A brief overview of the Enterprising Solutions awards which took place last Wednesday. Divine Chocolate was the overall winner (you can read about all the winners here on SEC’s website) with McSence, Haven, Women Like Us and Goodwin Development Trust also picking up prizes. Congratulations to all, and to the organisers for an impressively smoothly run event: no doubt their celebrations went on into the early hours (at least that looked where it was heading… :0).

The event was at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is an extraordinary venue….and not a little imposing. Nevertheless, there was a good buzz and an air of confidence about proceedings which meant that it didn’t overwhelm guests or overshadow the event. I’d spent the afternoon with the Ambassadors and they were pretty much all there, along with the new minister Phil Hope and all the usual suspects. I spent sometime chatting to Dave "Intelligent Giving" Pitchford and Cathy "Third Sector Research guru" Pharoah, who (combined) know more than most about the ins and outs of the charity world, particularly the funding and fundraising world. [Cathy actually came into our building last week to deliver a seminar on future sector trends, which I’ll try and write up soon]

Little else to report, really: I couldn’t possibly confirm the rumour that one prominent sector figure skipped the awards presentation and found him/her-self alone with all the booze; that would be scurrilous. Nor that the compere was far from being without compare… I can confirm that it was a successful event at a better venue (no popcorn at the iMax this year) which displayed the confidence of the movement, and that a good time was had by all….and no doubt many of you read further in the Observer supplement on Sunday. Of course, those of us who were going to York the next day (of which more soon) barely partook in any drinking at all….