Here’s to the next ten years!
On Sunday, Cornwell Internet celebrated its tenth birthday as a web design business.
Of course, we’ve been building web sites for longer than that, for ourselves and for others, professionally and as a hobby. But it’s ten years since Roger Cornwell took early retirement from BT and went into business for himself: that was at the end of June 1998, and we celebrated his independence with a party the following Saturday, July 4th. Ten years on, we felt it was time for another party!
This time, we invited all our clients to join us at Newcastle’s Stephenson Works, the world’s first purpose built locomotive works on Forth Banks, where the famous locomotives “Locomotion” and “Rocket” were built. Not only is it a delightful space to be in, it also seemed appropriate as an important site in the new technology of its day.
Some of our clients are very far flung (indeed, there are some we have still never met!); and people tend to have other commitments in the summer. But we were delighted that so many people were able to come along, both those who had traveled specially from London or Lancashire, and those for whom the venue was only a short way away on the metro (some of whom enquired whether the space would be available for their own future events!). We also received a number of birthday cards, which charmed and delighted us!
People seem to have enjoyed themselves (I certainly did, but that’s not quite the point!) – but then, we thought they would. A comfortable location, delicious wines (thanks to Helen Savage) and our own-label beers from the Durham Brewery (Webmaster, Uploader and Downloader) and plenty of nibbles to accompany them (thank you to Gail-Nina for heroic sandwich-making!) – but what really makes a party successful is the people. And, as I keep saying, we have the best clients!