Celebrating Business

Today’s meeting was sponsored by The Masquerade Ball, a joint venture between two local charities: The Children’s Bereavement Centre and Emmaus Trust Newark, which helps homeless young people. In the first presentation, Rachel Wilson of the Children’s Bereavement Centre and Nicola Burley of Emmaus Trust showed a video flashback to last year’s event and gave a taster of what to expect at this year’s ball, which includes a welcome drink, a three-course meal, and an auction and raffle in aid of the two charities. The Jaxx, a high-energy party band famous for getting everyone onto the dance floor, will be performing

Sponsorship packages are available, giving local businesses the opportunity to reward their staff and enjoy a memorable evening at the ball with their team. Further benefits of sponsoring the ball include increasing brand awareness via extensive pre-event marketing on social media, radio and other media. Silver and bronze sponsorship packages are on offer. Businesses can also get involved by donating raffle or auction prizes.

Vision takes labels to new levels

The patron guest speaker, Mark Duignan, the Technical Services Director of Barcode Warehouse, spoke about the power of having a clear vision and using innovation to stay ahead of the competition and grow your business. He illustrated this with reference to Barcode Warehouse’s journey from making labels in a garage in 1987 to being an industry-leading provider of barcode, RFID and labelling solutions in 2024.

After being set up in 1987 under the name of Trent Valley Labels, the company branched out into selling printers in 1992 and changed its name to TVL Systems. Another milestone followed in 1999, when it was rebranded as Barcode Warehouse. At that time, its vision was to become the leading barcode technical solutions provider in the UK.

In 2003, the company was the first in its industry to launch an e-commerce website. In 2021, Barcode Warehouse created an innovative solution for the NHS, which allows hospitals to locate all their assets quickly and easily, thus saving time and leading to better patient outcomes.

Today, the company has three buildings in Newark, including an Innovation & Customer Experience Centre (pictured), and almost 300 employees. It still makes labels, producing over one billion of them per year, but offers its clients so much more, having fulfilled its vision of becoming the leading specialist provider of barcode technology, RFID, labelling and enterprise mobility solutions through continuing growth and innovation.

Radio Newark is the only dedicated local radio station for Newark-on-Trent and surrounding area. It operates on a not-for-profit basis, is based at Barnby Road Academy Primary School and broadcasts on 107.8 FM, via its own free dedicated iOS & Android apps, Alexa smart speaker skill and website.

Last month, on the internet alone, over 7000 local people chose to listen to Radio Newark for a total of 34,000 hours. Traditionally, even more listeners choose to listen to us on the radio, too.

As the station relies on advertising, donations, and a sturdy team of volunteer broadcasters and supporters, we always seek people who are genuinely interested in keeping our area informed. We also love working with local businesses that have never tried radio as an advertising medium.

Now in our eleventh year, our station is going from strength to strength and incorporates a new third-party bespoke Podcast creation and publishing arm. It seems the whole world is becoming Podcast crazy. As a media publisher, we recently introduced a service where local groups, businesses and particular interest organisations can book time to use our facilities, work with broadcast experts, and publish their work professionally.

Please get in touch with us if you would like to learn more about advertising on the radio, joining us as a volunteer, or maybe wish to try our new Podcast production service. Remember, we are not-for-profit and reinvest in our service for every penny you invest in us.

Listen to Radio Newark NBC Pod Cast with Simon Gabitas and Michael Hardy

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