The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were visiting The Summerfield Community Centre in the Winson Green area of the city, providing support to the families and our local community where three men were sadly killed during last week’s riots.

The ‘Machan Express’ café and convenience store owner (pictured in red) appeared thrilled that one of the world’s most famous couples had popped in for tea and cake.

His business had also been targeted during the tension and today would have been a welcome break in what has been a tough week for him and businesses in the heart of the city.

Whilst the crowds patiently waited their big shot, the LHM team were lucky enough to muscle in and get a few great snaps from the front.

Photos by Steve Lawrence (LHM) @stevelhm
Video by Ian Hughes (LHM) @ianhlhm

In addition to being a registered trade supplier to the BCA, LHM are proud to be handling the social media for the trade association too. Leading up to the event, we had been working hard to make sure the event was a success using social channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and web marketing. To our delight a Korean delegate learnt about the event through the BCA Facebook page and turned up for the event. That’s what social media is about!

We gave a talk on the Monday about the importance of content marketing; this was well received by the delegates. The message was that you don’t need to be a social media guru to benefit from web marketing, but you do need great content.

Great content can come from anywhere within an organisation, but it normally comes from its people and expertise. We talked in detail about the importance of organisations knowing why they do what they do, not what they do. To us, this is what branding is all about. Belief and trust in an organisations service, product and people. People buy what you believe, not what you do.

We were treated to some great speakers at the event, including Justin Urquhart Stewart director and co-founder of Seven Investment Management. Justin is one of the trusted finance commentators in Britain and has monitored the retail market industry for 20 years whilst at Barclays Stockbrokers, developing a unique understanding of the market’s roles and benefits for the private investor.

Another thought provoking speaker was Caspar Berry who began his career as the lead in the first series of Byker Grove. He then went on to read Economics and Anthropology at Cambridge and – after setting his sights on being a professional film writer – had his first screenplay produced by Film Four while still in his third year of university. By the time he was 23 he was writing for Miramax and Columbia Tri Star then at 25 moved to Las Vegas; and became a professional poker player.

The delegates at the event were all talking about the effects that digital had on their industry, and the benefits of ‘cloud’ computing to the serviced office industry. One of the main ones is flexibility. Cloud computing means staff will access files and data that they need even when working remotely or if working outside office hours.

We were delighted to be part of this conference amongst people who are shaping this thriving £1.2bn industry and committed to the UK staying the no.1 location in the world for office space. For more information on joining the BCA check out the site: www.bca.uk.com