The Second Annual British and Irish Graduates Ball was held on Friday 3 November, 2006 in the Plaza Ballroom at the Seaport Hotel, Boston. The Ball started at 7pm with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, compliments of Enterprise Ireland. After an hour or so of intense networking, our President Maggie Cotter welcomed the assembled crowd, and introduced Mr Jonathan Ryan from Enterprise Ireland, who offered us some brief remarks about the strength of the transatlantic business ties between the USA and Ireland, the role of Enterprise Ireland in attracting entrepreneurs and investors and the importance of the community of British and Irish graduates in America to the whole process.

The action then moved to the splendiferously arranged Plaza Ballroom, where we enjoyed a fine gourmet dinner. Our appetizer was a light yet generous salad of mesclun greens, Great Hill blue cheese, spiced pecans, pears, cranberries and sherry vinaigrette. For entree, we had a choice of crispy skin arctic char on lobster mashed potato with seabean butter source, roasted breast of chicken with a corn bread and cranberry stuffing, maple spaghetti squash and rosemary roasted sweet potatoes, or the chef's special vegetable medley. This was all washed down with a Greg Norman chardonnay and Distant Bay Pinot Noir from Monterey, CA - as delicious as they were intoxicating. The dessert of chocolate chocolate cake glazed with bittersweet chocolate, ganache and espresso creme was quite a distraction from the prize raffle that was competing for our attention during coffee.

Compete, though, the raffle did! Preceded by warm welcomes from Mr David Barry, Consul General of Ireland and Mr John Rankin, Consul General for the UK, who extolled the British and Irish graduates community as an example of what can be achieved through collaboration, the $2500 worth of raffle prizes donated by local businesses and organizations made a few lucky winners very happy, and entertained the rest of us thanks to the wit and charm of the raffle organizers and comperes, Kirsten and Orla. So keen were our ballers to win a prize, there was a last minute rush to throw business cards into the draw. One bold reveller even threw in an American Express card - that will do nicely, sir! And apparently the gambit paid off, as he won a toaster.

The evening just kept getting better when the Soul Band took to the stage and within seconds filled the dance floor with their tight, energetic and nuanced mix of soul and upbeat blues classics and original tracks. We wanted a gig not a disco, real music not a wedding band - and thanks to Tim Pike and his fellow Soul Band musicians and Invest Northern Ireland who sponsored this portion of the evening, that's exactly what we got! Dancing, drinking and socializing continued in equal measure through the rest of the night, until way after midnight.

All in all this was a fabulous night. If you were there, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. If you couldn't come this year, we missed you and you missed out! Watch this space for news of the BIG Ball 2007, and other social and networking events that are in the pipeline.

Our photographer for the Ball was Mr Ethan Backer, who generously donated his time and photographic talents. Previews of the photos are now available on Ethan's website, www.backerphoto.com For ordering information, see this page. We think you'll agree, Ethan did a great job!