Lightbulb Trust’s Partner Breakfast 2024
On the morning of November 27th, Lightbulb Trust hosted its annual breakfast with our partners, both longstanding and newly welcomed, at Megan’s on High Street Kensington. Despite grey skies and some transport chaos, the event immediately proved a lovely start to the day, full of warmth, laughter, and plenty of delicious pastries to make up for the soggy weather.
The breakfast kicked off with a welcome speech from Luisa, Lightbulb Trust’s Director, and a few words from Ben, Lightbulb Trust’s Co-founder and Trustee. They were delighted to introduce our new team members, Catia and Essia(/myself); as well as our new Lightbulb Trust partners: Speek, TACO!, Tellmi, and Voda. And our Greenlight Project 2024 partners: Kakilang, Kinetika Bloco, Scene & Heard, and The Nucleo Project. These incredible organisations are already making significant inroads toward supporting their communities. We are excited to see what lies ahead for them and even more delighted to be a part of their journeys. It was a joy to welcome them into the Lightbulb Trust family.
The morning also included updates from Dr Jami Dixon and Ruth Sorby, Lightbulb Trust’s pro-bono advisors. Jami and Ruth spoke of the latest opportunities on offer around impact evaluation and fundraising advice. We also launched another iteration of the Integration Challenge, grants aimed at supporting collaboration amongst our partners. These initiatives are all designed to help our partners scale their work and deepen their impact.
We were delighted to have Barry from Open Up Music speak about his experience being part of the Match Trading pilot, an initiative to help partners diversify their income beyond traditional grants. For many, one of the highlights of the day was the captivating marionette showcase from our partner, Curious School of Puppetry. Their puppets sparked a playful energy to the room with partners and team members eagerly joining in on the fun and attempting to make the marionettes, perform amusing and fun dances. Well done to all brave volunteers, including our very own Trustee, Shuen Chan! From awkward wobbles to wildly spinning limbs, the puppet performances had everyone laughing, mesmerised, and bringing out their inner child.
Of course, what would an event be without socialising? It’s the best part! After the show, our partners had the opportunity to enjoy networking over coffee and shakshorizo eggs, exchanging ideas and building relationships that will help drive positive change in our communities. It was lovely to see so many passionate individuals sharing their experiences and learning from each other.
Despite the obstacles we faced thanks to wintry London being its usual moody self, the event managed to pull through and truly reflected the incredible work being done by our partners. We couldn’t have asked for a better end to the year!
I want to close this with a huge thank you to all our partners for making this event so special. A big shout-out to Catia for organising everything so smoothly, and to the rest of the team for making it all come together. We truly couldn’t have done it without you!
We hope to see you all next year for another wonderful event—hopefully with fewer train delays and a little less rain!
Essia Zamzam
Youth Engagement Officer
The Lightbulb Trust
Lightbulb Trust’s Partner Breakfast 2024
On the morning of November 27th, Lightbulb Trust hosted its annual breakfast with our partners, both longstanding and newly welcomed, at Megan’s on High Street Kensington. Despite grey skies and some transport chaos, the event immediately proved a lovely start to the day, full of warmth, laughter, and plenty of delicious pastries to make up for the soggy weather.
The breakfast kicked off with a welcome speech from Luisa, Lightbulb Trust’s Director, and a few words from Ben, Lightbulb Trust’s Co-founder and Trustee. They were delighted to introduce our new team members, Catia and Essia(/myself); as well as our new Lightbulb Trust partners: Speek, TACO!, Tellmi, and Voda. And our Greenlight Project 2024 partners: Kakilang, Kinetika Bloco, Scene & Heard, and The Nucleo Project. These incredible organisations are already making significant inroads toward supporting their communities. We are excited to see what lies ahead for them and even more delighted to be a part of their journeys. It was a joy to welcome them into the Lightbulb Trust family.
The morning also included updates from Dr Jami Dixon and Ruth Sorby, Lightbulb Trust’s pro-bono advisors. Jami and Ruth spoke of the latest opportunities on offer around impact evaluation and fundraising advice. We also launched another iteration of the Integration Challenge, grants aimed at supporting collaboration amongst our partners. These initiatives are all designed to help our partners scale their work and deepen their impact.
We were delighted to have Barry from Open Up Music speak about his experience being part of the Match Trading pilot, an initiative to help partners diversify their income beyond traditional grants. For many, one of the highlights of the day was the captivating marionette showcase from our partner, Curious School of Puppetry. Their puppets sparked a playful energy to the room with partners and team members eagerly joining in on the fun and attempting to make the marionettes, perform amusing and fun dances. Well done to all brave volunteers, including our very own Trustee, Shuen Chan! From awkward wobbles to wildly spinning limbs, the puppet performances had everyone laughing, mesmerised, and bringing out their inner child.
Of course, what would an event be without socialising? It’s the best part! After the show, our partners had the opportunity to enjoy networking over coffee and shakshorizo eggs, exchanging ideas and building relationships that will help drive positive change in our communities. It was lovely to see so many passionate individuals sharing their experiences and learning from each other.
Despite the obstacles we faced thanks to wintry London being its usual moody self, the event managed to pull through and truly reflected the incredible work being done by our partners. We couldn’t have asked for a better end to the year!
I want to close this with a huge thank you to all our partners for making this event so special. A big shout-out to Catia for organising everything so smoothly, and to the rest of the team for making it all come together. We truly couldn’t have done it without you!
We hope to see you all next year for another wonderful event—hopefully with fewer train delays and a little less rain!
Essia Zamzam
Youth Engagement Officer
The Lightbulb Trust
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