Written by Andrew Todd, IT Program Manager, UBS.

Sometimes things just come together and are meant to be as was the case for the Group Tech Quiz evening on Tuesday, July 16th which was raising money for one of UBS London's partner charities, SportInspired.
The whole country was still buzzing from a fantastic day of sport, two days before, in what the UK press have predictably coined "Super Sunday"; Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix, there had been an all-time great Men's Wimbledon Final between Federer & Djokovic and England won the Cricket World Cup for the first time ever in the most incredible of sporting finales - something for everyone!

So it was, as I was walking to the venue for our SportInspired Quiz evening, I had a chance to reflect on the euphoria I was still feeling from the weekend. What I realised most was that whilst England winning the Cricket World Cup was amazing, I was most pleased that by taking my 9-year-old son to watch the match he was now bitten by the sporting bug and he will enjoy wherever sport takes him for the rest of his life - both as a player and a supporter. So, given that as parents we want to enable sport to inspire our own children, I believe we have similar responsibility where children are not fortunate enough to have these opportunities - after all, all children are our society of tomorrow.

Anyway, when I arrived at the venue, I saw probably 70-80 Group Tech colleagues already socialising, networking and enjoying themselves. I knew before the quiz had begun that by bringing everyone together this was already a successful evening. By the time the quiz started we had close to 100 people which was a fantastic effort by everyone, and people were divided into 14 teams with some great team names!

The quiz consisted of a picture round of 'famous faces when they were younger' and Dingbats (i.e. visual picture puzzles) to break the ice; followed by 4 rounds of questions ranging from 'Lisa Gherardini was the model for what?' to 'What is the surname of pop star Rihanna?' (Don't worry I didn't know either! It’s Fenty to save you Googling it!). In fitting with the SportInspired theme, we finished with a sports-based round and had questions ranging from "Why did FIFA refuse to let India play in the 1950 World Cup?" to questions based on "Super Sunday".

At an appropriate point in the evening, we asked if people would like to offer a charitable donation for SportInspired and I was blown away by people's generosity. After match-giving has been provided, we expect to have raised over £1000 which is a great addition to approximately £3000 already raised this year by Group Tech through Sport-based Fundraisers and Cake Bake sales.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The whole evening was so much fun; it was an opportunity to socialise as a function and we raised lots of money for a very, very worthwhile cause. Win-Win. Therefore, we will be doing another quiz again this year.

Finally, please can I give a massive thanks to Roger, Nihar, Jaimini and May for all their efforts to help organise the evening and making sure the event ran smoothly and successfully.