On Friday 15 January, a group of intrepid JCI London members braved the snow and largely incomprehensible accents of the local taxi drivers to those whose first language is not English and headed north to attend a weekend of entertaining and inspiring JCI events.

JCI Barnsley’s Annual Dinner was a fabulously fun way to start the weekend with dinner, drinks and dancing at the Ardsley House Hotel. As always it is fantastic to hear about and help celebrate the great accomplishments of other JCI UK chambers. JCI London certainly made our presence felt, first of all kidnapping the Barnsley mayor for a photo with our sizeable delegation, then leading the way onto the dancefloor, not inhibited by the lack of music playing at the time!

The next day hangovers were quickly forgotten when Liz and Kay from Idealicious began to present their workshop on creativity. The engaging session involved team games of 30 uses for a hose pipe and imaginative new uses for colanders, as well as tips and tricks on how to be creative using reverse psychology and connections.

John Hotowka was the first key note speaker of the day. He used a unique blend of humour and eye-popping magic (including no small amount of audience participation) to deliver stimulating life lessons about sales, confidence and what can happen if you are not afraid to ask for help.

The second key note speaker, 22 year old Emily Cummins had the entire audience in rapt (and somewhat astounded) attention with her astonishing achievements for her very young age. Through a passion for design and creativity kindled by her grandfather at a young age in his tool shed/work shop, Emily went on to design and make revolutionary products in her largely male-dominated school technology classes. Her clever designs have gone on to help people throughout Africa and brought Emily the well-deserved recognition of several prestigious awards, including most recently Cosmopolitan’s Save-The-Planet-Pioneer ultimate woman of the year award.

Emily’s message was one of perseverance, learning from mistakes and never letting someone say you cannot/will not be able to do that. It is safe to say we were all thoroughly inspired by what one person can achieve with a little imagination and determination.

After the day was wrapped up, the JCI London posse headed out to sample the culinary delights of Bradford’s (and possibly the UK’s) best curry, then moved on to a nearby pub. More life lessons were learned along the way, including that men have no idea about women’s ages and knives and forks are in short supply in the Bradford area!

The lessons of the day before were then put into practice at JCI London’s first council meeting of the year on Sunday morning, in which some exciting ideas were generated for future events and projects.

As is always the case with national JCI events, Inspiration Day was a great chance to meet, network and socialise with JCI members from all over the UK while cramming in some top-quality training. Thanks go to JCI Bradford for organising this fantastic event.

Once again JCI London proudly supported the largest delegation. If you missed out this time, why not get involved in organising the National Convention to be hosted in London in November. The first planning session will be held on 26 January.

by Sarah Beckwith