On a warm September earlier this month, we hosted a party at No.11 Pimlico Road to launch our new, exclusive PA network, AH Insider. In a beautiful private room upstairs, fuelled by champagne and canapes, a group of talented assistants from all over London came together to enjoy an evening of networking, inspirational speakers, introductions to recommended suppliers, manicures, goodie bags and the potential to win some rather amazing prizes.

All that these assistants had in common was that they had all joined AH Insider, a group we recently created on LinkedIn exclusively for anyone working in an office or private support role. Born out of a desire to connect assistants and inspire, challenge and push the boundaries of what they could achieve, AH Insider in an online network but one we wanted to ensure translated into offline experiences too.

Day-to-day the AH Insider group on LinkedIn is a hub of activity, a place for assistants to ask questions and seek recommendations; it’s totally confidential, therefore anything members post can only be seen by other members of the group, and everyone that requests to join is personally vetted by one of us at Anderson Hoare. Assistants hold a lot of responsibility, their decision-making power is huge and it’s not unusual for them to find themselves in situations where they have to plan events, organise logistics and book venues, restaurants or services in places they may have never been. Assistants will often find themselves working alone and therefore access to a networking community provides them with a little black book of contacts, recommendations and advice that’s shared by over three hundred other assistants.

And while AH Insider is a valuable online tool, we didn’t want to keep things purely digital. We all know how much easier a working relationship is with someone once you’ve met them and we took this approach with AH Insider too. If these people were going to be talking to each other online, surely it would only strengthen their relationship if they met in person? But we didn’t want to make this just another networking event, so we took things further and rather than just inviting assistants to our launch we invited suppliers too, creating a fun and interactive evening that benefitted everyone. Our assistants got to meet each other, as well as a collection of suppliers who we had personally recommended, and our suppliers got to talk to the people that would ultimately be booking their services. Some suppliers hosted stands, others gave talks and some i.e. Secret Spa, demonstrated what they did in practice by offering everyone manicures. Those that couldn’t attend contributed gifts for goodie bags, discount codes and prizes for our prize draw.

We had the most wonderful evening and are pleased to say that everyone else who attended did too! We had some lovely comments from our assistants, some of which are mentioned below, and great feedback from the brands that got involved too. We’ve also seen a huge increase in traction on the AH Insider group on LinkedIn. If you would like to join and be invited to our future events you can request access to the group here: AH Insider

In the meantime, scroll down for pictures and testimonials from the event!

Testimonials from our guests and contributors:

"I just wanted to write to congratulate you for a lovely launch last Thursday. It was really well organised with some very interesting and engaging speakers so thank you for your superb efforts!" Ali Chiu

"It was a pleasure to meet you and your team from AH. Thank you so much for inviting us from IMA (International Management Assistants). I found the evening extremely enjoyable and enlightening. The talks on health and networking were all very useful. A good platform for networking! :-)" Susanna Tackie

"Congrats on a fab event yesterday! Really interesting talks and had a great time connecting with people. Thanks again for the invite." Izzy Appleyard

"Thanks so much for hosting last night, was a lovely event. Btw I love my new Swivlit – can’t wait to try it out!" Caroline Kempster

"Thank you for a lovely evening and amazing food and great speakers! Also what a lovely goodie bag! Good luck with AH! I will certainly contribute to it as much as l can!" Nuria Buxo Copp

"Thank you for inviting me to the Launch event, it was great to mingle with new people. I thought it was a fantastic event. Victoria and Clemmie were great speakers and I will take the Eating for Energy forward." Colette Lock-Wah-Hoon

"Thank you very much Lottie for putting on a fantastic successful event! It’s was lovely to meet you!" Sine Mbhele

"Thanks so much from me for last night too, it was a roaring success! Great turnout and some great chats had. We honestly massively appreciate the early support so thank you for introducing us to everyone." James Wales, Nemo Travel

"I wanted to send you a quick note to say thank you again for having me to speak last night. I really enjoyed it and meeting lots of the people there. I hope you felt it was a success. Let’s keep in touch." Clemmie Macpherson, NALM Clinic

"Great event last night! Had a lovely time and will very much enjoy my winnings! Have a nice weekend and look forward to the next one." Chystal Siersma

"Thank you SO MUCH for having me at such an awesome awesome event last night, it was such a wonderful evening and so incredibly well organized. I loved meeting all your lovely clients, it was a real honour to be there and such a great opportunity for me to be a part of it." Antonia Beamish, Bodhi Wellbeing

"I just wanted to drop you a quick email as I am OOO tomorrow to say thank you very much for the invite today. We had a fantastic time, well done on all your hard work to pull off a successful event, we look forward to the next one!" Natalie Mayhew

"I thoroughly enjoyed the evening - really well organised and full of amazing people. Please pass on my thanks to Lottie and the team." Emily Burfoot