Connect Dacorum's next networking lunch will be held on Wednesday 23rd April 2014 at Haven House, 389 London Road, Hemel Hempstead, HP3 9AB from 11.30am to 2.00pm.  The topic will be on Volunteering.

If you would like to come along to network and listen to our inspiring speakers, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

In this issue:

• Farewell to Jeoff.
• February's networking lunch. 
• Dragons Apprentice Challenge 2013/14.
• New members, and of course our good deeds.

The end of March saw the final of the Dacorum Dragons Apprentice Challenge for 20134/14.  Ten teams finished the challenge and raised over £11,000 in total for their charities. 

The awards ceremony was held at Shendish Manor Hotel and was attended by the Deputy Mayor of Dacorum Cllr Alan Lawson, teams, school representatives, parents, friends, charities and business Dragons.

All the teams were invited on stage to present their cheques to their charities and were applauded by all.  Six teams were invited to do a 5 minute presentation to the audience and all did very professional presentations.  The Super Dragons (judges) then went to deliberate before the Deputy Mayor of Dacorum presented the prizes for the awards.

• Most Money Earned - Kings Langley School
• Most Innovative Product/Service or Business Idea - Ashlyns School
• Best Example of Close Co-operation with your Charity - Adeyfield School
• Best Poster Display Panel - Hemel Hempstead School
• Individual Achievement - Chloe Staines from Astley Cooper School
• Overall winner - Kings Langley School

Prizes were generously donated by The Snow Centre, Dacorum Talking Newspaper, Shendish Manor Hotel, The Professionalism Group, Costa Coffee and Radio Dacorum.  The trophies were generously donated by Hemel Trophies and Jewellers.

A triumphant team from world-beating imaging technology firm FFEI have another success to celebrate - but this one is a little bit closer to home than the firm's prized Queen's Award for enterprise.

The Maylands-based firm can once again claim to employ Dacorum's best brains after their team took top spot at the annual Connect Dacorum/Community Action Dacorum event at Shendish Manor on Thursday.

The team of Ian Crawforth, Georgina Hutchinson, George Hutchinson, Kevin Radcliffe, Bob Wilson, Andy Cook, Helen Cook, Roy Smith, Julian Payne and Stephen Meek successfully negotiated 10 tricky rounds of questions set by Gazette editor John Francis, which included rounds on the First World War, commercial sponsorship and famous beards.

An they held their nerve during the final accumulator round, which can see back-markers surge through the field to score a last-gasp victory. Lasr year FFEI, winners in 2012, were pipped at the post by Furnell Transport on the final question.