learning Archives - Millennium Point

As we head into the festive holidays and approach the end of another year, Millennium Point has achieved some great things in 2021. Here is five key events that have happened at our award-winning venue this year.

Mass Vaccination Centre

Millennium Point made history as we were announced as a mass vaccination centre for Covid-19 in January 2021. It was one of eight centres to be opened across the UK, and the first mass vaccination site in the West Midlands region. Our venue opened it’s doors as a vaccination centre on 11^th January 2021. This announcement was welcomed by the general public and top media organisations alike.

The first day saw Sky News, BBC, ITV, LBC and Birmingham Mail at Millennium Point to capture the first vaccinations, and mark the historic moment that the UK could start the road to recovery. Below shows a video capturing the excitement and relief that accompanied it.

Across the whole time we were a mass vaccination centre, approximately 180,000 vaccinations took place at Millennium Point during this time.

Asima Adnan wins a fully funded degree

In 2021 our Scholarship program crowned it’s 8^th winner, with Asima Adnan from Dudley being named the winner of this year’s life-changing Millennium Point Charitable Trust Scholarship, earning a fully-funded degree at Birmingham City University (BCU).

Asima along with the other finalists, attended an assessment day at Millennium Point, where they each presented to a panel of five judges. Asima impressed the panel the most and was selected as the lucky winner.

The 37-year-old mum of five studied Social Science and Humanities at Dudley College, and began her Planning degree at Birmingham City University in September.

Applications open for the 2022 Scholarship on Monday 3^rd January. For more information please click here.

Millennium Point hosts first ever hybrid event

As part of our Hybrid and Virtual event packaging, we hosted our first ever hybrid event in May, Talking Point: The Future of Events. The conference included many discussion points from across the events sector, as well as provide valuable insights and a platform to debate the road to recovery, current trends, sustainability, and the impact of Covid-19 on customers’ relationships to events and hospitality.

The event welcomed two panels of industry experts and was hosted by events industry veteran Neil Thompson, Founder of popular event professionals network The Delegate Wranglers. You can watch the replay of the event below:

This follows on from a transformation of our Auditorium with a £350,000 investment, installing a new 10m x 3m participant stage area beneath the 16 m x 10 m giant screen to provide greater space and flexibility for panel events, presentations, and live performances.

With the launch of our Hybrid and Virtual Events package, we also upgraded our AV equipment to support that which includes an M32R digital mixing desk, intelligent LED lighting system, mounted Panasonic PTC-280 cameras and a Kramer 8×8 Matrix switcher which allows switching of screen content seamlessly.

Fans get time of their lives at movie and drinks nights

The well received Millennium Point Presents movie and drinks nights have continued to be a big success throughout 2021. Our partnership with the movie geeks, The Wine Events Company has offered more blockbuster showings including Back to the Future, Top Gun, Dirty Dancing, Rocketman and Love Actually.

With more exciting events on the way in 2022, want to get a feeling of what to expect? Check out our screening of the eighties classic Dirty Dancing below. Guests had the time of their lives with a live band, themed cocktails and movie trivia.

Millennium Point Charitable Trust reaches a £30m landmark in STEM support

In 2021 our Charitable Trust announced that it had reached a landmark £30m in STEM support to organisations across the West Midlands over the last seven years – including £4.98m in the last financial year alone.

For those that are not aware, our commercial activity that takes place in the Millennium Point building feeds back into the Millennium Point Charitable Trust. This enables the charity to donate to, invest in, and facilitate STEM-related projects, events and initiatives in the West Midlands. This has included over £2.7m in STEM grants to schools, not-for-profits and charities in Greater Birmingham and the Wider West Midlands.

To coincide with our grant programme , the trust funds £16,650 in STEM degree scholarships annually, in partnership with Birmingham City University. To date, scholarships have totalled over £83,000.

An example of the type of STEM projects we fund is showcased below.

Find more interesting content from Millennium Point over at our news section, or follow us for daily updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn with @MillenniumPoint. Millennium Point is a landmark public building and multi-award-winning events venue in the Eastside of Birmingham City centre. Profits from our commercial activity are invested by the Millennium Point Charitable Trust into projects, events and initiatives which support the growth of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and education in the West Midlands.

Applications for our Charitable Trust STEM Grants programme close this Friday so don’t miss out on funding for your next STEM project.

Have a STEM project plan that needs funding? Our small grants are available from £1,000 to £20,000 to individual applicants to support science, technology, engineering & maths (STEM) education in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands. Applications close at 5pm this Friday, meaning you don’t have long to get your application submitted!

An example of the type of projects we fund is detailed in the video below.

You can start your application by clicking here.

Endless possibilities with STEM

Over the past five years, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust has awarded over £2 million to charities, not-for-profits, community groups and schools to further STEM education. Millennium Point Charitable Trust has previously seen the rewarding outcome of past projects such as the science area at Ark Tindal Primary and Sensational Science at Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The latest round of funding in 2021 saw a wide range of successful applications – from a proposal to build a fully operational light aircraft, STEM training toolkits for schools and a car engineering workshop for girls.

Last year Millennium Point saw 70 applications from not-for-profit organisations in aim of receiving a share of the grant money.

Applications for Millennium Point Charitable Trust STEM Grant Programme is now open

Abbie Vlahakis, CEO of Millennium Point said. “Along with our hugely popular degree scholarship, the Small Grants Programme is why we do what we do. To promote STEM education across the region and increase the opportunities for the next generation via some of the most exciting career paths available.

“Every year the quality and volume of applications that the Millennium Point Charitable Trust receives is fantastic. I have no doubt that will be the case again – I can’t wait to see them.”

Read more about our fantastic case studies here.

Top tips for writing your application

We understand writing an application can be tricky, but we don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. We’ve created a blog that lays out some of our most useful tips and advice using our many years of experience with the grants programme, making your application as easy and quickly as possible.

To read more please click here.

Book with Millennium Point and help support the future of STEM

Everything Millennium Point Charitable Trust achieves is made possible by the commercial activity that takes place in our landmark building. It all feeds back into the charitable trust, enabling it to donate and invest in STEM-related organisations, projects, and initiatives.

When booking events with Millennium Point you are widening your CSR and supporting the local region. Find out how and more about our 17 unique event spaces here.

The Millennium Point Charitable Trust has announced it has reached a landmark £30m in STEM support to organisations across the West Midlands over the last seven years – including £4.98m in the last financial year alone.

Opened in 2001, Millennium Point is a landmark public building in the Eastside of Birmingham city centre. Inside, it is home to 17 versatile event spaces including a 354-capacity Auditorium, meeting rooms and offices, and tenants, including ThinkTank and Birmingham City University (BCU).

Commercial activity that takes place in the Millennium Point building feeds back into the Millennium Point Charitable Trust. This enables the charity to donate to, invest in, and facilitate STEM-related projects, events and initiatives in the West Midlands. This has included over £2.7m in STEM grants to schools, not-for-profits and charities in Greater Birmingham and the Wider West Midlands.

In addition, the trust funds £16,650 in STEM degree scholarships annually, in partnership with Birmingham City University. To date, scholarships have totalled over £83,000.

Abbie Vlahakis, CEO of Millennium Point said: “Promoting STEM education across the region is what we do – increasing the opportunities for the next generation via some of the most exciting career paths available.

“As a meeting and events space, the last 18 months has been incredibly challenging, but it’s fantastic that we have continued throughout to contribute to the West Midlands’ myriad of exciting STEM projects and initiatives.”

Abbie Vlahakis visiting pupils at Meadows Primary School.

The trust has also announced an extension to the deadline for applications to the Millennium Point Charitable Trust STEM Grants Programme 2022, which is now 5pm on Friday December 17th.

Paul Hughes, Schools Manager at the Aston Villa Foundation, commented: “The STEM grant we received from the Millennium Point Trust funded our innovative STEM Stars project, which has allowed us to add a new dimension to our provision and provide children, teachers and schools the opportunity to embark on their STEM education journey helping to develop skills of the future and make a real difference.’’

With STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) funding grants of up to £20,000 available, the trust has moved the deadline to give more organisations time to apply for money that can often be life-changing for young people and their future careers.

The latest round of funding in 2021 saw a wide range of successful, creative STEM projects – from a proposal to build a fully operational light aircraft to STEM training toolkits for schools.

Abbie Vlahakis added: “Every year we are impressed and inspired by the applications we receive for our small grants programme, and this year has been no exception – and I’d urge any organisation looking to fund an exciting STEM project in 2022 that there’s still time for their idea to be considered.”

To apply for a grant, please click here.

Don’t miss out on an introduction into the world of NFTs and explore the opportunities of a digital future in this exciting event taking place at Millennium Point this Saturday.

A Digital Future With NFT Talks takes place at Millennium Point on Saturday 11th December 2021, 5pm-11pm. This is the perfect event for anyone that is interested in the NFT space, that wants to learn more and connect to the NFT community.

A digital future with NFT Talks

Who are NFT Talks?

NFT-Talks is an educational brand created for the NFT space. They believe that NFTs (Non-fungible tokens) are the future and want to play their part in creating awareness to help build the NFT community.

NFT-Talks aim to deliver digestive content about the NFT space for anyone with little to no experience to consume.

What is an NFT?

Non-fungible tokens (NFT) is at the forefront of cutting edge technology and has been the highlight of the year disrupting the Art, Sports & Entertainment, Music, Gaming and Fashion industries so far.

A Non-fungible token is a cryptographic token called ERC-721. This token represents proof of ownership to any digital asset it has been linked to, which is then recorded onto a blockchain.

What to expect on the evening of the event?

The first hour of the event will kick off with a live “NFT Talks” podcast with an anonymous digital artist from the UK “KidEight”.

Taking place after the podcast, listen to a panel of industry leaders and creatives, who will be talking about the future of the NFTs in Art, Music, Digital Fashion & Collectibles followed by a Q&A session.

The event will also include a VR/Metaverse demo, live Art and Music performance, before ending the evening with a chance to network with like-minded individuals and talk about the NFT space.

Limited tickets available so don’t miss out!

Don’t miss out on the exciting world of NFTs and book your place now by clicking below. Tickets are priced at £11.37 (including fees) each.

STEM Grants application deadline is now extended until Friday 17th December 2021. For more information or to apply please click here.

Every year, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust Small Grants programme gives out grants of up to £20,000 to support science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education projects in the West Midlands. We have funded many different projects across all areas of STEM, supporting learning development for young students.

Here is another great example of the type of work we do, this project was funded in 2019 and shows the power of what the grants funding can achieve for STEM organisations.

Who are Birmingham Botanical Gardens?

The Birmingham Botanical Gardens are a 15-acre botanical garden situated in Edgbaston, and one of the most popular attractions for families in the region. There is plenty on offer for visitors with outdoor events including film screenings and performances, along with access to four stunning glasshouses, a playground, tea room and garden gift shop.

Why did they apply for a Millennium Point Grant?

The Birmingham Botanical Gardens reached out to the Millennium Point Charitable Trust to help support it’s Sensational Science project. They wanted to address a ongoing issue where primary schools lack the resources and skills to provide laboratory style and specialist science learning experiences for young people. Sensational Science is a new, original interactive education workshop designed to enable school children to investigate plant DNA and undertake scientific experiments into the science behind plants in a laboratory-style session at Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

The aim of the project is to inspire and generate more interest around Science, while developing young peoples skillsets and implementing more science and STEM subjects at school.

Sensational Science impacts 1,000 pupils

The results of the project have been fantastic with KS1 and KS2 primary school pupils benefitting from practical experience of scientific investigation. The project is being led by an award-winning education team, with 35 sessions taking place, covering 1000 pupils, many from deprived and marginalised backgrounds.

The project demonstrates the practical application of STEM within a green space which elevates their knowledge of STEM in a fun and imaginative way.

Botanical Gardens “thrilled” with the outcome of the project

Our STEM Grants team caught up with The Botanical Gardens and they couldn’t of been any happier with the outcome of the project. They commented:

“We are absolutely thrilled to have been awarded a small grant from Millennium Point Trust. As a direct result of this grant, we can deliver an exciting programme of bespoke workshops enabling school children to investigate plant DNA and undertake scientific experiments into the science behind plants in a laboratory-style workshop at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

The funding will enable us to deliver a minimum of 35 workshops during the year 2019/20, and provide opportunities for up to 1,000 primary school children from Birmingham and West Midlands schools to ‘work scientifically’.

We are especially delighted that this grant will help support the prohibitive costs of travel for up to 20 of our most deprived local schools, a cost we know to be a barrier to some of our closest inner-city schools. With your support, we are able to provide the additional benefit to schools of being able to access the Gardens in general -where they can stay for as long as they choose!

We would like to put on record our thanks to Millennium Point Trust for their support for our work and their hugely important commitment to developing the STEM agenda in this region.”

About educational grant funding from Millennium Point

Educators, Charities and Not-for-Profits within the West Midlands Combined Authority can apply for up to £20,000 from Millennium Point to fund their STEM activity.

The STEM Grants application deadline is now extended until Friday 17th December 2021. For more information or to apply please click here.

Join Stemettes and Millennium Point online to take part in a STEMazing event with a focus on health & tech.

What is Stemettes Hack Midlands

This years virtual event is funded by the Millennium Point Charitable Trust and is spread across two days (18th-19th September), that will tap into your creativity and equip you with new skillsets. The event we’ll be focusing on health and technology and how we can improve the way we live for a better future for us and the planet.

What activities will you be taking part in?

During the event you will be split into teams to identify a health-related issue and design a product or business solution for it. This will test each individual and help deliver some STEMtastic solutions. Throughout the weekend, you’ll be able to interact with STEM role models and learn about health and technology through their knowledge and expertise. The role models will be there to inspire your approach to the new ideas and solutions you’ll be developing in your team.

At the end of the event each team will get the opportunity to present your new ideas to a panel of judges. There will be some exciting prizes awarded to the winning groups and each participant will receive a goodie bag.

Grab your FREE ticket by clicking below.

Event details

When: Saturday 18th September – Sunday 19th September 2021
Time: 10 am to 5:00 pm
Where: Online via Microsoft Teams

Please note that attendees based in the Midlands will be given priority for this event. Therefore, a limited amount of participants will be able to join.

How Millennium Point supports STEM within the region?

Our charitable trust is passionate about creating new opportunities within STEM for young people. As part of our trust program we run two annual campaigns to help shape young peoples futures.

Our grants scheme supports and contributes more than 5 million back into the West Midlands region through STEM related projects and events. This helps support deprived areas where many young people are missing out on the learning needed to boost their career prospects.

Learn about projects we’ve funded like this

An example of the type of projects we fund is detailed in the below video. You can also read through our grant case studies by clicking here.

Apply for a Millennium Point grant

For more information on how to apply for a Millennium Point grant please click here.

WIN a fully funded degree

We also fully fund an undergraduate degree each year in partnership with Birmingham City University. Our Scholarship program begins with an application process, with the lucky finalists being selected for a chance to win a FREE degree. Each finalist presents a solution using STEM to a current ongoing issue, in front of a panel of STEM experts. Below is a video showing this year’s winner, Asima Adnan’s story. Asima begins her fully funded degree this month.

Apply for the 2022 Scholarship

For more information on how to apply or get involved in the 2022 Scholarship program please click here.