Royal British Legion will be Charitable Partner at South Glos Expo

Organisers of the second annual South Glos Expo have announced their charitable partner for the event will be the Royal British Legion in honour of D Day which falls on the same day - June 6.

Members of the Yate, Sodbury and District Branch of the Royal British Legion will be at the Expo collecting for the Poppy Appeal and sharing with visitors and exhibitors the work the RBL carries out in communities nationwide.

Jackie Robertson, of the Gloucester County branch of the RBL said: “We are pleased to be attending South Glos Expo and we’re looking forward to showing what the Royal British Legion and the Poppy Appeal are doing to support our beneficiaries.”

The event, being held at the Bristol Business School at the University of the West of England between 10am and 3pm on Wednesday June 6, is organised by business woman Esther James and Louise Elliott (known as Lou).

Lou said: “We felt as the event took place on an important commemoration day we should honour that and ask the Royal British Legion to come along and meet local business owners. We feel privileged they’ve agreed to do this and be part of this second annual event.”

The RBL volunteers will be joining Michael Edwards, better known as Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards, who is the keynote speaker for the event. 

Eddie was the first competitor to represent the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team in Olympic ski jumping and comes from Cheltenham. It was in the 1980s the plasterer qualified as the sole British applicant for the 1988 Winter Olympics ski-jumping competition. He had previously represented Great Britain at the 1987 World Championships and was ranked 55th in the world. At the time of his Olympic entry, Eddie was the best ski jumper in Great Britain.

His story of grit and determination – even in the face of repeated failure – was told in the film Eddie The Eagle starring actor Taron Egerton.  Eddie became a huge favourite with the media thanks to his unending enthusiasm for life. 

Google Digital Garage and Enterprising West of England will also be running workshops throughout the day. For Google these are: Introduction to Digital Advertising; Know Your Business With Data and Stay Safe Online in 2018. From Enterprising West of England the workshops are: Unearthing The Hidden Gems Within Our Education System To Benefit Your Business; Accelerate Your Business Growth With A Scale-Up Coaching Grant and Access to Finance. Also Iain Mackintosh from Brightman will be sharing his six step programme on GDPR.  

For further information visit http://southglosexpo.co.uk - tickets to attend are free though there will be a charge for the business breakfast and the networking lunch.