Tag Archives: Cheltenham

News

Glitz and Giving: Cheltenham’s Elegant Ball Dazzles Raising £11,000 for Charity

The Grand Coronation Ball Committee has raised £11,000 after hosting a highly prestigious ball at the Queens Hotel on 3rd February, attended by over 120 of Cheltenham and Gloucestershire’s most esteemed business leaders and their partners.

Proceeds from the Grand Coronation Ball will be split between Linc Charity, a Cheltenham charity dedicated to supporting blood cancer patients and their families across Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and South Worcestershire, and FISHAC (Friends of Imperial Square, Heritage and Conservation).

The funds will help Linc Charity continue its critical work in providing emotional and financial support for people receiving intensive chemotherapy. FISHAC will use the donation to help with plans to reinstate new railings and entrances around Imperial Square Gardens, Cheltenham, after they were removed 83 years ago to create armaments as part of the war effort at that time.

Louise Neal, CEO of Linc Charity, said: “We would like to thank the Grand Coronation Ball Committee, including the Trustees of FISHAC, Linc Charity, Frank Smith & Co Solicitors, HeadOn PR and The Queens Hotel, who all worked tirelessly for free to make the ball such a success. Linc Charity commemorates 25 Years this year of support for local blood cancer patients and their families so what better way to celebrate than to be involved in such a wonderful, generous and glamorous event.”

“We’ve been overwhelmed by the support from local businesses and individuals in helping the ball’s remarkable triumph,” added Bob Keevil, Chairman at Friends of Imperial Square Heritage and Conservation (FISHAC). “So many volunteered their time and assistance. Nicholas Granger of British Bespoke Auctions did a grand job of hosting the auction and getting the guests bidding so generously, and The Queen’s Hotel kindly donated the use of its splendid Regency Suite, making the Ball such an elegant affair.”

For further information on Linc Charity or to donate visit https://www.lincfund.org/get-involved/donate-to-linc/make-a-donation/

Awards, News, Regional News, South West

10th annual Women’s Business Conference and awards to be held in Cheltenham in October

Women’s Business Club will host its 10th annual conference and awards in Cheltenham on the 5th of October. The aim of the event is to inspire, empower and celebrate women in business whether they are starting out on their journey, are already established SME businesswomen or are employed women building a career. 

The event, which is being sponsored by multi-asset social investment network eToro, will see businesswomen from all over England come together to connect, network, share expertise, listen to inspirational talks and attend 1-to-1 workshops. 

This year’s keynote speaker will be Rupal Patel, author of From CIA to CEO.  Rupal’s high-octane career has taken her from dusty briefing rooms in jungles and war zones to corporate boardrooms and international stages. After a thrilling career at the CIA, she started two award-winning businesses and is now shaping the future of work by helping growth-oriented leaders and innovative organizations build careers and businesses that thrive with purpose.

Angela De Souza, CEO of Women’s Business Club, said: “We are so excited to be adding even more value to women in business this year through a number of key changes – both for delegates and for our speakers/experts. There is so much for women in business to get involved in at the event.”

The following changes have been made to this year’s event:

  1. A fully female lineup of speakers.
  2. Exhibiting with a difference: no more rooms full of stands with people selling at you. Instead, the event features Expert Pods where delegates can meet experts for a 15-minute one-to-one fully focused Q&A and advice session. Designed to build relationships and offer direct advice relevant to the attendee’s business. 
  3. Workshops that are designed to be lessons, not lectures. These one-hour interactive sessions with hand-picked industry experts provide in-depth expert content and practical applications. 

Taking place at the end of the conference, the SME Awards acknowledge and celebrate exceptional companies and their leaders. There will be nine prestigious awards presented on the night for women who are changing the game and leading the way in business. Nominees will be judged by the award sponsors and leading business experts. 

The in-person conference and awards will be held at the Pitville Pump Room in Cheltenham and will cost £125+VAT, while the event will also be available virtually at a cost of £25+VAT with online attendees from five countries and a digital reach of approximately 115,000 businesses. 

“The venue has the capacity for 500 attendees and with previous events selling out, it is advisable to book in advance,” Angela said.

To find out more about the conference & awards, visit: https://womensbusiness.club/conference

Cybersecurity, Job Opportunities, Jobs, News, North of England

Cyber security company, Pentest People, seeks new talent following consecutive year of rapid growth

Additional clients and expansion of services sees 35% increase in headcount and search for new talent

Cybersecurity consultancy, Pentest People, is planning further expansion following its second consecutive year of rapid business growth, which saw revenues increasing by 65% and headcount increased by 35% over the past twelve months.

Organisations commission Pentest People’s cybersecurity experts to test their websites, applications and IT systems for any weaknesses that could allow cybercriminals to steal information, damage IT systems, or hold data to ransom. The company employs a number of CHECK team leaders, who have penetration testing qualifications and experience approved by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

The company, led by technical director, Gavin Watson, and sales director, Anthony Harvey, attributes its rapid growth to its continuous development of new threat assessment, consultancy, and remediation services, in response to increasing cybersecurity risks that affect organisations of all sizes.

“Over the past twelve months Pentest People has continued to grow its client base and expand its range of services, including the addition of cyber incident response, remote-working security assessments, dark web monitoring and zero-day exploit scanning, allowing us to detect, prevent, and remediate the most common cyber risks,” reports Gavin Watson.

Co-founder, Andrew Mason commented, “To support this expansion, we have increased our headcount by 35%, moved into a larger office at the Coach Works in Leeds, opened a second office close to GCHQ at Hub8 Cheltenham and launched an apprentice and graduate recruitment and training programme. We’ve hired thirteen women to join our team in the past year and we’re actively recruiting more female consultants.”

Pentest People now offers a broader range of on-site and online services to clients including:

  • Penetration Testing as a Service provided via the company’s Secure Portal
  • Ransomware defence assessment
  • Remote-working security assessment
  • Zero-day exploit response to alert clients to fresh vulnerabilities
  • Dark web monitoring to proactively search for evidence of stolen data
  • Social engineering assessment to identify where staff education is required
  • Phishing email assessment
  • Firewall ruleset reviews
  • VPN configuration assessment
  • Load testing to identify where third-party service and servers are impacting website user experience
  • Red Team assessment to proactively test organisations’ abilities to withstand targeted cyber attacks

Commenting on the company’s new service development, Gavin Watson, technical director, Pentest People added, “Our initial mission was to provide remote and on-site assessments to uncover vulnerabilities in systems, processes and employee practices that expose companies to cyber attacks. As Pentest People’s team has expanded, we’ve added rapid response services to help clients to fix critical issues resulting from newly discovered vulnerabilities and zero-day exploits. Within hours of any new exploits becoming public knowledge, our cyber security experts scan clients’ systems and provide remediation advice if they are found to be vulnerable.”

The company’s successes have not gone unnoticed and it was recently listed among the Leeds Tech Climbers of inspiring technology companies that are innovating to meet demand and are set for growth and it has been shortlisted for the Prolific North Tech Company of the Year award. Pentest People has also been invited to attend the UK Government’s CYBERUK 2022 event taking place at the International Conference Centre, in Newport, Wales, on 10th – 11th May.

About Pentest People:

Pentest People is a cybersecurity consultancy that provides Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) to organisations in the public and private sectors. This innovative approach to security testing combines the benefits of a consultant-led penetration test, bolstered by continuous vulnerability testing delivered via its SecurePortal®, which provides a living threat monitoring system throughout the contract, rather than a vulnerability assessment taken at a single point in time.

Established by the cybersecurity experts who founded RandomStorm, which was acquired by Accumuli Security in 2014, itself acquired by NCC in 2015, Pentest People operates a growing team of talented consultants, to help leading organisations to manage cyber threats and minimise disruption.

Pentest People is a CREST- accredited company and a CHECK Service Provider for its Penetration Testing services and has attained NCSC Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus, as well as earning a place on the G-Cloud 12 framework. Pentest People is also certificated to ISO:9001 and ISO:27001.

For more information, please visit https://www.pentestpeople.com