I was motivated to join the Bristol Junior Chamber having recently moved into the City of Bristol. I wanted to better connect with a network of young professionals within the region.
Hannover – I signed up quite last minute to go to some of the BJC Hannover Exchange Events, which included a Bristol Bear’s rugby match, a dinner, a guided ghost tour of Bristol, and lots of other events. This was a great way to see the City of Bristol from the lens of a visitor and to meet the Chamber’s Hanoverian guests.
BJC Dinner – I had a great time at the BJC Members’ Dinner last October, it was hosted in a beautiful venue, Goldney Hall, which I’d never had an opportunity to visit before previously. There was great food, plentiful wine, great company, and an exciting guest speaker, social entrepreneur Poku Osei who shared lessons from his youth empowerment organisation, Babbasa.
BJC Unicorn Challenge – the BJC Unicorn Challenge was great silly fun. We split off into multiple teams with the challenge of taking as many selfies of Unicorns that were placed around the city as possible whilst I was quite a new member. I was able to tour around the city centre, old city, and temple island with a great group, sharing stories about the city on the way, and we all compared notes afterwards at the Llandoger Trow. From this I got involved in BJC’s working group on updating the organisation’s Heritage Walk around Bristol.
The connections I’ve made at BJC, and the professional development opportunities around interesting sectors like the space industry, legal services, and film and creative industries have been impactful on my professional life – helping me understand our regional business environment and its drivers.
It’s great to know that after a long day at work, there’s usually some BJC event I can go to unwind with some great people. I’ve also found it useful to invite friends new to Bristol along to BJC as they find their bearings in our city.
I wish the answer was better than Wine Tastings … but I’ve really enjoyed the BJC wine tastings – the talks are a great way of storytelling, learning about wine, and getting together as a group to socialise! Bristol has a long history of trading wine, and the expertise coming from that wine trade and, more recently, growing English wine is really fascinating to find about from some real experts.
BJC gets some amazing exclusive opportunities to see a city from a new lens, whether from up high with the Balloon Fiesta, from the eyes of a visitor through BJC’s international affiliations, or from behind the scenes of Bristol’s major companies. BJC is a welcoming group of young professionals, get stuck in and enjoy yourself!
BJC is an affordable way to join a business network, a voluntary organisation, fitness group, book club, and film club all at once. It also unlocks the unique opportunity to connect with business and civic leaders in the Bristol Chamber of Commerce for its members as an affiliated organisation.
I was really proud to see BJC members get involved wider Bristol Chamber of Commerce and Initiative events, the Bristol Junior Chamber enriches BCCI through members’ fresh perspective and viewpoints. It’s always great to see BJC members get involved to help positively influence the way our area is shaped, managed and developed, and to connect with key leaders and influencers in our City region.
Bristol Junior Chamber is a great way to connect with fellow young professionals in Bristol, to meet and learn from new people, and to gain great experiences around the city and beyond.
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