On Friday night, the red carpet was unfurled and the glitterati of the IT Security World put on their finery and glided down to The Royal Lancaster for the industry’s main charity event of the year, The White Hat. I think it is timed well, as there are plenty of balls in the spring and summer, then still more in the Autumn leading up to Christmas but after the New Year everyone goes back to staying in, wearing cardigans and complaining about their extortionate gas bills. For me, the end of January is a special time. The New Year celebrations have passed but the year is not yet advanced enough for hopes to be dashed, ambitions thwarted and dreams drowned in depressive reality. Nothing that mattered to you at midnight on New Year’s Eve has turned into a total cock up; not yet and so there is a still lot of hope and optimism for the months that lie ahead. It is at this magical moment that the White Hat Ball takes place. Now in its 4th year, the ball that began on the south side of the river, in an underground bunker has come of age. I presumed our previous location at a hotel n Vauxhall that accommodated the event over several subterranean floors what just part and parcel of being in the world of professional security. That like MI5 or the protection team for President Obama, we were paranoid about being safe, so that even our annual charity bun fight had to take place 60 feet underground so that even if there was a nuclear warm our Baked Alaska wouldn’t melt. As occupational hazards go, I have heard of far worse professions, taxidermy for one! However, now we have crossed over to the north side of the Thames and embraced London proper my hotel room this year had a lovely view of Kensington Gardens instead of the Vauxhall Tavern.

The move enabled the organisers to accommodate an extra hundred people so that 650 tickets for the ball were sold and even more could be raised for Childline to beat last years figure of £50,000 for this one event. We at Portcullis did our bit as my boss instructed me, back in the summer, to buy 50 tickets before they even went on sale.
He also must have enjoyed the auction lot he bade and won last year to have a private lunch at the top of the BT Tower, because he outbid all others again this year and has another such lunch to look forward to.

Everyone made the effort and all the chaps looked very smart in the black-tie outfits, with one or two kilts thrown in for good measure - no doubt a nod to the fact that this weekend was not only White Hats but Burn’s Night and the 250th anniversary of the poet’s birth at that. The ladies looked like the cast of a movie dressed by Cecil Beaton, so many elegant balls gown in diaphanous folds of tule, ciffon and silk, cascading down their feminine figures in beautiful colours, so delicately complimented by there accessories. Then came Christine Hamilton, the Tory Party’s version of Princess Michael of Kent. I’m sure she’s a lovely woman and I think it’s marvellous that she came along to support the cause in the role normally filled by a celebrity and we should all appreciate her generous voluntary work but….someone has to tell her that if there’s “surprise pink” in your outfit you don’t put “Bus Stop Red” on your lips!!

She made her way to the podium before the meal to promote the Childline cause as well as promoting wine drinking and female comedy. My Christine quote of the night was “I never drink to excess, I drink to anything” . Now we know why Victoria Wood keeps such a low profile these days! Christine’s jolly intro was followed by a chap who works in our industry and who as a father, who had attended a Childline charity event in the past, decided that he would like to volunteer as a phone-line counsellor. His interesting story of why he wanted to help and how reassuringly thorough the charity’s recruitment process was then turned into a moving account of a particular girl whom he had managed to help when she was at her most scared and vulnerable. If anyone wasn’t sure before why raising money for the cause was a good idea, they certainly were after that.

We then enjoyed the meal of Salmon followed by Guinea Fowl before a live auction, an on-line auction (which was new) and silent bids for the shy folk. No figures have yet been announced but I would be very surprised if we haven’t pulverised last year’s figure and I hazard a guess at something near to £80.000 being raised. Next year can only get bigger and better. The carriages were ordered for 2am and the drinking went on for hours beyond that, so despite the morning hangovers, a grand time was had by all and hopefully a grand total was raised for Childline.