NETWORK GROUP’S 30TH ANNIVERSARY
Birthday celebrations Network Group celebrates its 30th anniversary this year – and has just had a special event to commemorate the landmark. As David Tulip explains, the group has come a long way in that time and is still looking to the future, but with a focus on traditional values.
Wembley Stadium is an iconic venue that has seen many teams become more than the sum of their parts to succeed over the years. So it was fitting that Network Group – a cooperative community of independent technology service providers helping each other to achieve greater success – had its 30th anniversary celebrations there recently. The celebrations, coinciding with Network Group’s 15th annual Exhibition, Gala and Awards, were held on April 25, and people from across the UK, Ireland and even as far as North America came over for the event. Former England football captain Stuart ‘Psycho’ Pearce delivered the keynote speech. “He was great,” enthuses David Tulip, managing director of Network Group. “He talked about leadership, sharing stories of Brian Clough and Gazza, of when he was an apprentice electrician, lots of funny stories and leadership lessons from the grades that he’d worked in and around. There were tales of his penalties too, of course – the miss [in Italia 90] and the hit [Euro 96].” This was followed by various vendor-led workshop sessions, such as N-Able, which delivered content around remote management and monitoring, best practise and tools. Two new executives were elected to the Network Group board that day too; Steven Lightfoot from NextGen IT and Peter Strahan, from Lantech. There was also Network Group’s largest ever Expo, which featured 48 vendors and was busy across the day, David reports.
Giving back Also at the event, Network Group selected its charity for the year to raise money for, the Street Soccer Foundation. “We like to try and make a difference,” says David. “We’ve been doing it for many years, and we often pick a small charity as it really makes a difference to them. “Our chairman, who was elected in January, Michael Morgan, wanted to support a charity that is making a real difference to people’s lives.” Street Soccer Foundation helps homeless people and those in danger of becoming homeless, often young people. “At the gala dinner we had an auction and raffle and raised more than £30,000 for that charity,” says David. “It’s the most we’ve ever raised at an event, and it smashed our expectations for the night. We’re super pleased that our members, partners and vendors helped us to achieve that through donating prizes and bidding so generously.” Also at the event was Network Group’s annual awards ceremony, which recognised partners, members and vendors for their achievements over the past 12 months. Winners included 1-Fix (MSP of the Year, sub- 1,500 endpoints), Morgan & Morgan (MSP of the year plus-1,500 endpoints), Start Tech (new member of the year), Net Primates & Southern IT (member contribution to the group) and DLG Computers (retailer of the year).
David Tulip managing director
nbg.co.uk
Street Soccer Foundation helps homeless people and those in danger of becoming homeless
streetsoccerfoundation. org.uk
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