A roundup of our get-togethers and exploits over the past few months.
Sport
When our South Africa based colleagues visited London in May, we had our first intra-BKL UK v South Africa (or Beavers v Springbokkies) netball match. For their December visit, we arranged a rematch. South Africa won, so it’ll have to be the best of three. Or five…
In November, we raised money for men’s mental health charity CALM by taking part in the Business Fives London football tournament. Sometimes the ultimate goal is to be well, so it’s a privilege to support CALM and their superb work.
Property and financial services: expertise and events
We’ve enjoyed opportunities to meet new people and share expertise in BKL’s key sectors of property & construction and financial services & fintech.
As new members of Innovate Finance, we were pleased to be at their Fintech as a Force for Good event in October.
Jon Wedge brought his experience as our Head of Fintech, a BKL Board member and a B Corp business leader. He took part in the panel discussion Staying True to Your Roots: Scaling with Purpose. He and the other panellists discussed how to balance the demand for growth and profitability with our commitment to clients.
In November we published our report on purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), discussing key success factors for property developers and investors. We also hosted a webinar to explore the topic further. We followed this up in December with a broader webinar on property sector challenges, welcoming experts from Studio PDP, ForeView and JMW Solicitors. We also touched on property in our webinar on tax planning ahead of the next general election.
- PBSA: read our report and watch our webinar
- Property sector challenges: watch our webinar
- Pre-election tax planning: watch our webinar
Out and about
It was Madonna who, 40 years ago(!), said that if we “took some time to celebrate … it would be so nice.” Awards nights enable that, which is why we were so pleased to be a Scale-Up Awards 2023 sponsor in November.
The hard-working people behind a range of inspiring businesses got an opportunity to take pride in their own and each other’s achievements. We had a great time being with them. Jason Samuels, one of our business services partners, presented the Technology Scale-up of the Year award to Plentific. Well done to them and to all the winners and finalists.
Also in November, we supported the charity Kisharon Langdon at their Monopoly Evening and Behind Every Kick at their fundraising dinner.
Our Tokyo meeting room gave us a hunger for the real thing, so we were at the AGN World Congress 2023 in Tokyo during November too. Daniel Shear, our Head of Corporate Finance, gave a presentation on sustainability and BKL’s journey as a Certified B Corporation.
Closer to home, we were at the Asian-Jewish Business Network (AJBN) flagship event in London in October. This was our first flagship event since joining AJBN, and it took place amid far more challenging circumstances than any of us were expecting. This made it all the more valuable for our communities to come together, celebrate our diversity and explore what we can achieve in collaboration. Thank you to the AJBN team for making this possible.
December brought us a fun evening at the Pro Recruitment quiz, where we were victorious. And we can’t forget the Accounting Excellence Awards 2023 in October where we won Tax Team of the Year!
More good news: Top 50!
In this year’s Accountancy Age Top 50+50, BKL climbed from 62 to 48. With thanks to our excellent team and clients, we’re proud to call ourselves a Top 50 firm.
In it together
Our cultural lunch is an annual highlight. In November we welcomed plenty of new diners and contributors. From shakshuka to samosas; paneer to pasta; chicken biryani to chai & carrot cupcakes.
Together we took a wonderful world tour that encompassed Sri Lanka, South Africa, Mexico, Merseyside, Ecuador, Lithuania, Greece, the Caribbean and more. And we raised money for Save the Children UK at the same time.
In the same week, we also enjoyed lunch at a local restaurant to celebrate Diwali. In December we held a menorah lighting in the office to celebrate another festival of light, Chanukah, and to explain its significance.
To ensure that a variety of old and new colleagues get a chance to meet and catch up, we now have pizza lunches and pub evenings throughout the year. We’ve also revived our board game evenings.
Last but not least, December brought our winter party. Our venue was BAFTA 195 Piccadilly. You can find a selection of photos on our social media pages. We only wish we could bring you all the shots of our dancing, but as a responsible business we can’t go around breaking the internet.
Thanks for following our adventures in 2023. Here’s to more in 2024!
