Bessemer Society

RHODES HOUSE - JULY 4TH, 2019 Our summer dinner took place once again in the vast timber-framed hall of Rhodes House, on a perfect summer’s evening. Rhodes House is our flagship Oxford event of the year. Its generous space and architectural merit help to raise the prominence of the dinner and to improve the discussion as well no doubt, thus to ensure the best possible evening for all the guests. The topic of the evening - manufacturing in life sciences - was highlighted in the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, authored by Sir John [...]

ENGINEERS HOUSE, BRISTOL - JUNE 19TH 2019 The plan for the evening was to consider how the silicon design community and the compound semiconductor manufacturing community were at a position to work closer together, or at least with more self-awareness, due to the convergence of technologies in new markets like e-mobility. Here Graphcore’s microprocessors can make sense of vast data sets generated by smart sensors, while compound semiconductors have the speed and flexibility necessary to manage huge data in real time. Engineers House Our venue, Engineers House, was completed in 1831, the same year [...]

TOWN HALL, LIVERPOOL, APRIL 10TH 2019 The purpose was to bring together a range of senior executives involved in developing and promoting a hydrogen economy in the North West. Liverpool is building a powerful case for government support led by our partners at the dinner - the North West Business Leadership Forum, Peel Holdings and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. The Venue The venue reflected the period in Britain’s mercantile history when Liverpool was the dominant port trading with the New World – an impressive late Georgian building with enormously high ceilings [...]

Rhodes House, July 4th 2018. The dinner took place in the vast timber-framed hall at Rhodes House, an echo of England’s Imperial past with Oxford whimsicality added. The theme of Space was an interesting one to consider in such a ‘spacious’ environment. The Oxford area encompassing Culham and Harwell is a leader in the emerging field of ‘New space’ and the leading centre for ‘dramatic’ engineering, such as fusion power and rocket technology. Our principal speaker, Lord Willetts, is a political ‘Space Leader’, due to his earlier role in government supporting the sector [...]