Our flagship black tie dinner at the ancient City of London Guildhall. With a keynote address and presentation of coveted prizes for our Awards for Marketing Effectiveness, including our Marketer of the Year for 2016.
To view a contact sheet of the official photography of the event, please click here. To request images, please email Rachel Shackleton.
The Financial Services Forum Annual Members’ Dinner and Awards evening is a rare chance to experience one of London’s most exclusive and prestigious venues, the City of London Guildhall, along with 500 of your peers and contemporaries.
It provides a wonderful opportunity to meet Members, entertain colleagues or clients, or celebrate success in our Awards.
As with previous years, we anticipate being oversubscribed. Tables and places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served, basis. You do not need to be a Member of The Forum to attend or book a table.
As well as a keynote speaker, the evening will include presentation of The Financial Services Forum Awards for Marketing Effectiveness. We will also make the presentation for the financial services Marketer of the Year, Young Marketer of the Year, and Agency of the Year.
This is a black-tie Dinner. The event starts with a champagne reception at 6.30pm and closes at 12.30am with carriages by 12.45am.
The Venue
Construction of the present Guildhall began in 1411 and, having survived both the Great Fire of London and the Blitz, it is the only secular stone structure dating from before 1666 still standing in the City. The Great Hall is the third largest civic hall in England, where royalty and state visitors have been entertained through the centuries. It has been the setting for famous state trials, including that of Lady Jane Grey in 1553. The imposing medieval hall has stained glass windows and several monuments to national heroes including Admiral Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Sir Winston Churchill.
Keynote Speaker: Guy Opperman, MP
Guy Opperman is MP for Hexham, elected at the 2010 and 2015 general elections. Guy was called to the Bar in 1989. He spent 20 years as a barrister – 15 years of which were spent predominantly at the criminal bar. Guy prosecuted and defended in a number of murder and rape trials, as well as in numerous Crown Court trials. While a barrister, he did many years of Pro Bono work with the Western Circuit Free Representation Unit and the Bar Pro Bono Unit, providing free legal assistance in hundreds of cases on behalf of Victim Support and Citizens Advice Bureau. He was named "Lawyer of the Week" by The Times in 2007, and was awarded the Bar Pro Bono Award by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith QC, for his voluntary work on behalf of victims in Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeals. In 2009 the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland QC, presented him with a Pro Bono Hero award in the House of Commons for his work on preventing hospital closures. He is now a "door tenant" at 3PB and is no longer in active practice at the Bar having committed to being a full-time MP.
Guy has been leading a campaign for the establishment of local banking across the country – the missing tier of banking – and has held debates in Parliament on the matter to call for barrier to entry for new banks to be lessened.
For costs and to reserve your place, please email Richard Nolan.
