Competition Sets Out to Find the Perfect Fusion

Two North East entrepreneurs are teaming up in the hunt to find the region’s perfect fusion of food and drink with a unique new competition that promises some special evenings out for discerning diners.

Fusion 2010, which will takes place at the Newcastle Marriott Gosforth Park Hotel across seven nights in July, brings together eight of the region’s top chefs with eight leading mixologists. The dynamic duos will work together in pairs to create the perfect union of food and drink.

The contest is the brainchild of John Collingwood, a veteran cocktail expert who runs wanttoimpress.com, and Rachel McManus, owner of pzazzevents.com, one of the North East’s leading Event Management companies. Each evening will host 180 dinner guests who will see the dishes and cocktails being prepared by two of the participating pairs. They will then try out the tantalising combinations and decide to vote for who should advance to the next stage.

“This is a unique and innovative event that we’re looking to roll out nationwide following its launch in the North East,” said Rachel who is looking forward to showcasing regional talent and using the North East as a launch platform for what she anticipates will be a hugely successful nationwide event within the food and drink industry.“There’s no other competition that brings together the complementary crafts of cookery and mixology, so we’re expecting some amazing creations for our guests to pass judgement on.” said John, who trained over 10,000 of the UK’s leading mixologist’s in his previous role with Bacardi.

Beginning with four heats, the winners will then advance to one of two semi-finals before the final two face off on the grand final evening. Each evening promises to deliver a totally unique dining experience with some of the finest culinary talents in the North East competing for the Fusion 2010 title.

Each course of meal will need to be accompanied by a bespoke cocktail that perfectly complements the taste and style of the dish. So far, the head chefs from Malmaison, Hotel du Vin, Jesmond Dene House and Café 21 at Fenwick have all expressed an interest in signing up.

John and Rachel are currently searching for mixologists from across the region to put themselves forward for the competition. Twenty possible contestants will be chosen for heats at The Living Room in Newcastle on Sunday 16 May from 12noon to 6pm, when eight will be chosen to go through to the main event.

An FA Cup Style draw will then take place on 20th May at Newcastle Marriott Gosforth Park Hotel, where competing Chefs and Mixologist’s will be drawn from a hat to determine the final eight teams and the dates that they will compete against each other. At this stage the competition will then determine who can and can’t stand the heat in the kitchen.

Tickets for the main event will go on sale soon and will be priced from £45. If you’re a bartender who would like to enter or a prospective diner who would like to find out more, you can call 0845 4505488 or visit http://www.eatdrinkfusion.com.

Challenge 2010 Finalists are revealed

Wow – what a tough job our judges had across the region!

But all made worthwhile because we got to meet some amazing people at the 'Pick Our Brains' Opportunity Panels and have some great discussions about their ideas and businesses. We hope everyone who took part took away some valuable food for thought and maybe even a few actions.

Thanks again to our judges. We’re planning to hold some none-competitive panels so please let us know if you’d like to get involved in the future – on either side of the table!

To find out who the finalists are, please visit www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/challenge

Don’t forget that you can vote in all seven media regions – and voting is simple. All you need to do is either email your selections to Stephen or text 07624 803 199.
(Voting closes at 12 midnight on June 13th - and no multiple votes please!!!)

We’ve set up blogs and twitter accounts for all of the finalists – and even though some are new to the world of social media there are already some great posts. You can access their blogs through the Challenge page.

So good luck everyone! And please tell your friends, family and colleagues about these 14 inspirational entrepreneurs – let’s make this as viral as possible and make sure as many people as possible in the region and beyond (we’ve had votes from all over the world) know about the great things that are happening in the North East.

Barclays Business Springboard Seminars comes to Newcastle

We thought you might like to know of an event taking place on the 12th May at Newcastle United Football Club, being held by Barclays Business Springboard Seminars. Successful entrepreneur and If we can, you can member Will Dracup of Nonlinear Dynamics joins René Carayol for an eveninh Q&A session - hear about how he has made a success of his business.

Here are the details, for more information and to book your place please head to http://www.barclaysbusinessspringboard.co.uk/Newcastle

Evening agenda:

5.30pm – Register, help yourself to our buffet, visit the exhibition and network with other local businesses

6.00pm - Opening welcome address by Barclays Regional Head of Local Business

Introduction from René Carayol

Then find out all about…

Business planning
A look at business planning, your finances and market research.
Discover first hand how a local entrepreneur turned their idea into a successful business with effective planning

Pitch Perfect –
How to market your business, and yourself: perfect pitching is crucial to business survival

7.15pm – Competition Zone & Exhibition
Visit our stands, get some one-on-one advice, and find out more about how you could win £50,000 towards your big business idea with our Take One Small Step competition (terms and conditions apply)

And the highlight of the evening…

René’s Top Tips - not to be missed

René Carayol will use his real life experiences to deliver insightful and compelling tips on how you can get your business idea off the ground

Q&A

René interviews a panel of business experts

Formal close by René Carayol and Barclays

9.00pm – 9.30pm Final networking whilst enjoying refreshments

Latest news from Derek Foxcroft, Carbon Abatement Technology

Latest news from Derek Foxcroft, Carbon Abatement Technology:

We are pleased to announce that we have attained our very first Environmental Award: The Green Business Network – Tees Valley Bronze Award which was presented us at the Boho Centre, Middlesbrough on 20th April. So begins the journey of bigger and better achievement in helping people and businesses to reduce their impact on the environment through commonsense application of low or no cost solutions to transport emissions.

The Silver Award has already started for us and we hope to make a similar announcement in due course.

We are also pleased to announce that we made it into the Low Carbon Vehicle Directory 2010 published by the government. We are shown on page 71 under our old image of Re-Freshco Ltd. Still us, just different stripes! This is a fantastic accolade and we will aim to create an additional stir for next year’s directory.

Finally today we would very much like to ask for your support once again for a competition we have entered. The Barclays Bank “Take One Small Step” competition is both prestigious and financially rewarding for us as a business but we know we cannot win this without you, our friends, avid fans, customers and future customers. Our entry is found here: https://www.takeonesmallstep.co.uk/Entry/View/1400

Our technology has always been about getting it out there and helping people like yourself and your company or business to save money whilst helping the planet too. Without “People Power” or “Power of Mouse” (Thanks to Andy Hanselman for this worthy strap line) we are going to get absolutely nothing from Government to help us do both, so please join in and support our bid to win the North East Regional Vote, at least this way you KNOW your valuable VOTE and OPINION will be a force for change.

Our promise to you is this.

First – Just for voting we will provide you with a discount on our automotive system of 15% or FREE Fitting, whichever means more to you.

Second – If we win the North East Vote we will give you BOTH!

How do you help us? Click the link www.takeonesmallstep.co.uk/Entry/View/1400 Listen to a very nervous Derek on the video and then vote for it when that starts on June 7th to July 4th, support it right now by clicking on the box at the top right hand side, enter the code and you have shown your support. Thank you.

Live testing of our system starts within weeks as we now have a physical prototype fitted to a Heavy Goods Vehicle here in the North East. Results are expected to be better than anticipated due to improvements made to the original design. We have also achieved three customer pre-orders, two of which are based here in the North East and the larger customer is a National company.

We have recently won grant support from NEEIC and are talking to a number of venture capitalists here in the region through one of which we may gain Carbon Trust Incubator status which will boost our exposure, order book and sales beyond measure. This is not just our success story, it is a North East success story too as without the “Can and will do” attitude of the region, we may not have made it so far.

The Entrepreneurs’ Forum has created a quality network for my own development with great advice from Sir Peter Vardy, Roy Stanley and countless others and some fantastic events that have out shone the competitors offerings by a wide mile. Thanks to you all.