Lancashare Celebrate First Birthday

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If you’re a Lancashire based business and haven’t heard of ‘Lancashire‘ yet, then where have you been? Lancashare is an online resource for businesses, acting as a single source for owners and operators to find support and services. It’s more than just somewhere to find training, a new member of staff or funding though, it’s a community. This was evident when I attended their first birthday party last week.

The event, held at Preston’s Guild Hall, was an absolute smash and sold out well in advance. Hosting 250 local business people & stakeholders, the event started with an hour of business networking, followed by a meal and entertainment….all Lancashire sourced of course!

The atmosphere in the room was outstanding. Which is no mean feat considering the size of the main room at the Guild Hall. Aside from being an opportunity to make new business contacts (of which we made many), the community spirit and friendly atmosphere made for an entertaining Monday afternoon. I’d like to say this was purely down to the Lancastrian spirit, but it would be criminal not to attribute some (if not most) of that down to the driving force and founder of Lancashare, Lisa Edge, and her engaging, personable nature.

Lisa, who spent many years within business development for local educational establishments left the comfort of a well paid job to start the Lancashare project. It turned from a project to a successful business model, one which is now being rolled out across other counties 12 months from the launch of the original service; the first of those being Greater Manchester.

Lisa who on numerous occasions told the audience how nervous she was, presided over the event with help from local acts and guest speakers such as The High Sheriff of Lancashire, and local businessman Simon Rigby MBE.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Lisa on three separate occasions and at no point did she strike me as the type of woman to ever be nervous. Always full of energy, confidence and enthusiasm, it’s hard to believe. If she was indeed nervous on the day, it didn’t show, standing in front of the packed room to give a number of emotionally charged stories about her history and how the business came to be.

The food was first class. Of course, the main course had to be Lancashire/Lancashare hotpot, could it be anything else? The food quality was matched by the service, with the staff being provided by another local success story, GetStaffed. The brainchild of ‘local lad’ and one to watch, Tom Havlin.

All in all the day was a complete success. A professionally managed event, with just the right mix of business networking, good food and socialising. It was certainly a good way to celebrate what has been an outstanding first year for one of the most exciting local business projects of recent times.

From all of us here at Invoke Media, we wish Lisa and her team another successful year and hope we can make it to the next one!