Monmouth and the City

12.11.12

The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers have for many years held the Monmouth Enterprise Initiative in which sixth formers from their eight schools compete for the opportunity to network with professionals from the City of London. Each year the Haberdashers choose a different modern livery company to represent a business activity in the City; this time it was the Marketors.

And so the seventy selected students gathered at the modern Haberdashers Hall on the west side of Smithfield for a dinner with twelve Marketors, sixteen representatives from the companies which would be hosting them the following day, and of course our hosts the Haberdashers. To call then students possibly conjures up the wrong image - they were very articulate and smartly dressed young men and women. Also, lest there is an image of educational privaledge, only two of the schools are fee paying.

The evening started with brief presentations from Liverymen Philip Andrew and Annmarie Hanlon on there fascinating careers to date, illustrating that there is not just one route to success and also the strength of marketing skills in driving your career. There was then an interesting Q&A followed by me. I had been given the topic of the history of marketing and whether it was an art or a science, and so in summary I naturally touched on the 1950's in the US Mid West, 1622 in Rome, Freud's double nephew, and hyper connection (you had to be there). Oh yes, and it is first a science and then an art. And all in five minutes. We then moved on to an excellent dinner - in all a delightful evening.

An event such as this takes a lot of organising. Having taken the original brief at the beginning of the year, I was then out of the loop and so passed it to the Deputy Master Sally with a suggestion for two people to organise it, Debra Marmor and Annmarie Hanlon. Not only getting companies to volunteer but also ensuring that they are organised to take the student for a day, each visit being different to the other, is no mean task and so congratulations and thanks to both Debra and Annmarie for their hard work. Not only a success but one that will impact the lives of seventy young people.

John Flynn
Master Marketor