We eagerly watched two of our team on television last night after our agency played its part in helping young people find employment in the city.

Ian Gunningham, our director, and Steve Watson, our design manager, appeared on BBC1’s regional documentary series Inside Out after being approached by the show’s staff who suggested that Plymouth artist Sean Eveleigh join Bluestone360 for a work experience placement which would be documented.

The documentary followed Sean, an out-of-work graduate, who was seeking to gain experience in the field in which he is qualified in order to make himself more employable. He came into our studio and was mentored by members of our team, who showed Sean how to achieve the most he could using his knowledge and skillsets.

Steve Watson said: “This is a really encouraging way for graduates to get to know the sectors they wish to work in better. We were delighted to guide Sean and help prepare him for finding work in the industry.”

The show aired last night on BBC1 at 7.30pm and can be watched online here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xlvhb/Inside_Out_South_West_17_01_2011/

On September 17^th, Bluestone360 will be holding a Hollywood-themed ball for Plymouth-based charity Jeremiah’s Journey – an organisation that helps bereaved children and their parents or carers when they have lost somebody close. The charity is entirely self-funded and relies on donations, grants and fundraising to stay afloat, so an evening like this will make a great difference.

We have been involved with Jeremiah’s Journey for many years and held an extremely successful ball last spring which raised over £10,000. We wish to follow (and hopefully beat!) the success of last year’s event with a star-studded evening that will be magnificent for all those involved.

The ball will take place in the graduation marquee on Plymouth Hoe and will consist of a champagne reception, a gourmet three-course dinner and a whole host of entertainment including Joey the Lips, a raffle and a silent auction. Thanks to our sponsorships, all money raised will go directly to Jeremiah’s Journey!

The response so far has been fantastic and as a result, tickets are selling out fast! To enquire about offering sponsorship, making a prize donation or buying tickets for the ball, please contact mervyn@bluestone360.co.uk or sadie@bluestone360.co.uk.

Over the past few weeks at Bluestone360, we have been working alongside one of our chosen charities, Jeremiah’s Journey, to help promote their upcoming fundraisers. We have been proud supporters of the charity, which helps bereaved children and their families, for around seven years and we hope to continue this partnership well into the future.

Having worked with the charity for a long period on their marketing communications, we were asked recently to re-brand Jeremiah’s Journey, which included creating a new logo and visual identity.

We are supporting two exciting events which will be taking place in Plymouth over the coming weeks to raise money for Jeremiah’s Journey. On May 30th, following the Plymouth half marathon, the charity will be holding an after party and barbecue at Heaven Restaurant and Bar.

This will be followed, on June 18^th, by a ladies Swish night (with a twist!) at the Treasury. For information about the events and to see how you can get involved, download the posters by clicking the images.

If you’d like to read more about Jeremiah’s Journey and their work, visit www.jeremiahsjourney.org.uk.

OUTSTANDING individuals, businesses and organisations who have survived the recession have been honoured at the Plymouth Bites Back Celebration Awards Day.

City businesses packed the exciting event at the Guildhall, where winners in 10 categories were announced yesterday.

And organisers now want the awards to be run again every year.

Kevin Kelway, regional media co-ordinator for one of the organisers, A4e, which helps jobless people, said: “The city deserves this event and we should look at it as an on-going event next year.”

Council leader Cllr Vivien Pengelly said: “It’s a fantastic event. Plymouth City Council is proud to support it.”

She added: “I hope it will be an annual event where we can get together and celebrate business.”

The awards, each of which is sponsored by a city organisation or business, were organised following The Herald’s successful Bites Back campaign, championing groups, businesses and organisations defying the recession.

The event was organised by the Plymouth Bites Back steering committee, with other city education providers, including the University of Plymouth and City College Plymouth.

It received support from Plymouth City Council and the 2020 Partnership.

Winners received £100 and a trophy provided by city business Plymouth Trophyman. Runners-up received a certificate.

All awards were announced by Bill Martin, editor of The Herald, and were presented to winners and runners-up by Lord Mayor Cllr Ken Foster.

Mr Martin said there had been many strong nominations in all categories.

He said the awards “celebrate all that is good about our city” and gave a flavour of the “diversity and spirit” found in Plymouth.

The breakfast awards ceremony, which also featured musical performances by performing arts students at City College Plymouth and music student Sarinity Powell, was only the opening event in an entire day offering support, guidance and advice for people looking to find jobs.

This included information on how to find funding for training and how to start a business.

Inspirational case studies were placed on presentation panels provided by Jobcentre Plus.

These will then form part of a roadshow which will later tour Plymouth.

Mr Kelway said: “We are really proud to have put such a good event together, and proud to tie it to The Herald’s Bites Back campaign.”

Sharron Robbie, employer liaison officer at City College Plymouth, said Plymouth’s ‘resilience and entrepreneurial spirit’ had helped shield it from the worst of the recession.

Martin Darby and Andy Russell, of computer games firm Remode, which won the Enterprise and Innovation Award, said it would be “fantastic” if the awards became an annual event.

Mervyn Orchard, director of brand consultants Bluestone360, which picked up the Education and Business Award, said it was for his firm’s policy of employing graduates on three-month projects to help charities with their websites. He said he was “shocked and honoured” to win and added: “I believe in working with the education sector to help the creative sector, which will be one of the future sectors for Plymouth.”

Jay Morrish, director of Security Management South West, which won the Creating Futures Employers Award, said his firm was proud to have won an award for helping unemployed people into work.

Alan Beal, of valetting firm 2G Services, who won the Entrepreneurship Award, said: “I’m over the moon.”

Article courtesy of Plymouth Evening Herald

Directors Steve and Mervyn attended a seminar this week, held at the Drum Theatre in Plymouth, which discussed the benefits of businesses giving their support for the Plymouth World Cup bid team.

Chaired by Douglas Fletcher, the seminar heard from key partners of the bid team: Viv Anderson MBE, the former England, Nottingham Forest, Arsenal and Manchester United footballer; an FA Ambassador for the England World Cup bid; Lee Roberts, from the entertainment giants AEG; and Keith Todd CBE, Executive Director of Plymouth Argyle Football Club.

Douglas Fletcher reminded the business community in Devon and Cornwall of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of having world class football matches held in Plymouth, should England secure the FIFA World Cup finals in either 2018 or 2022.

He stated: “The detailed calculations and analysis we have done shows a benefit to the economy of £164million, with 4,700 jobs created.

“The World Cup generates massive TV audiences around the world, a marketing opportunity for Devon and Cornwall that will not be achieved in any other way.

“It is now time for the business community to do its bit and get fully behind the effort to bring the World Cup to England”.

Keith Todd, on behalf of Plymouth Argyle, added: “We all, as individuals and businesses, need to get fully behind the England bid and bring the World Cup back to this country.

“This will be good economically, socially and for all footballers across the region.”

Bluestone360, who have been involved with providing design and communication material, back the plea for the business community to support the bid by asking all employees to show their support for the bid by signing up on the www.england2018bid.com or www.plymouthworldcupbid.com websites and to purchase England bid merchandise.

Businesses have also been asked to help financially either by signing up for one of the England sponsorship packages, with the help of the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce, or making by a £1,000 donation to the Plymouth Would Cup Bid Company which was set up to bid for the Host City status.

After 250 donations, the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce will be an Official Supporter of the England bid under the England Sponsorship program and all Chamber members will be able to use the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce England support logo.

What do we mean by the Plymouth Offer? Quite simply the unique, emotional and benefit related selling points that will make our city memorable, desirable and compelling to its residents and the rest of the world.

Let’s start with the end in mind. Plymouth will represent everything that’s great about the South West. Plymouth people will be proud to say they live here. People from all over the country and the rest of the world will understand what Plymouth’s unique offer represents and see it as a must visit, must live in, must learn in, must work in and must play in city. Plymouth will be a place to build new and grow existing business.

To achieve the above, we need to develop a Plymouth Offer that we can use to help the city compete for its share of wealth and talent. It must be able to recruit the best people, attract more visitors, investments and events and create pride and self belief amongst its people and businesses.

The Offer is a promise of value; it embodies the things we want to achieve not just a logo and a tag line. It will reflect the reality of the city. A promise that must match the reality if Plymouth wants to achieve its Local Strategic Partnership Vision:

By 2020 Plymouth will be recognised as one of Europe’s finest, most vibrant waterfront cities, where an outstanding quality of life is enjoyed by everyone and all can be healthy, wealthy and wise.

It needs a Plymouth Offer that has vision for the future: we need to set certain ‘goals’, to be the UK’s centre of expertise for the marine sector, ‘The City of Devon and Cornwall’, the next silicon valley, the most desirable UK city to live in, have the number one UK University, be recognised world wide as a tourist destination and a city of creativity and culture, and only then will it be one of Europe’s finest and most vibrant waterfront cities. Once we have evolved the Plymouth Offer, we can then use it to market our city.  Every report and perception study says the same thing; we need to market our selves in a professional and joined up way.

Other cities have already created their offer and have been marketing themselves for a number of years, including Glasgow with the tag line ‘Scotland with style’. They launched their offer back in 2004 and have increased its annual hotel occupancy level from 68.8% to 75.3%. Tourist expenditure has also increased by £62 million and the website traffic has increased by 190%. Convention bookings increased by 8% to £148 million, conference hotel bookings secured a gross sales increase of 25% taking them to 3 million; this represents 1.1 million bed nights and expenditure of £129 million. Finally 31% of the UK target audience of 10 million were more likely to visit Glasgow as a result of brand advertising.

Plymouth needs to get its act together if it wants to start catching up. We have the expertise within this city to do this and things have changed on the ground, we have lots to market ourselves on. We all need to be agents of spreading the Plymouth Offer but we need to know what the Plymouth Offer is first. We live in a beautiful city with in an amazing natural location between the sea and a national park we just need to let other people know what we now have. We need to change the perception of an old naval port and dockyard to a thriving university city which has the potential to become a city of creativity and with the right connectivity our location can become an advantage not a disadvantage. The economy has changed from one of manufacturing to one of ideas; this is Plymouth’s opportunity to become great again.

Mervyn Orchard – Director