too, not the typical Summer Ball sitting around tables, listening to a boring speaker and jigging away to a some out of date DJ’s 70’s record collection after polishing off the cheap wine placed on tables sponsored by people touting for business.

It’s very obvious that the whole event has been set up to promote interaction. If it had been one of those overly formal affairs where guests sit down at tables for most of the evening and have little opportunity to network I wouldn’t have been so interested. However, from what I have seen of the agenda there will be lot’s of opportunities to engage with people without having to be a super confident and sophisticated networker.

Here’s an overview what they have lined up for the ELA Grand Summer Ball…

• Champagne & Pimms Drinks Reception – a bit posh hey?
• Gourmet Barbeque – more my style!
• Dodgems & Fairground Stalls – better go easy on the Pimms & BBQ then
• Ronaldo’s Ice Cream – chill out a bit 🙂
• Popcorn & Candy Floss – prospects of a food fight here 😉
• England v Sweden – your guess is as good a mine!
• Live Band – Scratch The Cat – please don’t let them be an Abba tribute – aaarrrrrggghhh!!!!
• Pavilion Brass Quintet – getting posh again
• Fun Casino – because landlords wouldn’t gamble with real money
• Laser Clay Shooting – practice for collecting late rent anybody?

As a long standing member of the ELA I’m really looking forward to connecting with up to 400 landlords, investors and property business people, especially meeting new people too with non-ELA members also being allowed to attend. The activities make that very easy to start conversations with complete strangers.

Personally I’m not too keen on awards ceremonies. They can drag on and the applause for the winners of later awards is often just a ripple as most of the audience are exhausted by then. I can understand there has to be and element of commerciality to an event of this scale given everything that is on offer and I’m hoping the ELA Excellence Awards ceremony will be kept short and to the point so the winners can get their pat on the back and we can get back to the fun stuff. Looking at this positively though, if the ELA are to recognise businesses in the region providing excellent service to landlords, then I suppose an opportunity to meet the movers and shakers can’t be all bad. It would be remiss of me to see if there are opportunities to do business with the winners and providing them with their moment of glory whilst they pick up their awards is a great way for me to see who I should be introducing myself to.

I’m looking forward to the Charity Auction, I often pick up some nice deals in them so don’t go out-bidding me or else your most embarrassing picture of the evening might just appear in one of my blogs. Seriously though, these charity auctions are in support of two very worthwhile causes; Help For Heros and the East Anglian Children’s Hospice so please dig deep.

Its great that the ELA are doing this and that so much effort has gone into making it into an event which will not only be enjoyable, but will also provide a return from the connections and opportunities it will present.

The team from Property118.com are looking forward to being there and we look forward to seeing you there too.

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