Networking & Social Events

John Hellinikakis (School 1976, Murray 1977-81), Chair of the OM Relations Committee, is looking forward to getting back to live gatherings and has worked hard to organise a calendar of events to satisfy our social and professional appetites is well documented to have attended these regional events when he was Headmaster. Current Head Jane Sanchez is in turn making it a point to attend all four regional events and we look forward to giving her that same welcome as Sir John enjoyed during his tenure.

What marks out Old Millhillians is their willingness to come together and socialise. And nothing is more indicative of this than the annual calendar of events. The impressive number of social events listed in the 2022 calendar, running to nearly thirty, does not even reflect all the events that are all organised by Old Millhillians each year when you include the sporting fixtures, casual get-togethers, and Lodge Meetings, some of which you will read about elsewhere in Martlet.

Entrepreneurs Meeting, incidentally also the very first ever Entrepreneurs event, and the Medical Professions Meeting, which were each attended by fifty to sixty participants.

These virtual events have been a great success and, for example, enabled us to reach out to a greater number of pupils of the school, who otherwise could not attend a physical meeting, but also other schools in the local area, with whom the Foundation has a relationship. In due course, no doubt, we will reach out to our new sister school Cobham Hall in Kent.

After a tough year-and-a-half, where nearly all physical events, planned from early in 2020 through to mid-2021, were cancelled, we are very much looking forward to some sort of ‘normality’. The accompanying calendar marks an ambitious return to a post-pandemic Old Millhillians Club social year.

This current programme of events is very much 2021 version 2.0, where we are looking to incorporate events that we had planned, but cancelled, for 2021, into the 2022 calendar. New events include the two new Marketing and Journalism events; 5, 10, 15 Year Reunions, and three University Social Pop-up events.

Although I do not want to dwell too much on 2021, in common with business and social meetings we were forced to adapt to changed circumstances. On the basis that out of adversity, there is opportunity, we created four virtual events in the first part of the 2021 featuring speakers followed by a question and answer’ session.

The first two Career Networking events to be staged on Zoom were the

Although virtual events cannot and will never replace the intimacy of physical gatherings, they were very well attended – indicative of the appetite to access interesting and relevant content. At those events where we have speakers, we will consider providing a video feed for the talk and/or an edited video recording for later viewing, for those that cannot be there – particularly for those who live too far away, or overseas.

Old Millhillians and their guests are welcome to attend our Careers Networking events. They are very much about people meeting in a relaxed environment, who share the same career or who may be considering that career in future. Career assistance is increasingly becoming one of the key focuses of the Club as the nature of employment changes – especially in a post Covid-19 era – whether it is for current pupils of the Foundation or Old Millhillians at a later stage of their career. At our Career Networking events, meeting people with whom you have a common bond offers a great level of support and advice.

In 2022, the four regional social lunch and dinner gatherings will celebrate 100 years since the death of Sir John McClure, a great friend of the Club, who

We were hoping to introduce at least three university pop-up evening drinks events this year, for Old Millhillian students, who are studying at certain universities in larger numbers and those within a reasonable distance. Now scheduled for 2022, these will be free of charge and hopefully the beginning of recent leavers’ relationship with the club.

That leaves us with the Presidents’ events, which are highlights of the Old Millhillian calendar. The Annual Summer Cocktail Party at the National Liberal Club Terrace was our first physical event in 2021. At the Annual Dinner we saw many more of you and many for the first time in a long time.

I am sure that after such a long period of lockdown, you are all looking forward to catching up with friends and renewing old acquaintances. I am hopeful that our programme of events, be they Career Networking, University Pop-Ups, Regional Social, or President’s events will provide ample opportunitiy for Old Millhillians to congregate once more.

The efforts of the volunteer OMs, who give up their time to organise them and to the speakers who share their wisdom, be rewarded by seeing you all in greater numbers in the coming year.