The BCFA held its prestigious Annual Luncheon on 31st October 2019 at the stunning new venue of the Royal Lancaster, London. The sell-out event was the BCFA’s largest yet, with just under 600 guests attending. The BCFA announced the move from the Dorchester earlier this year and members and their guests loved the wonderful interiors of the new location. Design Insider has published an article on the Royal Lancaster, which takes a look at the rebranding and refurbishment of the venue, indicating all of the thirteen BCFA members who were involved in supplying to the project.
Nine Kings Suite
Guests arrived at the Nine Kings Suite entrance and collected their badges before heading into the reception room for a glass of bubbly and a chance to meet and greet their clients. The reception room quickly filled up, and there was a buzzy atmosphere as everyone enjoyed a drink with our Swing Band in the background. There were also photo opportunities with our Sponsor back drop, and our Balloon photo wall.
House Band
The guests were then called to lunch at 12.50pm by our Toastmaster and impressively the walls then lifted in front of the doors to the Nine Kings Suite and the room was revealed. With dazzling chandeliers creating an enchanting ambience the excited guests began making their way into the room to find their seats.
BCFA Chairman Lee Marvin welcomed guests with an opening speech, reflecting on highlights from the year at the BCFA and looking forward to new events and opportunities for 2020. After the speech, guests tucked into a delicious 3-course meal, which included an amazing flaming crème brulee.
Lee Marvin, Chairman of BCFA, Speech
Flaming Crème brûlée
Following the lunch the Panaz/BCFA Lifetime Achievement Award was presented by Mr Tony Attard OBE DL and CEO of Panaz. This years’ recipient was Jack Pringle, co-founder of Pringle Brandon, which became one of the UK’s leading architects designing and specifying practices for some of the UK’s biggest companies in banking, professional services, TMT and Hospitality. In 2012 Pringle Brandon became part of Perkins and Will with Jack being the London Principal. In his very sincere acceptance speech, Jack covered his journey and the people who had inspired and motivated him along the way. It was a well-received speech as many guests in the room recognised his significant contribution to the contract furnishing industry. To read the full press release on Jack Pringle and the Lifetime Achivement Award, click here.
The Panaz BCFA Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Jack Pringle by Mr Tony Attard OBE DL, and CEO of Panaz
The lunch was concluded with a dance routine from ‘Frobacks’ who had appeared on BBC’s “The Greatest Dancer”. The four-piece male street dancing group wowed the audience with their energetic routine, bursting into action at snippets of different songs covering disco, soul, funk, pop and hip-hop. The Frobacks energy fed into the socializing, which continued into the early evening in the Nine Kings Suite and the bar areas.
Frobacks
The BCFA has a wonderful new home for its Annual Luncheon, thank you to everyone who made it such a fantastic day!
A special thank you to our sponsors: Agua Fabrics, Astro Lighting, Ena Shaw, GP J Baker, Hansgrohe, Satelliet, Vescom and Waterbury.
We hope to see you all again next year!
To view all the photographs from the event, click here, you can also purchase images from 99p each.