Every two weeks Goldgenie opens up its work shops situated at the Business Innovation centre in Enfield and Hatton Gardens EC1 to aspiring entrepreneurs.

Students studying business at local colleges and Universities watch with interest as they see objects turn to gold during the unique gold plating process.

Laban Roomes often gives the students an inspirational and motivational talk about himself, how he started the Goldgenie company, and his appearance on the BBC Dragon’s Den TV programme where he secured financial backing from James Caan.

Students catch a rare and invaluable insight into what it takes to work with companies such as Harrods, HMV, Selfridges and of course James Caan!

Laban is happy to go these educational visits entirely free of charge and sees it as a necessary requirement to share his knowledge to anyone wanting to better themselves - especially young entrepreneurs.

Laban Roomes of Goldgenie has teamed up with sculptures Wrightson and Platt to create “you look like a million dollars” at www.goldgenie.com an exclusive portrait service allowing your loved ones to be immortalised in precious metal and stones.

 An exceptional service

The golden boy, dreamy and ethereal but rich with gold and diamond embellishment.

Imaginative elements are combined with innovative technology and traditional skills to create unique pieces of rare quality and dazzling enchantment.

Reminiscent of the treasures of ancient Egypt and the antiquities of classical Greece. Newborn of the 21st century.

Well placed on the stage of contemporary art. Of the moment, in keeping with icons of our era such as a supermodel in gold and a diamond encrusted skull.

With passion, skill and integrity Goldgenie combined with Wrightson & Platt deliver beyond expectation.

The ultimate luxury of bespoke portraiture available for individual commission.

Working out of their London studio they co-ordinate a network of British craftsmen and women in this unique artistic venture. Employing traditional and cutting edge technologies to create amazingly lifelike and innovative works which reflect the character and personality of each subject. Precious metals and gems can be incorporated to enrich the surface of these unique and amazing works.

The portraits are sculpted at their London studio and then cast into bronze, glass and precious metals by specialist foundries within the UK. Surfaces are enriched and embellished with precious gems and gold by Goldgenie in Hatton Gardens. Attracting patronage from the wealthy, they have a waiting list for new clients for this truly exclusive service.

Embellished portrait commissions start at around £50,000.

Tonight sees the 10th Anniversary White Tie & Tiara Ball in support of the Elton John Aids Foundation. It’s bound to be a special night and it’s an invitation-only do.

As part of our support for the foundation, we’ve teamed up with Micro Anvika to create a (very) limited edition - eleven only! - 8GB gold-plated iPod Nano. You can see one of these extremely rare beauties in the picture below.

We told you last month that Laban would be presenting an award at the prestigious Macworld Awards. Well, it happened and the evening was a great success.

Laban presented the evening’s Grand Prix Award for the best product among all those winning their categories on the evening. Bento by FileMaker took the votes and Laban handed over the special trophy to FileMaker’s Northern Europe Regional Manager, Tony Speakman.

The photo shows Laban backstage before making the presentation. He’s holding the special glass trophy with its gold-plated top expertly added by the Goldgenie team. With Laban in the photo are, from left to right, Richard West (Apple’s UK & Ireland Business Manager, Print & Publishing), Ingrid Kirschner (Apple UK’s Senior Account Executive for Distribution), and Georgina Dias (Apple’s UK & Ireland Product Manager for iPod, TV, Mac mini, and iMac).

You can also watch a 10-minute video of the awards highlights here - look out for Laban from about the 7:05 mark.

I’m sure you’re all watching the latest series of Big Brother on Channel 4. Keep a watchful eye out for the bathroom and shower fittings next time the cameras are in there. No, I’m not suggesting anything kinky! It’s just that you may notice that things sparkle and shine. That’s because Laban and the team were in the house before the new series started gold-plating the bathroom and shower rooms. It was a long job and had to be done in situ. So long, in fact, that when Laban emerged, he said he felt like he’d been a contestant.

Now there’s an idea for the next series!

The picture below shows the special gold-plated Apple iPods we made for Roman Abramovich and his girlfriend Daria Zhukova on Valentine’s Day earlier this year.

As an extra touch, we also laser etched the two iPods with ‘His’ and ‘Hers’. In Russian, of course!

The idea for the gifts came from Goldgenie backer and Dragons’ Den judge James Caan, who is an avid Chelsea fan. We can only hope that using the iPods on the trip back from the Champions League final in Moscow brought some consolation.

Goldgenie has a special relationship with all things Apple: our iPod and iPhone range are some of our biggest sellers. The Apple design combined with our gold-plating expertise is always going to produce a winner.

It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the organisers of this year’s Macworld Awards have commissioned Goldgenie to gold-plate one of the awards. What’s more, they want Laban to present the winner with his or her award, too.

The awards take place at the O2 Arena on June 12th. You can find out more about the awards here.

Great news for all fans of Laban Roomes and Dragons’ Den: Laban has started his own blog over at labanroomes.com.

Read the new blog to find out Laban’s thoughts on business success and entrepreneurship, as well as some of the experiences he’s had on his road to success. Better still, Laban is offering readers their very own route to success with a gold-plated opportunity. Visit the new blog now to learn more.

The response to our gold plated 8GB iPod Nano competition has been stupendous. As a result, we’re already thinking of what to offer in our next one. But, if you haven’t yet signed up for this one, use the link in the box in the sidebar.

The competition still has a week left to run so get your name down. Now!

Whether you’re an ardent England football fan or not, you cant’ fail to recognise that David Beckham has been one of the outstanding English football players and personalities of the last ten years. He recently joined an illustrious group of other English players in the 100 caps club when he played in Paris in a friendly against France. This is a great achievement, especially when you realise that David missed a number of games during the time Steve McLaren was in charge of the national side.

We thought it was only appropriate that Goldgenie made some acknowledgement of the player that has been affectionately known as ‘Golden Balls’. So, we teamed up with Micro Anvika and presented his managemnent company with a 32Gb iPod Touch. Gold-plated, of course by us. Here’s a picture of the back.

Important: Please note that we have NEVER sold an ipod with David Beckham’s name on or replicated or tried to replicate the England logo (photoshop)  this was a one off piece done as a gift to David especially for the sole purpose of his 100th cap.