The 49th Northern Packaging Dinner, held on October 27 at the Midland Hotel, Manchester, once again provided a highly entertaining and worthwhile night out. Some 370 people attended the prestigious Black Tie event, dancing the nightaway or chancing their luck in the “fun casino”.

Apart from bringing the industry and its many guests from the retail and manufacturing sectors together for a celebratory party, the Dinner also has an important fund-raising function and £7050 was raised through the raffle and auction ­”well over what was raised last year”.

The receiving charity is “Manchester Kids” -­ run by local radio station, Key103, which also provided one of its top DJs, Ian Roberts, to run the disco ­which supports a number of projects for underprivileged and disadvantaged children in the area. Last year’s and this year’s funds raised from the Dinner will go to sending two groups of children on a rare holiday.

The event is sponsored by packaging print specialist Keatings and supported by a number of companies including global packaging group Sonoco, labelling specialists OPM Group, digital packaging origination company LS Group, and The InTouch Group design house. Packaging Today is the media partner for the Dinner and will be further developing its involvement by taking a central role in the organisation of the 2006 event.