The Silicon Cup 2021

Last week a team of 10 e2e-assure employees arrived at the River Solent for our 2nd Silicon Cup Regatta, in support of three great charities:

• Dreams Come True – who enable children and young people with serious or life-limiting conditions from disadvantaged backgrounds to feel the long-term impact of having a dream fulfilled.

• Greig City Academy sailing programme – Britain’s only inner-city school sail training programme which aims to inspire deprived students, mostly from BAME backgrounds to transform their lives through sailing at all levels.

• Andrew Simpson Foundation – whose ethos is to facilitate wider participation in sailing and to bring the benefits of the sport to young people and, ultimately, society at large.

We had team members from almost every department, covering Software Development, SOC Analysts, Sales, Infrastructure, Finance and our CEO.

In total, the Silicon Cup Regatta has raised over £1m for charities, through entry to the competition and their online and physical auctions that take place around the event. This year alone the event raised an incredible £45,000, split across the three charities.

Day 1 (Tuesday 14th September)

On the first day we were extremely lucky with the weather, the sun shining and no wind in sight. At least, that would have been lucky, had we not been attempting to sail without wind. Unfortunately, this beautiful weather didn’t let up and we weren’t able to complete any races on the first day.

A number of the sailors dressed up as this year’s theme of ‘heroes’, which brought out some creative thinking from the e2e team, from Wolverine to Margaret Hamilton and even a quite literal interpretation, consisting of a lot of Heroes’ chocolate wrappers.

The evening was spent in Cowes with a well organised evening event of entertainment, food, drinks and the charity auction.

Day 2 (Wednesday 15th September)

An early start on the second day allowed us to get the first race completed – we were expecting to gracefully hold our traditional position of finishing last, so were very happy to consolidate mid-table in the final standings. Unfortunately, that was the best of the wind that day, with the second race being postponed halfway through as the wind dropped, with no signs of it picking up for the rest of the day.

Reflecting on the event

Whilst it’s obviously disappointing not to be able to get as much sailing done as we’d all have liked, the event did hit its two primary goals – raising money for great charities and networking. The networking in particular was invaluable for many at Team e2e due to most of the members being relatively new and not having met each other physically due to covid-19. Similarly, it was great for our CEO to be able to spend more time with the team and meet many for the first time.

What's next for the e2e team?

We’ll definitely be back next year, sailing is something that is close to our hearts as an organisation and it’s great to be able to have new team members involved each year.

We’ve also got a number of other events lined up; events we’ve been sorely missing in the last 18 months, including mountain biking, drone flying, clay pigeon shooting, go karting, wine tours and of course, the Christmas party (no, it’s not too soon to be thinking about it!)

Whilst we’re very passionate about our work at e2e-assure, we also like to have fun – if you’d like to be involved in our next events then why not check out our careers page or email careers@e2e-assure.com to see what vacancies we have available?