West Midlands property experts were on the money, presenting their ingenious ideas to the dragons in Brendas’ Den – raising an incredible £35,490 for charity at an annual spoof property awards lunch.
Birmingham property professionals Duncan Mathieson (Realis Estates), Rupert Young (Nurton Developments), Alison Monteith (Monteith Scott), Eleanor Deeley (Cushman & Wakefield) and Andy Riach (Jones Lang Lasalle) took on the role of the dragons as they fed back to eight budding entrepreneurs who presented their wild and wacky ideas, including a ‘never before seen’ clothing range entitled Emperor’s New Clothes, as well as a brand new drug that you will never see hitting stores soon, Ibublowten.
Held at the Burlington Hotel in Birmingham, the annual satirical awards event, now in its 14th year, sees the property sector raise much-needed funds for the Property For Kids charity, who select different childrens charities to support each year.
This year’s ‘Brendas’ Den’ event was attended by over 370 property professionals and was hosted by: Jilly Cosgrove of Barques, Simon Marks of Arcadis, Charlotte Fullard of LSH, Lucy Hansell of Estilo Interiors, Rupert Young of Nurton Developments, presenting a range of awards to those who willingly entered the den, depicting gnome-eating dragons on plaques.
Awards, including categories such as ‘Daylight Robbery’, ‘Bullspeak’, ‘Judge Dread’ and ‘Dead Minger’, were sponsored by Shoosmiths, Severn Capital, Lorica, Overbury, MAC Group, Rhino Interiors, Anstey Horne, Bennimans, Bruntwood and Speller Metcalfe.
Jilly Cosgrove, who is chairman of Property for Kids, explained that one of this year’s chosen charities is The Brain Tumour Charity, saying that ‘ we have chosen to support this fantastic charity because brain tumours affect the part of you that makes you who you are. A diagnosis at any age is traumatic, but is particularly cruel when it affects children and young people as their brains are still learning, forming and creating their identity. The rest of the funds will be distributed to other deserving childrens charities.’
Jilly continued: ‘We are always so overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends in the commercial property sector who, helped us to beat last year’s figure, raising an incredible £35,490. I’d like to thank everyone for their continued support, and especially the PFK Committee that give up their time so freely and, of course, the Brendas’ team which included the return of Ed Gamble of Acre Capital Real Estate who entertained everyone as host of the auction, which raised over £18,000 itself.’
