Convention Celebrations

Last Friday was the day of our Annual Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Clubs Franchisee Convention and what a fantastic day it turned out to be! Tears and laughter, inspiration by the bucketful and lots and lots to look forward to in the new year. Everyone was buzzing!

As well as sharing the new diet plan, which is based on my book due for publication in January, and lots of exciting products due to launched then, we also celebrated the successes of our top franchisees. Our reigning Franchisee of the Year, Sarah Skelton, gave an awe-inspiring speech about how she ran her business, as well as other brilliant presentations from our Training and Marketing Departments. We heard from Nicky Hambleton-Jones, Celebrity Stylist, about making the most of ourselves to build our confidence and all in all, it was a truly fantastic day.

We give out four Awards including a personal award to a franchisee who has unselfishly given a lot of herself for the good of the business. This year I gave my Rosemary Conley Award to Caroline Pitt from Merton, for running our original pilot scheme with the NHS, which has now been rolled out across the network. Our Newcomer of the Year Award is given to a new franchisee who has only been running for the last 12 months and there were three finalists: Philippa Aldridge, Corinne Stevenson and Tracey Telfer. The Award went to Corinne Stevenson from Gloucester.

The Business Development Award is given to the franchisee who has dramatically grown their business in the last 12 months and the five finalists were Philippa Aldridge, Kay Fletcher, Karen Murrie, Francine Vickers and Caroline Willey. The winner was Philippa Aldridge of Abingdon and Oxfordshire.

Franchisee of the Year is for the overall top franchisee in the network. We have ten finalists: Mandi Davidson, Kay Fletcher, Adele Howlett, Jill MacGregor, Lindsey Peters, Sarah Skelton, Jayne Stone, Lisa Thatcher, Sandra Todd and Audrey Zolnierowicz. The winner was Kay Fletcher from Ipswich, and a very worthy winner she was too.

As well as these awards we also gave away a dozen 5 year Awards to our franchisees. I then presented six 10 year Awards to franchisees and two to staff members, plus they were each given a magnificent Christopher Ward diamond studded watch. Then it was time for the 15 year awards. We had three franchisees who had reached with momentous milestone – Wendy Boardman, Judith Sell and Karen Smith, plus two staff members – Mary Morris our Training Consultant and Denise Harriman, our House Keeper at Quorn House. They were each presented with a very beautiful diamond necklace. I love this bit because they are so appreciative that we appreciate them!

Then it’s time for our Convention Ball. A great time was had by all and we danced till 1 am and we had a not-for-real-money Casino which was perfect for those not wanting to boogie! Everyone looked so incredibly glamorous and I do not believe there is any other gathering of women in the UK who are so fit, so confident and so gorgeous. I am very proud of every single one of them!