Steven Boast from Howes Percival stepped in the talk at the February lunch. His subject was The Bribery Act 2010 – the end of corporate entertainment? All very intriguing but Steven was able to talk through the new legislation and reassure everyone that the usual ‘business entertaining’ practices of almost every business would not be under scrutiny – a great conclusion as we approach our Annual Dinner in May when everyone brings their favourite clients and prospects! Of course, we await the first cases to be brought under the new laws, which should identify just what is ‘usual’ and what is not!

Held just after Valentine’s day, we found Richard Hughes and his business partner Iain Wilson on good form. The meal was fabulous as was the cooking demonstration. Iain gave us a short talk on his business model and guests were enlisted to help in the kitchen causing a great deal of laughter. All in all a great night!

Mediation and mediators, not to be confused with meditation or mediums, are the latest weapon in the business armoury to resolve disputes to avoid the high legal costs of going straight to litigation. David Hooper of brown & Co has trained up to offer this kind of dispute resolution and talked about the kinds of situation where it works best. If you had thoughts of rooms across corridors and shuttling diplomats, you would not be far wrong as David talked about some of the cases he had been involved in.

Another fun lunch at The Last, make the last Friday of the Month a regular in your diary.

Our annual winter warmer event proved as much fun as usual this year. Martin Leibrick from the English Whisky Company brought a few drams for us to sample and Emily Barclay of the Perfect Wine company kicked us off with a tasting of some of her favourites and one local variety from just over the border in Suffolk.

The meal was traditionally hearty and we were delighted that James Frankland from Howes Percival was on hand in suitable attire to address the Haggis! Our whisky tasting was followed by a poetry interlude of the Bards finest alongside some of Norfolk’s finest and not so fine poetic offerings! All rather good fun on a cold and wintry night.

NO bagpipes this year, perhaps next!