Key Activities of BCA on Golden Jubilee Celebration

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Background information on the 50th Anniversary of BCA

Bangladesh Caterers Association UK turns 50 on 3rd July 2010. Today, 1st July 2010, the BCA launches a year-long celebration activity to mark this important milestone. It seems appropriate for us to celebrate; we have come a long way since our beginning.

BCA was founded on 3rd July, 1950 in London, when twenty men gathered at Friends International Centre, 32 Travistock` Place, London WC2 at the invitation of Mr Shirajul Islam alias Israil Miah to start an association. BCA now represents 12,000 restaurants and takeaways in the UK curry industry and maintains the greatest activities, programs and benefits than any other organizations run by non-resident Bangladeshis anywhere in the world.

We feel that this milestone of 50th anniversary provides us an excellent opportunity to celebrate the past: to highlight over five decades of hard work, personal sacrifice, and significant success in creating and protecting this national treasure of ours, now part of British heritage as well.

What steps is BCA taking to celebrate the 50th Anniversary?

• To celebrate the 50th Anniversary Golden Jubilee we have organised many events that are spread over the months of June to October 2010, culminating with the Golden Jubilee Celebration Dinner and Awards ceremony. At this event BCA is aims to recognize the hard work of its brilliant peers by honouring them with awards. With more than 1000 restaurant owners and curry lovers expected to attend. We are sure that you will want to share with us this memorable occasion.

  This is a working document and will be updated on a regular basis as more detail is available.

What steps is BCA taking to publicise the 50th Anniversary?

• The 50th Anniversary is a great opportunity for BCA to establish the positioning as The largest and oldest Association for the Bangladeshi restaurateurs in UK in the minds of all of our stakeholders and BCA has assigned a PR company to look after the over all publicity of the celebration. who have developed a year long plan including:

The Print and Visual media presence,
The History Book publications plan,
National Media Relations plan,
Regional Events PR plan,
Sponsorship communications plan,
Web plan, specific 50th Anniversary website

What are the objectives of the 50th Anniversary?

• Raising Awareness & Appreciation for Bangladeshi Food
• Demonstrating the Contribution of British Bangladeshi Community
• Thanking the British People
• To raise the visibility of BCA and consolidate our positioning as 'The Power house for Curry'
• To promote BCA's organizational credentials
• To foster networking relationships – business leaders through partnerships
• To increase fundraising opportunities

Who are our target audience?

• Sponsors and Potential partners
• Stakeholders, suppliers and Banks
• UK Policy Makers
• Government and Local council dignitaries
• Education & Employment bodies
• Mainstream British and ethnic Media
• Restaurant Owners
• Curry critics and celebrity chefs
• BCA National Council members
• Founders and patrons
• Current and future staff and chefs
• Bangladeshi Diaspora in UK

When do the 50th Anniversary celebrations begin?

• The celebrations have actually started on 1st July 2010 with a formal launching event at the Bengal Clipper restaurant at the presence of 150 VIPs, most of whom were MPs, CEOs, business leaders, brand owners etc.. From this point until the end of 2010 will be our Anniversary year. The grand gala Dinner will take place on October 10, 2010.

What is happening before October 2010?

• We will be preparing for the celebratory year and gathering all of the collateral we need and keeping our close sponsors/ stakeholders informed about what is going on, engaged in the process and hopefully inspired to ensure that come October 10, 2010 we are ready to wow the industry .

What is happening for the 50th Anniversary?

• The 50th Anniversary theme is 'BCA@50: Celebrating the Success, continuing the Journey'. This is designed to position BCA both in terms of what we have achieved during the last 50 years and what we want to achieve in the next 50 years.
• We have developed a 50th anniversary logo that will be available for our sponsors and stakeholders. There is a set of guidelines for its use but it can be used to advertise that BCA is celebrating its 50th anniversary and to raise brand awareness.
• We are developing a 50th Anniversary micro website (www.bca1960.com/goldenjubilee) that will be launched soon to inform, engage and inspire all of our stakeholders about the 50th Anniversary. It will contain a timeline, the history of the BCA, an event schedule, messages, news releases ans stories, etc.

How will I find out what is happening?

• We have engaged a professional PR group (sterling Media) who is responsible to disseminate all celebration related news, views and information to all mainstream and ethnic print and TV media. We are working an internal communication campaign with a monthly mail shot/sms communication to all members and major sponsors reporting about 50th Anniversary developments.

Is anything happening with the previous sponsors?

• We have started to communicate with the previous sponsors about the 50th Anniversary and good news is that many of them have already confirmed their participation as sponsors.
• As part of the collateral we need for the 50th Anniversary we have begun our search for 'veteran caterers who have changed the world' which we will use to create a book and an exhibition and also for content for the micro website.

Will partners and new sponsors be able to get involved?

• To enable us to maximise our reach and raise brand awareness further we will be seeking sponsors to be part of our celebrations. These will be able to sponsor parts of our celebrations and to associate their brand with the BCA brand. These processes have begun early this year.

Is anything special happening for the restaurant/curry house owners?

• BCA Caterer of the Year Award – a very prestigious award has been made open for anybody running a curry house in UK to mark the 50th Anniversary of BCA Up until 2009; it was reserved for only BCA member restaurants. A number of 10 BCA Caterer of the Year Awards will be given to 10 best caterer from equal number of regions.

What about the Golden Jubilee celebration Dinner?

• BCA Golden Jubilee celebration Dinner & Awards ceremony 2010 will be the culminating event of 50th anniversary celebration. It will take place on Date: Sunday 10 October, 2010.Venue: Park Plaza Westminster Hotel ,200 Westminster Bridge Road London SE1 7UT,Time: Reception from 5.30- 6.30pm Gala Dinner commences at 7.00pm

What events are planned for the Anniversary year?

• BCA has undertaken a long list of activities to celebrate the Golden Jubilee through out the year. The proposed schedule of activity is based around the successful tours, talks, exhibitions and regional celebrations by National Executive Council of BCA as part of the 50th anniversary celebration.
• In addition to these there would be a re-branding of current BCA Award and annual dinner events to fit with the Golden jubilee theme. Other programmes include Golden Jubilee celebration Launching Programme
  BCA@50: Photo & Documents Exhibition
  BCA@50: Commemorative Coins
  BCA@50: Commemorative Stamps
  Publication of BCA History Book
  Regional Celebrations
  BCA@50: National Curry Week ( celebration by individual restaurant)
  Launching BCA Foundation (BCA's Charity)
  Launching London School of Curry
  Introducing QBCs for the Chefs
  Golden Jubilee Celebration Dinner
  Special issue of BCA Magazine
  
• We will integrate the existing BCA Awards in 2010 into the 50th Anniversary celebrations & Awards ceremony and turn them into landmark events with renowned figures speaking and attending. The search for these is underway and we will keep you informed of progress as more details emerge.

How can I get involved?

• You can join as a sponsor
• You can join as a supporter
• You can buy Dinner tickets (A table of 12 will cost you £1320 only)
• You can put an advert promoting your business in the BCA Magazine

Can I get involved with the event planning?

• We have an organising committee who are all we need at present but as we get closer and more details emerge we will need more people to get more involved. We will keep you informed and thank you in advance for your help.

If you have any additional questions,
please email them to info@bca1960.com