North East Byte Night

£15,000 RAISED FROM NORTH EAST BYTE NIGHT

2009-10-16T12:03:00.002+01:00

We are pleased to announce that so far we have raised £15,000 from North East Byte Night which is a fantastic achievement so a huge thank you to all of our sleepers and those who sponsored them.

We do not currently have a final figure but we will update the blog once this is received.

Thanks again and we hope you will join us in 2010 and build on this year’s success.

WE DID IT...

2009-10-06T10:35:00.001+01:00

The Byte Night board would like to say a huge thank you to those who made the first official North East Byte Night a success.

The wind and rain did not deter the 40 members of the business community who had agreed to give up their beds in aid of Action for Children and we hope everyone involved enjoyed the night.

We raised in excess of £10,000, which was down to the fantastic support we received from the business community - the final figure will be announced soon.

We are already busy planning Byte Night 2010 and hope you will spread the word and help us build on this year’s success – as well as joining us again next year!

Paul Keating of Redboat Photography kindly donated his time to Byte Night - please click here to view all of the photographs he took on the night.

Again, we would like to say a huge thank you to all of those involved in the event and we really hope you will support us next year.

If you would like to get involved in Byte Night 2010, please email bytenight@actionforchildren.org.uk and we will send you details of the event as soon as a date is confirmed.

Twas on a regular Friday night...

2009-10-02T12:35:00.003+01:00

A great poem about Byte Night by Jayne Temple

Twas on a regular Friday night
The Team at Bond took on a delight
Sleeping Rough was their game
Action for Children was their aim

Thermals, Gloves, Wrap up Warm
Weather Warnings it's gonna storm
Might be an idea to grab a Curry
To make the night go in a Hurry

If it doesn't, all's not lost
Your collective brave efforts are the cost
For your doing this for a wonderful cause
But don't go for a dip or break any laws!!

We Really do wish you well
Hope the night has some stories to tell
Watch out Newcastle here you go
Bond Solutions in the charity flow

xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx

Dedicated to My Brother Nick & His Colleagues

Jill Halfpenny Sends Her Words of Support

2009-09-23T16:46:00.008+01:00

Jill Halfpenny has sent her words of support to those giving up their beds on October 2 as part of Byte Night.

Jill said: "Byte Night is a fantastic idea for a truly great cause. Please support it in any way you can and if you know of anyone who will be giving up their bed for a night then please sponsor them and show your support. Thank you so much."

To sponsor us and help raise money for Action for Children please click here.

If you would like to get involved in Byte Night please register at www.bytenight.org.uk/.

Not Long To Go

2009-09-23T10:31:00.011+01:00

As October 2 quickly approaches, we are pleased to announce that former ITV anchorwoman Kim Inglis will be hosting North East Byte Night 2009. Kim has been in the media spotlight for the past 15 years and we would like to thank her for supporting the first official Byte Night to be held in the region.

For those who are unable to sleep out, tickets are now on sale for the evening event - with 100% of the ticket price going directly to Action for Children. Tickets cost just £10 and include an evening meal, two drinks and admission to the evening’s entertainment - which will feature performances by two up-and-coming singers and a quiz.

We are pleased to announce that Codeworks Connect is sponsoring North East Byte Night and several members of the team will be volunteering on the night, bringing with them games consoles which will be available for use throughout the evening.

Heather Baxter of GENI is making special Byte Night cupcakes which will be on sale and, speaking from personal experience, are definitely not to be missed. Thank you also to Laura Maddison of Altitude Recruitment who has also donated a box of cupcakes to our raffle.

Byte Night will be a fantastic event in which the business community can come together and raise money for a fantastic cause.

To book your tickets for Byte Night, please email bytenight@bond-solutions.com.

To sign up for Byte Night please visit http://www.bytenight.org.uk/.

We look forward to seeing you there and raising money to help young people in the North East.

Well Done Jules!

2009-09-14T14:13:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Julie for completing her skydive on Saturday in aid of Action for Children.

As promised the pictures have arrived!

The weather was fantastic and the team celebrated her safe descent with a BBQ – the pilot even flew the plane over the garden as promised.

Thank you to all of those who sponsored Julie making us 37% closer to reaching our target. This is fantastic and very much appreciated.

We are now looking ahead to Byte Night on October 2, where all of the team will be sleeping rough for one night to experience what it is like to be homeless.

We are hoping this will allow us to reach our £3,000 fundraising target and make a big difference to young people across the region.

Action for Children has helped over 19,000 children in the North East over the past year and it relies on support from the business community to continue its work.

If you would like to get involved in Byte Night please click here and please also visit our JustGiving page www.justgiving.com/bond-solutions if you are able to sponsor us and help change the lives of children across the country.

Click here for more pictures of Julie’s jump.

EXECUTIVES BRAVE BALTIC CONDITIONS

2009-09-02T14:54:00.004+01:00

EXECUTIVES from four local businesses have joined forces in a bid to host the region’s largest charity sleep out.

Derek Curtis and Jerri Murtagh of Bond Solutions, Codeworks Connect board member Andy Walton, Nigel Begg of Aspire Technology Solutions and Andrew Fisk of Tagish have formed a board to lead Byte Night – an event where the business community sleep outside for one night to experience what it is like to be homeless.

Taking place at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art on October 2, all money raised will be donated to the charity Action for Children, which works with young people who are affected by poverty, disability, abuse and neglect.

In the past year Action for Children has helped over 19,000 young people in the North East and the charity heavily relies on funding from local businesses to continue its work.

Managing director Derek Curtis of Bond Solutions said: “Byte Night is a fantastic opportunity for businesses to make a difference to young people in the region and when Action for Children approached me about hosting the event I knew we had to get involved.

“We are delighted that the BALTIC has agreed to host Byte Night and hope that the business community will sign up and support this great cause.

“It’s amazing how much of a difference giving up just one night of your life can make to young people in the region and it would be fantastic if we could get over 80 sleepers.”

Byte Night was established by Ken Deeks and has been running in London for the past 11 years.

Other cities taking part on the night are Edinburgh, Manchester, London and Thames Valley and as this is the first official Byte Night to take place in the region, the board is determined to ensure it makes its mark.

Andy Walton said: “We have a lot of established, new and cutting edge businesses that are all making a difference in their own unique ways and I really believe that this close knit community can help make a significant difference to disadvantaged and young people.

“All monies raised will help tackle the root cause of youth homelessness and help young people get off the streets of the North East. Knowing that without the hard work and commitment from Action for Children many more of our young people would be lost to society, gives me a reason to get involved and I hope others will too.”

Managing director Nigel Begg from Aspire Technology Solutions said: “I am passionate about everything I do and when I was asked to join the board I knew it was an opportunity that I could not miss.

“Byte Night will be a fantastic networking opportunity and give businesses the chance to come together and support a fantastic cause. The current economic climate means Action for Children need our help more than ever and this one night event can make such a huge difference to the charity.”

Andrew Fisk, managing director of Tagish said: “I was involved in an event similar to Byte Night last year and I found it to be a fantastic experience, hence the reason I joined the board this year.

“Byte Night provides businesses with the opportunity to focus their minds away from the day to day issues of achieving success and spend a small amount of time thinking and, more importantly, helping those who are not as fortunate.”

To register for Byte Night please visit http://www.bytenight.org.uk/.

Pedalling Towards Our Target

2009-08-19T14:36:00.003+01:00

Congratulations to Peter, Dominic, Jonathan and Darren for completing the Coast to Coast cycle. The guys had a great time and managed to raise £435 for Action for Children.

We are now looking ahead to our financial controller Julie’s 10,000ft skydive on September 12 at Peterlee Airfield.

We are continuing to work towards our £3,000 fundraising target and hope to exceed this amount and we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us so far.

The Bond team is working hard to recruit members to Byte Night and raise as much money for Action for Children as possible. So far numbers for Byte Night are up 100 per cent on last year which is fantastic. We are continuing to urge businesses across the region to sign up and help change the lives of young people across North East in just one night.

If you would like further information on Byte Night please visit www.bytenight.org.uk or email us at bytenight@bond-solutions.com. If you would be able to help us reach our £3,000 fundraising target, please also visit our Justgiving page www.justgiving.co.uk/bond-solutions/.

Latest recruit adds bite to Byte Night

2009-08-03T13:02:00.004+01:00

The latest recruit to Byte Night 2009 is Bond's office mascot, Cubby the Dalmatian. Cubby will be the first dog to take part in Byte Night and is keen to raise as much money as possible for this worthy cause. Visit his blog to find out more, or why not follow him on Twitter.

Get Involved in Byte Night 2009

2009-07-17T15:18:00.010+01:00

Did you know...

“One in four adults have been worried that a child they know or living in their area is being neglected, and over a third did not tell anyone about their concerns.”

At Bond we want to make a difference and give something back to the community. We were recently approached by Action for Children to see if we would host Byte Night 2009 in the North East, after we held a similar event last year.

Byte Night is an annual event where the business community across the UK sleep outside for one night to experience what it is like to be homeless. This year the event will take place on October 2nd - the venue will be announced soon.

Developed by Action for Children, Byte Night aims to raise money to help support children and young people who are affected by poverty, disability, abuse or neglect.

A board has now been elected which consists of several members of the Bond team, Nigel Begg from Aspire Technology Solutions, Andy Walton from Knowledge IT and Andrew Fisk from Tagish - all have been working hard to canvas volunteers and sponsors.

As this is the first official Byte Night event to be held in the region we want to make it a success. As well as offering a great networking opportunity, we want volunteers to enjoy the experience, so if there is anything you would like to see at Byte Night, please contact us.

We still have a lot to organise and it is vital that we get support from the local business community. With this in mind we would love to hear from anyone who is interested in volunteering and making a difference to children in the UK.

We are also looking for a series of sponsors to provide food and entertainment on the night, so if you, or anyone you know could help, please contact us. It is for a great cause after all!

Our first sponsor is Paul Keating of Red Boat Photography who will be the official photographer on the night.

Last year we had 11 volunteers who participated in the event. This year we are aiming to quadruple this figure and sign up a minimum of 40 volunteers – we will keep you posted on our progress.

We really want to make a big difference and we cannot do this without your help, so please get involved and help us change the course of young lives.

If you require any information or have any questions, please email bytenight@bond-solutions.com.

Please also keep checking this blog as all news will be posted here first. You can also visit Byte Night’s website at http://www.bytenight.org.uk/.

North East Byte Night 2009

2009-07-07T11:49:00.003+01:00

We are back, even bigger and better than last year. Byte Night 2009 will be on 2nd October. Watch this space for further information or please follow us on Twitter for regular updates.

More pictures of the event

2008-11-04T16:46:00.004Z

Andy Jones and Harry Broome survey their accomodation for the night.

Andy Jones, Pete Clark and Claire Glynn attempt to rain proof Pete's bed for the night whilst everyone else stands by.

We did it 3!

2008-11-02T21:40:00.010Z

Some of the chill was taken out of the cold October night with our own wood burning stove provided by Mike Blakeley of Chimfix, the Wood Heating Company. Mike also provided us with logs which kept us going through the night.

Is Andrew Fisk of Tagish looking for somewhere to plug in his electric blanket?

We did it 2!

2008-11-01T21:07:00.007Z

The Fishermans Lodge provided us with a hearty meal to keep us going in our efforts. Jocelyn Maxfield owner of the Fishermans Lodge who also slept rough with us is pictured (right) with Claire Glynn and Pete Clark. Can you see the spooky spectre on the left of this photo, did we have an additional uninvited guest at our sleep out in aid of Byte Night on Halloween?

I certainly seem to have been spooked by something!

We did it!

2008-11-01T19:57:00.009Z

Well we did it, we spent last night under the stars, literally. There were only a few stars in the sky but there were 13 stars in the grounds of The Fishermans Lodge in Jesmond Dene. Shortly after midnight on the spookiest night of the year we retired to our "luxury" accomodation outside of The Fishermans Lodge. After a very cold week the temperature was not too bad to start with and we all thought this was going to be easier than we first thought.

For the first couple of hours we talked and enjoyed a couple of warming brews around our camp fire. Pete Clark of Bond and Claire Glynn of Atomic Web Solutions get into the spirit with the spirits on Halloween (left). Claire Jerrard of Sage enjoys a cuppa (perhaps with a drop of brandy Claire?)
It was all in aid of Action for Children and 2 brave souls from the charity braved the elements with us. Currently our efforts have raised over £3000 and we are well on our way to £4000. We would all like to thank everyone who has supported us so far, however if you would still like to sponsor us please click the following link and go to the page of the person or team you would like to support. http://www.justgiving.com/event/190924

More pictures to follow shortly, please visit again soon to share our experience.

Only 2 days to go!

2008-10-29T16:25:00.002Z

There are only 2 days to go now until Byte Night. Isn't it great that the British weather has decided to turn really cold as well this week! With temperatures dropping below zero over night I thought it was worth putting together a little checklist of what we need to bring on friday night.

Very warm clothes! One guy from here suggested to me that he was going to bring his skiing clothes and I think thats a great idea as they will keep you warm.
Something to keep you off the ground. As the temperatures drop the ground will be very cold so anything to keep you off it would make sense, a deck chair, foldable camp bed anything like that will do.
A flask with a hot drink or any other drinks that keep you warm! However please bear in mind there are no toilet facilities after midnight.
A hat
Some of those hand warmers that last for a couple of hours may come in useful.
Steven Willis is kindly bringing some torches.
Action for Children are supplying some water proof bags for your sleeping bag and some Virgin survival bags. They also have some umbrellas just in case.
Andrew Fisk is going to bring a camping stove to brew up just in case.
Chimfix are also supplying us with a wood burning stove for the night which will help to keep us warm. However Action for Children rightly pointed out that we need to ensure that no sleeping bags are too close to the fire etc.
You may also want to bring your own personal entertainment, ipod etc.
Stories - bring some ghost stories along to keep us all entertained!
If all else fails - a sense of humour!

A warm meal will be provided before midnight and the bar is open to buy drinks.
If your partner/children etc are coming along to support you before midnight that is fine but please let me know so that I can advise Jocelyn of numbers for catering.

I think it is also worth remembering why we are doing this and that is to raise money for Action for Children. Now is the time to put that final effort in to raise some sponsorship. This is something thats really different from the sponsored walk or run and should attract plenty of support from your friends, family, customers, suppliers, people in the pub, neighbours etc. If you have not already done so please send out an email to everyone you know and make that final push to raise some money.

We also hope to get some PR on this in the papers next week too, I am going to bring a camera and a video camera so we can get some photos on the blog and I am sure our PR company will be able to get us in the papers too. As we are the first to do this in the North East I will make sure that everyone is aware of who we are and how brave you all are!

Finally I know the temperature is dropping and you may be worried as we approach friday but remember its a maximum of 8 hours in your life that you will be perhaps a little uncomfortable for and it is one of those experiences that you will look back on with pride that you were the first to do it in the North East. Well done everyone for taking part and good luck and stay warm!

Tagish "tag on" one more

2008-10-29T16:22:00.005Z

Andrew Fisk from Tagish will be joined by colleague Chris Johnson on friday at Byte Night. If you would like to sponsor Andrew or Chris please click this link http://www.justgiving.com/andrew_tagish

Jocelyn Maxfield says "yes" to Byte Night

2008-10-21T14:54:00.002+01:00

Our latest recruit is Jocelyn Maxfield. Jocelyn has decided to not only host the event at the Fishermans Lodge but she is also going to sleep rough with the rest of us. She said "I must be bonkers, but it is a fantastic cause so I had to join in"

Harry Broome hopes to "sweep" up some sponsorship

2008-10-17T19:40:00.003+01:00

Harry Broome of RWE is the latest recruit to Byte Night.

Claire Glynn gets some practice in!

2008-10-17T15:16:00.004+01:00

Had a bit of practice staying up all night earlier this week!

Was flying back from Turkey on a ‘night flight’ so no sleep and quite uncomfortable - although warm, to warm if anything.

Anyway landed into Newcastle airport at 6am, taxi waiting and back home and into bed by 7am. Straight to sleep feeling really comfy and cosy in my own bed only to wake up an hour later as the drilling started …….. and continued all day!!!

Our neighbours had decided to get their drive done! Oh no!!! If only I had told them we were going away and when we’d be back!

Anyway all good practice for sleeping rough in aid of Byte Night on Halloween I thought!

http://www.atomicwebsolutions.com/

Claire

To sponsor Claire click here.

Shared Interest show more interest

2008-10-17T13:30:00.003+01:00

Andy Jones from Shared Interest is joining Steven Willis in the sleep out planned for this halloween. Welcome on board Andy.

To sponsor Andy or Steve click here to go to their Just Giving page.

Chimfix help to keep us warm

2008-10-13T11:15:00.004+01:00

Mike Blakeley of Cramlington based Chimfix kindly offered us the use of a wood burning stove to help keep us warm on our sleep out for North East Byte Night. Chimfix the Wood Heating Company, have been a customer of ours for over a year and the offer has gone down very well with the sleepers, thanks very much Mike!

Sage join in the fun!

2008-10-10T15:40:00.003+01:00

North East software giant Sage have agreed to join our intrepid team of sleepers on Halloween. Claire Jerrard a member of the senior management team at Sage is going to brave the elements this halloween in aid of Byte Night.

To sponsor Claire click here to visit her Just Giving page.

Steven Willis of Shared Interest joins in

2008-10-10T12:14:00.001+01:00

Steven Willis has agreed to join us for Byte Night at the Fishermans Lodge in Jesmond Dene this halloween. Steven is from Shared Interest.

Aaron Matheson from Increase Computers increases our number

2008-10-09T19:12:00.000+01:00

Aaron Matheson from Increase Computers in Gateshead has agreed to join us in our efforts to raise cash for Action for Children on the North East Byte Night sleep out on halloween.

To sponsor Aaron click here

Andrew Fisk from Tagish makes it four!

2008-09-30T09:04:00.002+01:00

Andrew Fisk from Alnwick based Tagish brings our number to four.

Claire Glynn joins us

2008-09-29T09:02:00.002+01:00

Claire Glynn is joining us on Halloween to sleep out in aid of Action for Children. Claire from South Tyneside based Atomic Web Solutions became the first company to join Bond in their sleep out plans in aid of Byte Night which will take place at the Fishermans Lodge in Jesmond Dene on 31st October 2008.

How do I get Involved?

2008-09-24T12:31:00.001+01:00

If you would like to join us on 31st October at The Fishermans Lodge in Jesmond Dene please click here for your Sleeper Pack. we will send you all the information you need about the event and how to get started raising some money for this great cause. We look forward to seeing you at the North East Byte Night.

Sponsorship

2008-09-24T11:28:00.001+01:00

If you would like to sponsor us please click here and then click on the link to the page of the person you would like to support.

Our First Sleeper

2008-09-23T10:46:00.001+01:00

Derek Curtis and Pete Clark from Bond Solutions in Sunderland are kicking things off. We hope to be joined by around 20 other brave souls on Halloween.

What is North East Byte Night?

2008-09-23T08:32:00.002+01:00

Welcome to our Blog. On 31st October 2008 around 20 IT professionals from North East companies are going to sleep rough in aid of Action for Children. This event has taken place in London for the past 10 years and has raised millions for the charity in that time. For the first time it has been opened up to regional events and our event will take place in the grounds of The Fishermans Lodge in Jesmond Dene, Newcastle. Thanks go to Tom and Jocelyn Maxfield for allowing us to use the Lodge and also for providing us with a hearty "last supper" on the night to warm us up.

North East Byte Night is the brain child of Kari Owers of O Communications and Derek Curtis of Bond Solutions

Please visit the blog regularly to see who else has signed up for the event.