One of Britain’s leading broadcasters, Clare Balding OBE, is to be the celebrity guest speaker at this year’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’ (SMMT) Annual Dinner, taking place on 25 November at Grosvenor House on Park Lane, London.
Ms Balding has worked in TV and radio broadcasting since 1994, fast becoming the face of horse racing coverage in 1998. Since then, she has worked on five Olympic Games, four Paralympics and three Winter Olympics, along with continuing to present horse racing for Channel 4 and on BT Sport. She currently hosts the BBC Radio 2 Sunday morning programme as well.
She will provide the after dinner address at this year’s event, which brings together over 1,000 guests from across industry, government and the media for an evening of networking and discussion. SMMT President Tim Abbott, Managing Director of BMW Group UK, will make the keynote address at the Dinner, reflecting on the year’s successes by UK automotive as well as looking to the future, especially as the country will be just months away from the next General Election.
“The SMMT Annual Dinner is the must-attend event in the automotive calendar. Clare Balding is a highly entertaining speaker and I’m particularly keen to hear her take on horse power of a different kind,” said Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive. “With less than a year to go to the General Election, our Annual Dinner will also provide a perfect setting for the industry to come together, discuss our achievements and, more importantly, identify what we will need from the political arena in the year ahead.”
The Dinner will also see the announcement of SMMT’s Award for Automotive Innovation 2014, sponsored by GKN Driveline and supported by The Times, and the Autocar Courland Next Generation Award, both of which will be presented during the evening’s proceedings.
Tickets are currently on sale for the SMMT Annual Dinner and can be purchased by e-mailing annualdinner@smmt.co.uk.
