We’d like to say a massive thank you to all our customers
who came along to our open day on the 6th September and help us celebrate our
21st Birthday. We enjoyed seeing everyone and by the great feedback we’ve had, everyone who attended had an enjoyable and rewarding day.

Despite the horrible weather, plenty of people arrived early
to speak to the various vendors we’d invited to showcase their products and
solutions. Customers were able to talk in detail about the challenges and 

problems they faced organising their companies’ technology. Experts from all
areas were on hand to offer solutions and advice, all in the informal
surroundings of the Systems’ offices.
Our aim was to provide a wide variety of information on a
varied range of subjects. We had Netgear, DLink and Axis talking networking and
all things IP. Hardware brands HP, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Lenovo and Sony all
brought along their latest models. 

Print and document management was covered by
teams from Canon, HP, Oki, Brother and Lexmark. We also had specialists from
Overland Storage, Drobo, Digium, Adobe, Zen Internet and Optoma.

The award for
the biggest demo kit has to go to Smart, they brought along two of their
interactive screens to demonstrate, very impressive!
Not surprisingly one of the most popular areas proved to be
our very own Systems Solutions Zone. Virtualisation, Cloud and software licensing being the
hot topics up for discussion.

As well as all the technology talk there was plenty of time
to eat and drink throughout the day. It’s hard to say what turned out to be
more popular – the fresh Lavazza coffee served from the back of a Piaggio
Ape 50 van or the locally produced mini Yorkshire puddings and ‘Sheffield eggs’
(a bit like a Scotch egg only nicer).


As the evening came it did finally stop raining and we were
treated to a full on impromptu magic show from Benoit Pierre who I’m sure would have carried on all night had we not needed to interrupt him.


The need for that interruption? To let the very talented Charlotte get on with singing for us, not to mention getting stuck in to the fresh pizza from the wood fired oven. It was also time to try our luck on the roulette wheel and win one of the Apple iPads up for grabs for the person who managed to win the most fake money, the competition was fierce!


After more of Charlotte’s lovely singing it was time for Simon and Chris to say a few words and of course to cut the 21st Birthday cake. Simon then went on to award a mountain of prizes, we had another iPad for the winner of our Systems quiz and many of the vendors had run fun games with prizes throughout the day. After more socialising (and more roulette) it was time to adjourn to the hotel bar, conveniently located near the provided overnight accommodation.


All in all it was a great success and we won’t be waiting for the next milestone birthday before we do it again!




A big thank you to everyone involved.